A complex in Wilmington, Del., housing four Jewish organizations was evacuated after receiving a bomb threat. (Courtesy of Siegel JCC in Wilmington)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Officials from the FBI and Homeland Security conducted a conference call on Wednesday with U.S. Jewish communal leaders and the members of the Jewish Community Centers Association (JCCA) to discuss Monday\u2019s incidents, what they stem from and how to craft protocols to handle such incidents in the future. Some communities already receive federal grants to provide for security.<\/p>\n
The bomb threats, none of which were credible according to the FBI, hit JCCs up and down the East Coast, prompting evacuations of buildings and campuses. According to Jewish communal security officials, the bomb threats came mostly from robocalls, although some had initially believed they were from live telephone calls. It remains unclear whether one person or group was behind all the threats.<\/p>\n
Several Jewish institutions also received bomb threats last week, as did Jewish institutions in the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n
The simultaneous threats were unprecedented, according to Paul Goldenberg, the director of the Secure Community Network (SCN), a group affiliated with the Jewish Federations of North America that coordinates security for the Jewish community.<\/p>\n
It was a great call and my staff greatly appreciated it,” said Leslie Fischman, executive director of the New Orleans JCC.<\/p>\n
Speaking about SCN, Fischman said “They have a great working relationship with the Jewish Federations of North American and the JCCA and work closely with Homeland Security.”<\/p>\n
“It was very informative and very interesting and taught us what to do in our facilities,” she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re in a completely different world now than we were a couple years ago,\u201d Goldenberg told JTA. \u201cWhat is unprecedented is in the shortest period of time we received a substantial number of bomb threats. These offenders are leveraging technology to intimidate and\/or terrorize communities.\u201d<\/p>\n
The FBI is investigating the bomb scares, according to Goldenberg.<\/p>\n
One of the threatened communities, in Wilmington, Delaware, received a bomb threat at 11:45 a.m. Monday and evacuated some 200 people from a complex housing four Jewish organizations. Everyone from preschoolers at a Jewish day school to senior citizens eating lunch left the building within a few minutes. They returned about 90 minutes later.<\/p>\n
“It always shows you have to be prepared and safety is always foremost in our minds at the JCC,” Fischman continued.<\/p>\n
Seth Katzen, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Delaware, said communal officials were in touch with local FBI and police, who responded immediately, and that the evacuation was completed without panic.<\/p>\n
“There was a scare, but a manageable uneasiness,\u201d he told JTA. \u201cEveryone moved extremely well. It was to create panic and inconvenience, which it did. That is our new reality.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fischman also expressed dismay at the upshot of the calls. “They inconvenienced people. They took elderly people outside into the cold while they searched their buildings,” she bristled. “It was a harassment technique.”<\/p>\n
Neither Goldenberg nor the Anti-Defamation League explicitly tied the bomb threats to the rise of anti-Semitic attacks during and after the 2016 presidential campaign. Goldenberg said making such a link may be tempting, but would be premature given that the offender has not been identified.<\/p>\n
The New York Police Department, as well as the Southern Poverty Law Center, have released reports of a rise in hate crimes following the election. Goldenberg expects more attacks on religious institutions to take place in 2017.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the last 16 months we\u2019ve seen an increase in harassment, intimidation, and as a direct result of some of the rhetoric and usage by extremists of social media,\u201d Goldenberg said. “It\u2019s easy to tie this into the election. I think that the current situation in the U.S. and abroad has allowed for some extremists to have a methodology.\u201d<\/p>\n
Over the past two years, Jewish federations in major urban areas have hired coordinators — mostly former federal law enforcement officials — to ensure that all local Jewish institutions are secure and prepared to face threats. More than 20 such security coordinators have been hired.<\/p>\n
Brenda Moxley, director of community security for the Greater Miami Jewish Federation, was hired last year after serving as assistant special agent in charge of the FBI\u2019s criminal branch in Miami. She ensures that more than 120 area Jewish institutions are prepared for incidents such as Monday\u2019s, in addition to being in touch with law enforcement officials.<\/p>\n
Moxley said the need for such procedure first arose following the 9\/11 attacks in 2001, and that Jewish institutions are now beginning to be proactive in responding to threats.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery day, it\u2019s important to be vigilant,\u201d she told JTA. \u201cIt\u2019s not about being paranoid; it\u2019s just about being prepared.\u201d<\/p>\n
Others point out that Jewish institutions began “hardening” their security after the 1999 attack <\/a>on the North Valley Jewish Community Center near Los Angeles, when a\u00a0white supremacist opened fire in the JCC lobby and wounded five people.<\/p>\nIn\u00a0April 2014, a 73-year-old neo-Nazi opened fire<\/a> at the \u00a0Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City, Kansas, and Village Shalom, a nearby Jewish retirement community,\u00a0killing\u00a0three people.<\/p>\n(Editor Alan Smason contributed to this story.)<\/em><\/p>\n
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