Authorities are currently investigating a swatting spree that occurred over the weekend, targeting almost 200 Jewish institutions across the country. The incidents involved fake bomb threats.
Between Friday and Saturday evening, a total of 199 swatting incidents and false bomb threats were recorded by the Secure Community Network. This nonprofit is committed to ensuring the safety of the Jewish community in North America.
The organization monitored the swatting spree across multiple states, revealing significant numbers: 93 incidents in California, 62 in Arizona, 15 in Connecticut, five in Colorado, and four in Washington state, as per a press release.
“While we have no information to indicate a specific and credible threat, we will continue to work with our local, state, and federal law enforcement partners to gather, share, and act upon threat information as it comes to our attention,” Vikki Migoya, public affairs officer for the FBI’s Denver Field Office, told USA TODAY.
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While law enforcement deemed no threat credible, some incidents resulted in evacuations of synagogues and cancellations of Shabbat services.
Some synagogues faced bomb threats just before the onset of Shabbat on Friday evening. In Newtown, Pennsylvania, Congregation Shir Ami had to evacuate its Hebrew school on Thursday.
This evacuation was prompted by a bomb threat received by the synagogue’s executive director via email. The threatening message demanded ransom money to be dropped off at a location approximately two hours away.
“We evacuated our building, our preschool, and pretty much put our emergency plan into place,” Rabbi Charles Briskin told USA TODAY. “Trying to get a number of young children to leave the facility and the teachers to get to our evacuation site, which is close by but not on our property, was challenging.”
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Police, accompanied by dogs trained to detect explosives, thoroughly inspected the synagogue. Following an exhaustive 2-hour search, the evacuation was lifted. The executive director noted, “There was a lot of concern and anxiety within our teachers, and they handled it extraordinarily well.”
Briskin highlighted that the incident was the first of its kind to impact Shir Ami.” There seems to be a particular ramp-up in activity over the last several days,” he said. “I don’t recall seeing this number of my colleagues indicating they were targeted until today.”
Congregation Har Hashem in Boulder, Colorado, had to evacuate a Torah study class on Saturday morning. This evacuation was prompted by a bomb threat that was sent to several synagogues in the state, leading local police to issue an alert to the community.
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Rabbi Fred Greene mentioned that congregation members conducted the Shabbat service at a private residence because the threat resulted in the synagogue remaining closed.
He explained, “Our folks went to different locations to continue our morning learning in somebody’s house, and another worship service took place at a different house,” when speaking to USA TODAY.
Rabbi Fred Greene mentioned that the surge in antisemitic rhetoric and attacks has been observed since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel and the ensuing war. This rise in incidents has heightened anxiety among the Jewish community.
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