Jewish community centers in at least five different states, as well as several Jewish schools in the UK all received similar bomb threats on Monday morning.
The Jewish Press reports that bomb threats were called into Jewish Community Centers (JCCs) in Miami Beach, Southwest Miami, and Jacksonville, Florida; Tenafly, New Jersey; Rockville, Maryland; West Nashville, Tennessee; and Columbia, South Carolina. Some reports indicate that locations in California experienced similar threats. JP provides a breakdown of what occurred at several of the JCC's:
In Delaware, police were called to search the Siegel Jewish Community Center north of Wilmington on Monday, after a bomb threat was called into the facility at around 11:45 am. The caller reportedly said there was a bomb inside the complex, according to Seth J. Katzen, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Delaware, who spoke with Delaware Online, The News Journal.
Meanwhile, in New Jersey, the Jewish Community Center on Palisades in Tenafly sent out a text to its membership warning it had received a bomb threat shortly after 12 noon. As a precaution, officials evacuated the building, which contains a preschool, a senior center and an adult daycare facility for people with disabilities. Parents of preschoolers were asked to pick up their children and all JCC programs were canceled for the day.
About 450 students and 70 teachers and staff members were evacuated from the Alper JCC School at SW 112th Avenue in southwest Miami-Dade as a precaution, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue officials said. Miami Beach police also were called to the Jewish Community Center on Pine Tree, where only a handful of people were in the building at the time.
A bomb threat was also called into the Bender Jewish Community Center of Greater Washington in Rockville, Maryland, prompting officials there to evacuate the building, Executive Director Michael Feinstein said.
In West Nashville, Tennessee, metro police responded to a report at about 10:30 am of a bomb threat at the Gordon Jewish Community Center, in the 800 block on Percy Warner Boulevard. Officials quickly evacuated the 80 people who were in the building, which functions as a childcare center during the week, according to The Tennessean.
In South Carolina, the Columbia Fire Department and the Richland County bomb squad were also called in just before 11:30 am Monday to scan the Katie and Irwin Kahn Jewish Community Center on Flora Drive in Columbia, WBTV reported.
In each instance, after law enforcement scanned the buildings, the "all clear" was given.
Meanwhile, several Jewish schools across the United Kingdom received similar threats Monday morning:
Schools were "placed on alert after bomb threats were called into metro London Jewish schools in Roehampton, Ilford and Brent on Monday morning. The schools were “warned” that explosive devices had been planted on the premises," reports JP.
“Police were alerted at around 10:30am hrs on Monday, 9 January, to phone calls made to schools in Roehampton, Ilford and Brent in which bomb threats were made. Police officers attended the schools. All three incidents were stood down a short time later. An investigation into the threat will be conducted,” Metropolitan Police said in a statement.
Once again, after searches of the properties, law enforcement gave the three different sites the "all clear."
Given the threats seem coordinated and that they stretched as far away as the UK (to non-JCC affiliated Jewish schools), it is possible that this was perhaps a test run. Now bad actors know how each of the Jewish institutions handles its emergency protocol, and where children are evacuated to in the event of a threat. This does not bode well, particularly in this day and age.
