Jewish Community Centers (JCCs) across the country have been receiving tons of bomb threats over the past few weeks. Today there were 20 such threats.
Authorities in Ohio were on high alert after threatening calls were made to Jewish centers in Cincinnati and Columbus, Ohio. Meanwhile, centers in Florida, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Arizona, New York and other states reported similar calls.
So far, these threats have been “just” threats.
The centers reported at least three kinds of calls ― those that include human voices, those that include disguised voices and robocalls ― said Elise Jarvis, director of law enforcement outreach for the Anti-Defamation League. She confirmed that federal authorities have been briefed on the threats, but said they aren’t credible. “Typically, these kinds of threats are a tactic used to scare the community, to disrupt operations and terrify,” Jarvis told HuffPost. “It is an intense climate right now, between a spike in hate incidents post-election and a series of bomb threats targeting the Jewish community over the past couple weeks. ... These threats are not credible, but it’s important to take each one seriously.”
JCCs service entire communities of people in any area they are found. This means that they have programs for little children like daycare and preschool, as well as programs for seniors. Virtually any JCC you go to has a meaningful population of non-jewish community members as well, not unlike the YMCA has non-Christian members. This is how incomprehensibly stupid and hypocritical cowards like this are. They don’t care about anything or anybody.
People like Steve Bannon and Donald Trump that play on these misdirected people are in no small part to blame for stoking the fires of hateful and violent rhetoric and misinformed news.