Bomb Threats Again Close JCCs Across Eastern USA
Jewish Community Centers in more than a dozen states in the U.S. once again were forced to evacuate and close on Wednesday this week after receiving telephoned bomb threats.
In Connecticut, around 200 preschool children were learning how to swim at the Mandell JCC in West Hartford when the building was threatened in the morning, forcing an evacuation. The children were transferred during the sweep to the Hebrew Home, but everyone was allowed to return after a police search turned up nothing.
In the New Haven area, the JCC of Greater New Haven in Woodbridge, CT was also cleared out after a woman called in a bomb threat about an hour earlier, a senior staff member told NBC Connecticut. The children in the building were moved while police arrived and carried out a sweep of the building.
In New York State, the Whitehall facility of the Albany Jewish Community Center closed for hours after bomb-sniffing dogs were taken through the building to hunt for a possible explosive. Children at the daycare in the building were immediately evacuated together with staff and JCC members.
Police said someone who “sounded like a woman” called the JCC at 9:40 am and told a staff member there was a bomb in the building, according to the Times Union. JCC executive director Adam Chaskin told the newspaper, “We can’t let people who want to create fear rule our lives.”
Similar threats were called in to JCCs in Newton, Massachusetts and Scotch Plains, New Jersey.
Farther south, in Miami Beach, police said a call came into the Simkins Family Jewish Community Center in the city, with the caller threatening to blow up the building.
As in Connecticut, no bomb was found after a thorough sweep, and the all-clear came shortly after.
A similar rash of bomb threats were called in to Jewish community centers in more than half a dozen states around the a country last week as well.