Another round of violent threats has forced evacuations at Jewish community centres across the US and Canada, and prompted lawmakers to press the Trump administration to take immediate action.
“This is not normal,” CEO of the Anti-Defamation League Johnathan Grenblatt said in a statement.
“We will not be deterred or intimidated.”
New bomb threats were called or emailed in to Jewish community centres, day schools, and ADL offices in Atlanta, Boston, Washington DC, New York City, Oregon, Wisconsin, Illinois, Florida and Ontario, Canada overnight and early Tuesday.
A Jewish community centre in Dewitt, New York was on emergency lockdown, with bomb-sniffing dogs deployed. It reopened later without incident.
In Florida, police also swept David Posnack Jewish Day School for bombs after the centre received a similar threat.
One caller threatening East Midwood Jewish Center in Brooklyn promised to spray the centre’s synagogue in pig’s blood.
All 100 US Senators have signed a letter to Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and FBI Director James Comey, demanding immediate investigation and response, including beefed-up security, to curb the swell in anti-Semitic threats and hate crimes.
Trump administration press secretary Sean Spicer said the White House condemns the threats “in the strongest terms,” and “as long as they do continue, we’ll continue to look at ways in which we can stop them.”
Since January this year, the ADL said Jewish centres, schools and ADL offices across America have received at least 140 threats of violence or harassment.
“We’ve never seen such a period of concentrated threats against the Jewish community,” New York Mayor Bill de Blasio told a news conference.
“The last few weeks are more troubling than anything I’ve seen in many, many, years.”
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said he would order a state and federal coordinated police effort to “ensure that the perpetrators of these reprehensible crimes are held fully accountable for their actions.”
The threats follow a spate of Jewish cemetery and grave desecrations across the US, including one incident in Philadelphia last week that saw at least 100 headstones knocked over.
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