Bomb threats were called into Jewish community centers and schools in at least 11 states on Monday, adding to a growing list of anti-Semitic incidents across the US this year.
Local media and police confirmed reports of threats on Monday in North Carolina, Florida, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Michigan, Alabama, Maryland, Indiana, and Virginia. No injuries were reported.
The latest rash of threats against Jewish centers is the fifth since the beginning of 2017, bringing the number of threats in the US and Canada to at least 80 reported before the end of February.
The threats on Monday come one day after a Jewish cemetery in Philadelphia was desecrated. On Sunday, around 100 headstones were knocked over at the Mount Carmel Cemetery in northeast Philadelphia, police said.
While anti-semitic rhetoric rises around the country, the Trump administration has been slow to attempt to quell the vitriol.
The White House took considerable flack in the first days after President Trump took office when it failed to mentioned Jews in a statement on Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Then at a marathon press conference, Trump told a Jewish reporter to “sit down” after he asked if his administration felt any responsibility for the apparent increase in overt anti-semitic acts since the 2016 election. Trump added in his response that he is “the least anti-Semitic person.”
Last week, Trump denounced anti-Semitism after 11 Jewish community centers across the country received bomb threats, and vandals defaced more than 100 headstones at a Jewish cemetery in St. Louis.
“I will tell you that anti-Semitism is horrible and it’s going to stop. It has to stop,” Trump told MSNBC’s Craig Melvin.
That same day, Trump continued addressing the issue after taking a tour of the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC.
“The anti-Semitic threats targeting our Jewish community and community centers are horrible and are painful and a very sad reminder of the work that still must be done to root out hate and prejudice and evil,” he told reporters.
Steven Goldstein, executive director of the Anne Frank Center, responded with a statement, calling Trump’s “sudden acknowledgment is a Band-Aid on the cancer of anti-Semitism that has infected his own administration.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request to comment on Monday's bomb threats.
The FBI and Department of Justice, meanwhile, have launched investigations into the rash of bomb threats.
LINK: Bomb Threats Target 11 Jewish Community Centers Around The US
from BuzzFeed - USNews http://ift.tt/2mDmJ4C
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