by Jaweed Kaleem and Alene Tehekmedyian

February 21, 2017

The phone rang Monday morning at the Levite Jewish Community Center outside Birmingham, Ala., and a receptionist answered it. There was a bomb in the building, the caller said, before hanging up.

It was the second bomb threat in five weeks against the center, which is located in the town of Mountain Brook and includes an athletic complex and day-care center.

“Unfortunately, we’re now well-rehearsed at this,” said Betzy Lynch, the center’s director. Though most of its 3,000 weekly visitors are not Jewish, she had no doubt that the motive of the calls was anti-Semitism.

The call Monday appeared to be part of a coordinated attack on Jewish community centers across the country. That morning a total of 11 centers — from Albuquerque to Buffalo, N.Y. — received bomb threats. It was the fourth time this year that Jewish community centers were targeted.

In just over six weeks, 53 centers in 26 states and one Canadian province have received 68 bomb threats. Though all have been hoaxes, the threats have spread fear among American Jews in a way unseen in recent years.

Adding to the alarm, nearly 200 gravestones at a historic Jewish cemetery outside St. Louis were toppled over the weekend in what law enforcement is investigating as a possible anti-Semitic hate crime.

 

Full article:

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-jewish-community-center-threats-20170221-story.html