US Jewish cemetery vandalized,
More than 100 gravestones in a Jewish cemetery in St. Louis were vandalized over the weekend, and several Jewish community centers across the United States were evacuated Monday after receiving bomb threats.
The headstones at the graves of about 170 Jews were vandalized in the St. Louis area. Police in University City, Missouri, were reviewing footage from surveillance cameras in the area of Chesed Shel Emet Cemetery, which has served the community since 1893. Police are saying that it was likely there was more than one perpetrator.
Some 11 JCC centers, including those in the Houston, Chicago and Milwaukee areas, received phoned-in bomb threats that were later determined to be hoaxes, said David Posner, a director at JCC Association of North America, who advises centers on security.
No arrests were made and no one was injured. All of the centers returned to normal operations, Posner said in a statement.
The FBI was investigating the incidents, Posner said.
Officials at the FBI were not immediately available for comment.
On Monday, in a statement saying the latest bomb threats are “alarming, disruptive and must always been taken seriously,” the ADL called on unnamed “political leaders” to condemn them.
“We look to our political leaders at all levels to speak out against such threats directed against Jewish institutions, to make it clear that such actions are unacceptable, and to pledge that they will work with law enforcement officials to ensure that those responsible will be apprehended and punished to the full extent of the law,” ADL CEO Jonathan A. Greenblatt said in the statement.
Officials at the Harry and Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center in Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin, north of Milwaukee, received a bomb threat at 10:15 a.m. local time, the second such incident at the center over the last three weeks, they said on Twitter.
“Taking very cautious measures, we are sheltering in our gym, as has been recommended,” the Milwaukee JCC said in a text message sent to parents of children who attend the preschool at the center, according to an NBC affiliate in Milwaukee.
The center reopened two hours later, the center said on Twitter. Monday’s incidents come after three waves of bomb threats in 2017. In all, 69 incidents at 54 JCCs in 27 states and one Canadian province have been reported, according to the JCC Association of North America.
“We are concerned about the antisemitism behind these threats, and the repetition of threats intended to interfere with day-to-day life,” Posner said.
Jewish community centers typically offer after-school activities, fitness programs and various other services.