North Jersey Hebrew school among bomb scare targets

A Hebrew school in Bergen County was among several synagogues and Jewish institutions across the U.S. targeted with fake bomb threats Sunday, in yet another instance of the rising antisemitism seen since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.

The local threat was made against the Barnert Temple school in Franklin Lakes, but authorities determined it to be a hoax, said Elizabeth Rebein, a spokeswoman for the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office.

She gave no more details, and calls to school officials and local police seeking more information were not returned.

It was one of many false alarms reported across the country.

In Washington, D.C., Temple Sinai received a threat and said Metropolitan police followed protocol by evacuating the synagogue and conducting a search before programs were allowed to continue.

“We center ourselves with the prayer ‘olam hesed yibaneh,’ that we will help to build a world of love and that our community’s connections to each other, our neighbors and the world will not be diminished by threats or disruptions like this,” Temple Sinai said in a statement.

Salt Lake City’s Congregation Kol Ami synagogue was among multiple sites in Utah receiving the threat.

Rabbi Sam Spector told KSL-TV of an email that said bombs had also been placed in other Jewish centers around Utah and that “we all deserved to die.”

Among others: Police in South Portland, Maine, told WABI-TV they searched Portland Congregation Bet Ha’am early Sunday but found no bomb, and a threat prompted cancellation of Sunday morning programs at Mississippi’s largest Jewish synagogue, Beth Israel Congregation in Jackson, Mississippi Today reported.

Last week the Anti-Defamation League reported that antisemitic incidents nationwide had more than quadrupled since the war began, compared with the same time period in 2022.

This article contains material from USA Today.