New York Post

DeB: Threat vics asked me m there

- By YOAV GONEN and MAX JAEGER Additional reporting by Amanda Woods

Oy vey! Mayor de Blasio claims he wasn’t trying to keep up with rival Gov. Cuomo by following him to a Jewish museum that received a bomb threat — insisting he went because workers there requested him.

But the museum’s founder initially didn’t exactly back up those claims, saying at first that Hizzoner wasn’t summoned before walking back that statement hours later.

Officials at the Jewish Children’s Museum in Crown Heights called both Cuomo and de Blasio — who have feuded since de Blasio took office in 2014 — to alert them about the bomb threat at about 9 a.m. on Thursday.

Cuomo, who was at a nearby press event, swooped onto the scene by 11:15 a.m. and promised in full view of cameras that his state troopers would haul in the perpetrato­rs.

De Blasio popped by an hour later, spending about 15 minutes there before rushing off to a scheduled press event elsewhere in Brooklyn without taking reporters’ questions.

City Hall reps said the mayor went to the museum only because its founder asked him.

But the founder initially said early Friday that she did not invite Hizzoner and that the mayor called her Thursday and simply announced he was on his way.

“[De Blasio] called me to find out how I’m doing and . . . he said he was on his way,” museum founder Devorah Halberstam said.

“I didn’t ask him especially — he said he’s on his way.”

The Mayor’s Office did not respond when asked about the conflictin­g accounts.

But two hours later, Halberstam called The Post to change her story.

“He asked me, ‘ How are you holding up?’ I said, ‘Well, I would feel a lot better if you were here with me,’ ” she said.

Halberstam told The Post that she didn’t choose her words wisely the first time she gave a quote.

Earlier in the day, de Blasio and Cuomo sent out dueling press releases offering a joint $20,000 reward for informatio­n leading to an arrest in that case or any other hate crime.

Their statements came out an hour after a bomb threat was called in to the Jewish Associatio­n Serving the Aging center in Midwood. Neither pol visited that scene. Cuomo was traveling upstate, and de Blasio reps claimed he stayed away to avoid encouragin­g future hoaxes.

[De Blasio] called me and . . . said he was on his way. I didn’t ask him especially. — Devorah Halberstam (left), whose museum got a bomb threat, sparking the rush by feuding rivals.

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