Local Jewish center gets telephoned bomb threat

“It sounded masked and they said, ‘There’s a bomb in the JCC a lot of people are going to die and it’s going off soon!'” Hannah Greenblatt said.

Similar threats have been called to Jewish centers nationwide.

“The West Orange PD was so great”, said Carol Berman, Gaelen Center For The Arts.

Philadelphia-area JCCs were not impacted. The FBI and the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division are investigating, NBC News reports. The first wave of threats came on January 9, with at least 15 centers in six states received calls, some of which came from actual people and others were thought to be recorded.

The center was evacuated around 11 a.m. after receiving the call. The threat was called in by telephone.

“The Sylvania YMCA/JCC received a bomb threat late this morning”.

No explosives have been found in any of the incidents. Police blocked off roads while the investigation was ongoing. “More information to follow”. She said some of the threats came in as robo dialers and some were actual people.

“This appears to be more of a national theme taking place”, Wilking said.

“In the past we know that the numbers can grow exponentially”, said Paul Goldenberg, director of Secure Community Networks, which advises Jewish institutions on security.

“We have been diligent in looking at our security for a while now, ” said Judy Diamondstein, CEO of the New Haven JCC, according to the Jewish Standard.

It was the third spate of such threats this month.