New Wave of Threats Hits at Least 8 Jewish Centers

Jewish community centers nationwide received bomb threats on Monday, the fifth such wave of anti-Semitic threats and actions that have gripped the country in recent months. At least eight centers have been affected—spurring evacuations at some—in North Carolina, Florida, Pennsylvania, Indiana, New York, Maryland, and Delaware. Over the weekend, gravestones at a Jewish cemetery in Philadelphia were toppled and vandalized. Last week while in Missouri, Vice President Mike Pence stopped at a cemetery outside St. Louis and helped to clean up the area after gravestones were damaged there. He offered the first outright condemnation of anti-Semitism from the Trump-Pence administration. During a press briefing on Monday, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said that President Trump is “disappointed and concerned” over recurring reports of bomb threats and vandalism against Jewish facilities.