Mandel Jewish Community Center Gets Bomb Threat Over Weekend

BEACHWOOD, OH - The Mandel Jewish Community Center (JCC) received a bomb threat over the weekend. While the threat was deemed non-credible by Beachwood Police, the threat still brought bomb-sniffing dogs and a full search team to the JCC.

The threat was phoned in Feb. 20 at about 11:15 a.m. The JCC was one of 10 Jewish community centers nationwide to receive bomb threats that day. The center remained open during the search and kept the same hours.

The Jewish Federation of Cleveland provides security for much of the area's Jewish organizations and synagogues. While the JFC declined to comment on how they were changing their security in response to the threat, they did send the following statement.

"Recently, there have been many reported incidents of calls similar in nature to JCCs around the country. The Federation is in constant communication with local and national security organizations and continues to assess and address the safety and security of our local Jewish institutions on an ongoing basis," said President Stephen H. Hoffman in the statement.

The Anshe Chesed Fairmount Temple in Beachwood said they were standing in solidarity with the Mandel JCC.

"We will get through this troubling period together," the temple said on Facebook.

While this threat was deemed non-credible, it’s the latest in a long list of bomb threats that have been phoned in to 69 other Jewish Community Centers in the U.S. this year.

Patch is reporting that other Jewish community centers that received bomb threats on Feb. 20 include Houston, Texas' Evelyn Rubenstein Jewish Community Center and the Jewish Community Center in Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin.

Officials told the Houston Patch that the calls all came through either a person or robocalls phoned to the centers.

Image:Patrick Lentz via Flickr