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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Albuquerque’s Jewish Community Center on Monday went through what’s becoming a familiar routine.

Someone called the center around 9:30 a.m. with a disguised voice claiming there was a bomb in the building. About 150 people evacuated immediately, and officers and police dogs did a sweep.

An hour and a half later, it was business as usual.

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Bomb threats have been called in to Jewish community centers across the nation this year in a troubling trend. Waves of calls are typically put out to various centers on certain days and, on Monday, 11 centers in states as far away as Wisconsin, New York and Tennessee were targeted in the fourth such wave of calls.

Previous strings of calls happened on Jan. 9, Jan. 18 and Jan. 31, bringing the total number of center bomb threats to 69, according to numbers collected by the JCC Association. Albuquerque’s JCC was first targeted on Jan. 31.

The FBI is helping local authorities investigate the threats.

The Council on America-Islamic Relations, a Muslim advocacy group, announced Monday it stood in solidarity with Jewish Community Centers and offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspect or suspects responsible for Monday’s threats.

“While we are relieved that all such threats have proven to be hoaxes and that not a single person was harmed, we are concerned about the anti-Semitism behind these threats, and the repetition of threats intended to interfere with day-to-day life,” said David Posner, a director at the JCC Association, in an email. “We hope to hear updates from the FBI on progress very soon.”

David Simon, executive director of Albuquerque’s JCC, said Monday’s evacuation and building clearance went smoothly, in part because police already were familiar with the building from the last evacuation. He said well wishes flooded in to the center after the last incident.

“If anything, I think it’s just going to make our commitment stronger to do what we do best, to persevere,” he said. “We’re attentive, we’re observant and we’re prepared. And we refuse to be victims.”

Suki Halevi, the Anti-Defamation League of New Mexico’s regional director, said local leaders stepped up after the most recent JCC bomb threat in Albuquerque. Mayor Richard Berry met with local Jewish community leaders, and Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security asking its staff to help investigate.

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After Monday’s threat, Heinrich met with Simon, Halevi, JCC board members and others to express his concern, according to Halevi.

National figures also expressed concern over Monday’s threats. President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump tweeted her support for Jewish Community Centers.

“America is a nation built on the principle of religious tolerance,” she wrote. “We must protect our houses of worship & religious centers.”

That statement came days after Donald Trump held a wide-ranging press conference in which he aggressively responded to a reporter for a Jewish magazine who asked him how he would combat the bomb threats.

“I hate even the question..” Trump said, calling it “repulsive.”

In an incident that appears so far to be unrelated to the bomb threats, Albuquerque-based Jewish blogger Marc Yellin received hate messages to his website’s email form last month. The messages — which include violent imagery and hate speech — were submitted under the name of white nationalist William Pierce, who has been dead for more than a decade.

Yellin said he has taken some extra precautions since receiving them Jan. 13, though he’s not sure how serious the threats were.

“I was not particularly scared. There’s a 99.99 percent chance that this is just a guy out there somewhere who found my website and decided to do something,” Yellin said. “But, on the other hand, the chance that it’s real is not zero.”</s>AMHERST, N.Y. (WIVB) — The Jewish Community Center in Amherst was forced to evacuate after a bomb threat Monday.

Buffalo’s Jewish Community Center was evacuated too as a precaution. Dogs are checking that location as a precautionary measure.

In January, CNN says 48 Jewish centers in the United States and Canada received bomb threats — nearly 60 of them. The FBI and the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division are “investigating possible civil rights violations in connections with threats to Jewish Community Centers across the country,” the FBI said in a statement, according to CNN.

News 4 will have more details as soon as they become available.</s>A hoax bomb threat was made to the Jewish community center in University City Tuesday, the second in a month and part of a nationwide series, San Diego police said.

The threat came in to the Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center on Executive Drive about 6 a.m., San Diego police Sgt. Edward Zwibel said.

Staff there evacuated the property and notified San Diego police, center Executive Director Michael Cohen said in an emailed statement.

Police searched the building but found nothing suspicious, Zwibel said. The building reopened about 7 a.m.

Similar threats have been made this year to Jewish Community Centers across the nation and in Canada.

“In response to these recent threats across the country, we have been working closely with our local police department and national security agencies to monitor the situation and review our protocols,” Cohen said in the statement.

“Similar threats have been made this year to Jewish Community Centers across the nation and in Canada.”

CNN reported that President Donald Trump on Tuesday called the threats "horrible" and "painful." He made the remarks following a tour of the National Museum of African American Museum and Culture in Washington, D.C.

"This tour was a meaningful reminder of why we have to fight bigotry, intolerance and hatred in all of its very ugly forms,” Trump told an audience. “The anti-Semitic threats targeting our Jewish community and community centers are horrible and are painful and a very sad reminder of the work that still must be done to root out hate and prejudice and evil.”

Bomb threats were made on Monday to 11 Jewish centers in several states, bringing the total to 69 incidents at 54 centers in 27 states and Canada this year, according to the JCC Association of North America.

David Posner, a security director of the JCC Association, on Monday issued a statement that said, in part, “While we are relieved that all such threats have proven to be hoaxes and that not a single person was harmed, we are concerned about the anti-Semitism behind these threats, and the repetition of threats intended to interfere with day-to-day life. ...

“We are in regular communication with the FBI, which is investigating these threats, to ensure the FBI has the most updated information.”

Previous incidents include hoax calls to 16 centers in nine states on Jan. 9 and to 27 centers in 17 states on Jan. 18.

A third wave of threats was made on Jan. 31, affecting 15 centers in 10 states as well as in Ontario, Canada. The Lawrence Family center received a threat that day, prompting a police search and temporary closure of a pre-school.</s>Local and federal authorities are investigating a bomb threat called in to a Jewish Community Center in Beechwood.

Mandel Jewish Community Center officials say they were one of eleven nationwide to receive a call yesterday about a bomb. Beachwood police searched the building and found no evidence of an explosive. The threats are similar to those made on three previous days last month, including one in Columbus. As of Monday, the JCC Association says there have been 69 hoax bomb threats phoned in to 54 centers in 27 states and one Canadian province. The FBI and the Justice Department are investigating the threats as possible civil rights violations.</s>The Mandel Jewish Community Center in Beachwood received a hoax bomb threat yesterday around 11:17 in the morning. No evacuation was ordered and police with bomb sniffing dogs quickly determined the threat was false.“Like many JCCs around the country, the Mandel JCC received a noncredible bomb threat via phone call earlier today,” JCC president and CEO Michael Hyman said in a statement. “Following established procedures, Mandel JCC security officers initiated a building-wide search. City of Beachwood police with bomb-sniffing dogs and the Jewish Federation of Cleveland’s Director of Community-Wide Security were quickly on site. It was determined that the threat was non-credible and the building was not evacuated. The J remains open and operating as usual.”Still, the JCC was among 10 Jewish centers around the country that received bomb threats yesterday (which happened to be Presidents Day). There have been more than 40 in previous weeks.The FBI and Department of Justice are involved in the investigations of incidents that also targeted JCC centers in Buffalo, Birmingham, Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul, Tampa, Albuquerque, Nashville and Houston. Additionally, 170 Jewish gravestones in a Missouri cemetery were knocked over. The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate group activity, told NBC News that it had found 1,094 incidents in the month after the election tied to anti-Semitic, anti-black and anti-immigrant feelings.Ivanka Trump addressed the wave of threats in a tweet last night, saying, "America is a nation built on the principle of religious tolerance. We must protect our houses of worship & religious centers. #JCC."The President himself has yet to address yesterday's wave of bomb threats. Trump was most recently asked about the increase in anti-Semitic feelings and attacks since the election last week during a press conference. Here's what he said the:Trump had previously drawn criticism for failing to mention the Jewish people in his remembrance of the Holocaust.</s>HOUSTON- A bomb threat was called into the Jewish Community Center in Meyerland on Monday.

The call was just one of nearly a dozen threats made Monday alone and nearly 70 since the beginning of the year.

According to the Jewish Community Center Association, there was one threat against a JCC all of last year.

"It's very troubling. It is very disturbing," said Joel Dinkin, executive vice president at the Evelyn Rubenstein Jewish Community Center, who said he felt it was only a matter of time before they received a disturbing call

The call Monday happened around 11 a.m.

Some of the more than 500 people in the building were evacuated, while others were taken into safe zones.

"We have infants and toddlers and pre-school children here as well as senior adults--many of whom don't have the ability to provide their own transportation," said Dinkin

Exactly 11 JCCs around the country received bomb threats, which comes in the aftermath of three waves of incidents in January

In total, there have been 69 threats at 54 JCCs in 27 states and one Canadian Province since the beginning of the year.

All of them have proven to be hoaxes--including the one in Meyerland.

"It's creating disruption and it's creating disruption not just within JCCs but also into the minds and thoughts of all of our members," Dinkin said. "The world is changing that we're in today and we have to be mindful of that fact and be prepared for it."

Investigators don't know if it's just one person behind all the threats or if more people are involved or even why they're doing this.

Houston police, the Department of Justice and the FBI are all trying to track down those responsible.</s>The Jewish Community Center on St. Paul Avenue in Highland Park has re-opened after an evacuation Monday morning due to a bomb threat. St. Paul police spokesman Steve Linders said the center received a "robo-call"-style threat around 10 a.m. Monday and police sent multiple officers, including a bomb squad.

Start the conversation, or Read more at TwinCities.</s>Buffalo's Jewish Community Center was evacuated too as a precaution. Dogs are checking that location as a precautionary measure.

Start the conversation, or Read more at WIVB-TV Buffalo.</s>(CNN) Samantha Taylor was at Orlando's Jewish Community Center for a morning meeting when she heard reports of a bomb threat crackle from the director's walkie-talkie.

Her daughter attends preschool there; she ran to the classroom and evacuated with the students and teachers.

While police and bomb-sniffing dogs searched the building for several hours, the teachers kept the children calm and happy at a safe spot down the street, Taylor said. No explosives were found.

On the same day, January 4, an Orlando Chabad center also received a threatening call, marking the first trickle in what would soon swell to waves of calls menacing Jewish institutions across the country.

In all, 48 JCCs in 26 states and one Canadian province received nearly 60 bomb threats during January, according to the JCCA, an association of JCCs. Most were made in rapid succession on three days: January 9, 18 and 31. A number of JCCs, including Orlando's, received multiple threats.

On Monday, another wave of bomb threats hit 11 JCCs across the country, bringing the total to 69 incidents targeting 54 JCCs in 27 states, according to the JCCA.

Also on Monday, Ivanka Trump, who converted to Judaism, tweeted: "America is a nation built on the principle of religious tolerance. We must protect our houses of worship & religious centers. #JCC".

Ivanka Trump is the first member of the Trump family to comment on the bomb threats. The next day, President Donald Trump himself denounced the JCC bomb threats and anti-Semitism in general.

"The anti-Semitic threats targeting our Jewish community and community centers are horrible and are painful and a very sad reminder of the work that still must be done to root out hate and prejudice and evil," Trump said after a tour of the National Museum of African American Museum and Culture.

In a statement, the FBI said the bureau and the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division are "investigating possible civil rights violations in connections with threats to Jewish Community Centers across the country."

On Tuesday, the Simon Wiesenthal Center urged Attorney General Jeff Sessions to appoint a special task force to catch the culprit, or culprits, behind the bomb threats.

"The multi-pronged threats of anti-Semitism today demand concerted action," said Rabbis Marvin Hier and Abraham Cooper, of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a leading Jewish human rights organization.

Several JCC sources said the FBI has told them it is investigating the calls as hate crimes. Online, another term has circulated: "telephone terrorism."

"I've been in the business for 20-plus years, and this is unprecedented," said Paul Goldenberg, national director of the Secure Community Network, which advises Jewish organizations on security. "It's more methodical than meets the eye."

No bombs have been found, but Jewish leaders hesitate to label the calls "hoaxes." The chaos and terror the calls have caused are real, as are more tangible consequences.

JCCs across the country are bolstering security and holding town halls to calm frightened parents. Still, several centers have seen students withdraw from their early childhood education programs, typically reliable sources of revenue. As a result, some are slashing budgets, cutting staff and holding emergency fundraisers.

In Orlando's JCC, 50 students have been withdrawn from its daycare and preschool. In Albany, New York, 12 families have removed their children.

"If we happen to be on the list again," said Adam Chaskin, director of Albany's JCC, "that number 12 is going to grow."

Some parents wonder why the threats haven't garnered more media attention and lament the spike in hate crimes seemingly incited by the divisive 2016 presidential campaign.

Others agonize about whether to withdraw their children from JCC schools and cringe when they hear a text message alert on their phones.

"Everywhere I went I had my phone out front and center," said Taylor, a 37-year-old mother of three. "It was like: OK, when is it going to happen again?"

Like YMCAs, Jewish Community Centers pride themselves on being open to all members of all faiths, and a fair number of their students are not Jewish.

But for many Jews, JCCs aren't just about schools and swimming lessons. They're hubs of Jewish social life: places where their children learn Jewish history, their families celebrate Purim parties, and one of the few spots where Jews of all denominations put aside their religious and political differences.

"So much of being Jewish is built around community," said Jordana Horn, a mother of six in New Jersey whose children and parents both frequent the local JCC. "Everything from prayer to mourning to celebration you need to have a community around you. You need to have a place where everyone can gather."

For secular Jews, the JCC may be one of the few institutional sources of knowledge about Jewish culture and tradition.

Daniel Mauser and Kristina Kasper, who live in San Diego with their two children, don't belong to a local synagogue but send their son to a JCC preschool. It's the best in the area, they said.

Still, they know that the school, which received a bomb threat on January 31, comes with risks.

"Even though it's a wonderful environment, I know that, in sending my son to a Jewish preschool, it's a target," said Kasper, a former New York City schoolteacher.

Not all of the threats against JCCs in recent memory have been empty.

In 2014, a white supremacist murdered two people outside a Jewish Community Center in Overland Park, Kansas. In 2006, a man fired shots at the Jewish Federation of Seattle, killing one woman and injuring five others. Five years before that, another man opened fire at the JCC in Granada Hills, California, wounding five people, including a 5-year-old boy.

In 2014 and 2015 the FBI tallied more than 1,270 hate crime incidents targeting Jews, far more than any other religious groups, and some Jewish leaders say the situation is getting worse.

In the past several months, synagogues and schools have been vandalized, swastikas have been scrawled in New York City subway cars and Jewish families have been harassed by neo-Nazis.

"We are in a volatile and fast-growing threat environment," said Jonathan Greenblatt of the Anti-Defamation League. "The Jewish community has been on edge."

Little is known about the calls themselves. Goldenberg, the security adviser, says the caller uses sophisticated voice-masking technology. It's difficult to discern if it's a male or female voice, or how old the caller is.

"They could be 15 or 60 years old. These masking technologies are very effective."

Chillingly, the perpetrator also uses technology to make the calls seem as if they're coming from within the JCC itself.

'How serious is it?'

The photo of the worried woman pushing an evacuation crib outside the Albany JCC -- that's the image that roiled Kveller.com's Facebook group for mothers, said Deborah Kolben, editor of the Jewish parenting website.

Other Jewish mothers say they don't know what to make of the bomb threats, or how they should react.

"The question is: How serious is it?" said Elissa Strauss, a parenting columnist for Slate whose son attends a JCC preschool. "That's what I, as a Jew and a parent, am trying to work out. I don't think I have a clear understanding of what I'm supposed to do right now, besides not give in."

Parents are asking: Is it because no bombs have exploded? Because the protection of children is seen primarily as a "women's issue"? Because Trump's chaotic new administration dominates news cycles? Or because JCC leaders are trying to quiet the story for fear of panicking parents and losing students?

Ivy Harlev, director of the JCC in Wilmington, Delaware, which received two bomb threats last month, says she is "torn" about whether more media should have covered the threats.

"I don't want that kind of negative attention, but I want to make sure that people know that we are a secure place, and that we have the support of local law enforcement."

Like many JCCs that have received threats, Harlev's quickly assembled a town hall so parents could question administrators, local police and FBI representatives. Two families decided to withdraw their children from the JCC's early childhood education program, Harlev said.

In Albany, Orlando and elsewhere, JCC staffers have tried to bolster security -- and ease parents' peace of mind -- by closing entrances, blocking phone calls from unknown numbers and posting bollards to block vehicles from getting close to their buildings.

At least one family was satisfied by the changes.

For nearly four years, Melissa Braillard, a mother of two in Orlando, had sent her children to the JCC. She knew and liked the teachers, the administrators, the other parents and their children.

"I feel like I had a support system, and people cared for us."

But after the third bomb threat and weeks of worrying, Braillard removed her children from the JCC. "I need to keep my kids safe," she thought at the time.

A few weeks later, though, Braillard agreed to return to the Orlando JCC to see its security improvements. She came away impressed.

Because her son would be starting kindergarten soon at another school anyway, he is not returning to the JCC. But her daughter will be back in the classroom on Monday.

Meanwhile, parents like Taylor, the mother who witnessed the first bomb threat, are determined to keep the doors open. "Our JCC isn't going anywhere," she said, "and that's the most important message."</s>ST. LOUIS (CBSMiami) — The vandalism can be seen from the air at a Jewish cemetery near St. Louis, where more than 100 headstones were toppled or damaged.

In Houston, police searched a Jewish Community Center after a bomb threat was phoned in. A similar scene played out near Milwaukee where children from a JCC were rushed outside following a similar threat.

The apparent rise in anti-Semitic acts are worrisome to local Jewish leaders, including Rabbi Jeffrey Salkin of Temple Solel in Hollywood.

“We are all very horrified by this massive growth in hatred across the country particularly so much has focused on Jewish institutions,” said Rabbi Salkin.

In all, eleven Jewish Community Centers received called-in bomb threats Monday, according to the JCC Association of North America.

“While we are relieved that all such threats have proven to be hoaxes, and that not a single person was harmed, we are concerned about the anti-Semitism behind these threats,” the group said in a statement.

First daughter Ivanka Trump, who converted to Judaism after marrying Jared Kushner, who is Jewish, tweeted:

JCC’s in South Florida have not been spared. Centers in Miami Beach and Kendall were evacuated last month after threats were called in, but turned out to be hoaxes. When it comes to security Rabbi Salkin says local Jewish centers are not taking anything for granted.

“And I can say, without much doubt, is that their children are safe in our places of learning and of worship,” said Rabbi Salkin.
The Ronald Gardenswartz Jewish Community Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico is evacuated for the second time this year following a bomb threat, after a wave of threats against Jewish institutions in the United States.