Muslim Rights Group Offers $5K Reward For Information On JCC Bomb Threats
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
(JTA) — A Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization has offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons who made false bomb threats to Jewish Community Centers.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, made the offer on Monday, hours after bomb threats were called in to 11 JCCs across the country, leading most of them to evacuate their buildings while police and FBI searched for explosives.
The threats, the fourth wave in about five weeks, targeted JCCs in Birmingham, Cleveland, Chicago, St. Paul, Tampa, Albuquerque, Houston, Milwaukee, Nashville, and Buffalo.
“It is the duty of American Muslims to offer support to the Jewish community and any minority group targeted in the recent spike in hate crimes nationwide,” CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said in a statement. “We hope this reward will aid in the swift apprehension and prosecution of the perpetrators.”
He noted the “tremendous level of support” offered to American Muslims by the Jewish community whenever Muslims have been targeted by hate in recent months.
Why I became the Forward’s Editor-in-Chief
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
