JCC Hoax Case Gets Weirder With ‘Rent-A-Threat’ Charges
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
JERUSALEM (JTA) — The Israeli-American teen accused of making threats against Jewish community centers throughout the United States was charged in a Tel Aviv court with bizarre counts including a ‘rent=a=threat’ service.
The teen from Ashkelon in southern Israel, let customers could order a threat of a “massacre at a private home” for $40, a call threatening a “school massacre” for $80 and a bomb threat against an airliner for $500, the indictment said.
“The accused even asked customers to contact him if they had special requests for threats against other targets and to receive a customized quote,” according to the charge sheet.
The teen made threats to 2,000 different institutions around the world, including the Israeli embassy in Washington.
He is also charged with threatening Republican Delaware State Senator Ernesto Lopez, for publicly criticizing the person who made the threatening calls to Jewish institutions, including sending illicit drugs to the lawmaker’s house. He also is charged with harassing a former Pentagon official including threatening to kidnap and kill his children.
Other charges include possession of child pornography, as well as assault of an Israeli police officer who came to arrest him, according to the Times of Israel.
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.
