Rochester JCC Evacuated Over Bomb Threat
(JTA) — The Jewish Community Center in Rochester, New York was evacuated early Tuesday morning due to a bomb threat.
The evacuation of members and staff was ordered shortly before 6 a.m., the local ABC affiliate 13WHAM reported.
Police reportedly were on the scene.
The bomb threat comes less than a week after at least five headstones were toppled at the Waad Hakolel Cemetery, also known as the Stone Road Cemetery, in Rochester.
More than 100 Jewish institutions, mostly JCCs, have received bomb threats since the beginning of the year. The last two weeks saw vandalism at Jewish cemeteries in Philadelphia, St. Louis and Rochester, New York, as well as two more waves of bomb threats called into JCCs, schools and institutions across the country, representing the fourth and fifth waves of such harassment this year. No explosive device was found after any of the calls.
BREAKING NEWS: A heavy police presence at the JCC in Brighton. Our crew on scene reports the center is temporarily closed. @13WHAM
— Alexis Arnold (@1AlexisArnold) March 7, 2017
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO