Dallas JCC Evacuated Over Threatening Phone Call
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
(JTA) — A Jewish Community Center in Dallas, Texas was evacuated due to a threatening call hours after an arrest was made in Israel in connection with dozens of other such threats around the country.
The Aaron Family JCC in North Dallas received the threatening phone call and evacuated the building shortly before 5 p.m. on Thursday. The building remained evacuated for a short time before regular activity there resumed.
The JCC posted a message on its website that the building was evacuated, as well as a post on its Facebook page which said the center was “temporarily closed to access.”
The Dallas JCC released a statement Friday confirming that a threatening phone call had been received, and that an arrest had been made on Thursday in connection with threats against JCCs and other Jewish institutions since the beginning of the year, the Dallas News reported.
“Within hours of the announcement of the arrest, we received yet another threatening call,” the statement said. “In accordance with our procedures, staff worked with law enforcement to secure the campus, evacuate the facility and evaluate the situation.”
The Dallas JCC previously was evacuated in January over a bomb threat, and in early March discovered that an e-mailed threat went to the center’s spam folder and was only located days later.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
