Jeff Sessions Meets With JCC Leaders To Discuss Bomb Threats
Image by Getty Images
(JTA) — Representatives of the umbrella organization of Jewish community centers discussed recent bomb threats against their institutions with U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Officials from the Anti-Defamation League, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Jewish Federations of North America, Secure Community Network and the Jewish Community Center Association met with Sessions on Thursday, a week after an Israeli teenager was arrested on charges of calling in over 100 bomb threats to JCCs and other American Jewish institutions.
Ian Prior, a Justice Department spokesman, said the meeting was “positive and productive” and that Sessions had praised the Jewish leaders “for their responsiveness, efficiency, calm and competence” in dealing with the threats.
“The Department of Justice will not tolerate hate crimes against Jewish communities or the targeting of any community in this country on the basis of their religious beliefs,” Prior said, according to media reports.
Earlier this month, representatives from the association had written to Sessions to express their frustration with the investigation and to request a meeting.
Two weeks later, on March 23, Israeli police arrested a 19-year-old at his home in Ashkelon. Juan Thompson, a former journalist from St. Louis accused of making at least eight bomb threats against Jewish institutions, was arrested on March 3.
Did you know that only 2% of Forward readers donate to support our nonprofit newsroom? That 2% make it possible for millions to read the Forward without a paywall or subscription — removing any barriers to the full and fair Jewish story.
But while the Forward is free to read, it isn’t free to produce. Big stories — like deep dives into the antisemitism data, political scoops or reporting trips to college campuses — take months of research and fact-checking. All while we keep you informed of what you need to know each day.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Forward Publisher & CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
