Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Bomb Threat Shuts Florida Jewish Museum For Balfour Declaration Event

(JTA) — An event scheduled to take place at the Jewish Museum of Florida on the Balfour Declaration was cancelled following a bomb threat.

Law enforcement apprehended a Florida International University student after he allegedly issued the threat ahead of the event, which was slated to take place Thursday, the American Jewish Committee’s Miami office said in a statement. “We won’t be intimidated by threats and will continue to stand for our principles and values,” Brian Siegal, the Florida office;’s director, wrote.

But, added Siegal, who was supposed to speak at the event, “We must take seriously the guidance of law enforcement authorities who advised that in the interests of public safety our educational event could not take place as scheduled. We hope to reschedule in the very near future.”

The event was to celebrate the centenary of the 1917 Balfour Declaration, named for Arthur Balfour, the United Kingdom’s foreign secretary at the time. In it, the British government vowed to help establish a national home for the Jewish people in the Land of Israel without jeopardizing the rights of other area inhabitants.

It was the first formal recognition and approval by a world power of the Zionist cause.

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.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.