Police investigate explosive device thrown in heavily Jewish New Jersey town

Nobody was injured and no arrests have yet been made

An Orthodox woman pushes a stroller in Lakewood, N.J., in 2013. The population in the largely Haredi Orthodox town has boomed in the past couple of decades. (Credit: Dennis Fraevich/Flickr)

By Adam Kovac May 23, 2023

Police in the New Jersey town of Lakewood are investigating after an explosive device was thrown in a heavily Jewish area on Saturday.

Video obtained by local news outlet the Lakewood Scoop and uploaded to YouTube showed the residents walking on the sidewalk when the two trucks slowed and stopped next to them. The residents can be seen crossing the street behind the trucks, when they drive off. Second later, the explosion can be seen and smoke begins to rise from a nearby wooded area.

Lakewood police captain Gregory Staffordsmith said in an email that the department received a call just before 9:30 p.m. on Saturday reporting the explosion and smoke. An officer was dispatched to the scene, where a resident told him two vehicles had been driving slowly through the area before they heard a loud boom.

Staffordsmith said a small object with a lit fuse was thrown from one of the trucks and that the pedestrians had been 50 to 100 feet away. Nobody was injured in the incident.

Lakewood is a predominantly Jewish area. In 2019, NJ.com estimated that two-thirds of the 100,000 residents were Orthodox Jews. The town has been the site of several antisemitic incidents in recent years. In November 2020, a dead pig was left outside a rabbi’s home while in May of that year, a man was arrested for posting threatening messages to Facebook against Jews in the area who ignored COVID-19 public health restrictions.

No arrests have been made and Staffordsmith asked that anyone with information contact Detective Kevin Donnelly at 732-363-0200 ext. 5346.

Adam Kovac is a staff reporter at the Forward, covering breaking news. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter as @AdamJKovac.

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