Police evacuate Toronto Jewish day school after bomb threat
Three people were arrested last month for making threats against the school, known as TanenbaumCHAT.
Jewish institutions have faced bomb threats delivered remotely, through email and online contact forms. (Flickr Commons)
(JTA) — A Jewish day school in Toronto was evacuated in response to a bomb threat emailed to school staff that claimed “many Jews will die today.”
Police arrived on the scene just after noon on Friday to assist in the evacuation of The Anne and Max Tanenbaum Community Hebrew Academy of Toronto and investigate the threat, with the assistance of a K-9 unit.
The threat claimed bombs had been planted in the school parking lot. Its subject line was “Death by fire.”
Parents received an email from school staff relaying the message that the bomb threat said “multiple explosive devices had been planted in the school,” according to The Toronto Star.
Toronto Police told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency as of 1:30 p.m. that the K-9 unit was still on the scene, and any new updates about the situation would be shared on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter.
Last month, threats made in person against the school led to the arrest of a Toronto man and two teens.
“We are concerned and outraged by this incident, which is just the latest in a growing number of antisemitic hate crimes in Toronto,” the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto tweeted.
In the last month, during the Israel-Hamas war, the city has also seen Israeli-owned businesses targeted and antisemitic and anti-Israel graffiti plastered on multiple sites.
Toronto has experienced recent growth in Jewish day school enrollment. At TanenbaumCHAT alone, the school is planning to take on an additional 250 students in the 2024-2025 academic year, following a cut in tuition and an increase in the size of the campus.
Waves of hoax bomb threats targeted synagogues and Jewish schools this fall, continuing even after the arrest of a man in Peru who the FBI said had made at least 150 threats himself.
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
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