Nearly 200 false bomb threats at institutions, synagogues. Jewish community is on alert.

Authorities continue to investigate after almost 200 Jewish institutions across the country were targeted over the weekend by threats that were deemed not credible.

A total of 199 swatting incidents and false bomb threats were tracked between Friday and Saturday evening by the Secure Community Network, a nonprofit that dedicates itself to the safety of the Jewish community in North America. The organization tracked least 93 in California, 62 in Arizona, 15 in Connecticut, five in Colorado, and four in Washington state, according to a press release.

“While we have no information to indicate a specific and credible threat, we will continue to work with our local, state, and federal law enforcement partners to gather, share, and act upon threat information as it comes to our attention," Vikki Migoya, public affairs officer for the FBI’s Denver Field Office, told USA TODAY.

No threat was deemed credible by law enforcement, but some led to evacuations of synagogues and Shabbat service cancellations.

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Pennsylvania Hebrew preschool evacuated

Some synagogues received bomb threats before the beginning of Shabbat on Friday evening. In Newtown, Pennsylvania, Congregation Shir Ami was forced to evacuate its Hebrew school on Thursday after the synagogue's executive director received a bomb threat by email. The message demanded ransom money be dropped off at a location around two hours away.

"We evacuated our building, our preschool, and pretty much put our emergency plan into place," Rabbi Charles Briskin told USA TODAY. "Trying to get a number of young children to leave the facility and the teachers to get to our evacuation site, which is close by but not on our property, was challenging."

Police inspected the synagogue with dogs trained to sniff out explosives. After an exhaustive 2-hour search, the evacuation was lifted. "There was a lot of concern and anxiety within our teachers and they handled it extraordinarily well," he said.

Briskin says the incident was the first of its kind to impact Shir Ami.

"I think that this is a pattern that's been happening throughout synagogues," he said. "I was actually with two colleagues at the time from different places, and we all received the threat at the same time."

The community has also increased security services since Oct. 7, Briskin said.

"There seems to be a particular ramp up in the activity over the last several days," he said. "I don't recall seeing this number of my colleagues indicating that they were targeted until today so far."

Boulder synagogue evacuates after bomb threat

Congregation Har Hashem in Boulder, Colorado, was forced to evacuate a Torah study class on Saturday morning after police alerted the community to a bomb threat that went out to several synagogues in the state.

Rabbi Fred Greene said congregation members held the Shabbat service at a private residence after the threat forced the synagogue to remain shuttered.

"Our folks went to different locations to continue our morning learning in somebody's house, and another worship service took place at a different house," Greene told USA TODAY.

Greene said the rise in antisemitic rhetoric and attacks since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel and the ensuing war has heightened anxiety among the Jewish community.

Greene said he loved that congregation members were able to continue worshipping after the synagogue was forced to close.

"There's more worry, but there's also a real coming together," Greene said. "Even if they're concerned, even if they're worried, they want to come together and they don't want to hide that they are Jews."

Still, the heightened need for security has led to changes.

"We now have a security guard that works with us over the weekends for Shabbat and for our religious school times," he said.

Boulder police announced via X, formerly Twitter, that the FBI was investigating the incident.

Rise in antisemitic incidents

"There were only 83 total incidents in 2022," Wyatt Ronan, the Marketing and Communications Director of the SCN, told USA TODAY. "That 24-hour period alone surpasses the total for the previous year."

The SCN logged a record 772 incidents in October and 634 in November, up 290% from the past year, according to data shared with USA TODAY.

The number of incidents recorded in October was the highest "we've recorded in any single month in the history of us tracking threats to the Jewish community in North America," Ronan said.

"We've had DHS and FBI officials join our webinars to the community to talk more about what they're doing to combat this," he said. "They're certainly taking this threat seriously and carrying out investigations."

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