WASHINGTON – Two Jewish schools in the Washington region received bomb threats Monday, disrupting classroom activities and leading police to sweep the campuses in Maryland and Virginia.
The bomb threats came to both schools through what seemed to be an automated voice message system, school officials said. The incident is under police investigation.
The calls came into the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Rockville, Maryland, and Gesher Jewish Day School in Fairfax, Virginia, after 9 a.m. Administrators at Gesher evacuated the school as police swept the building for explosives. Students on the upper campus inBethesda at Charles E. Smith were kept in their classrooms as part of the school’s standard procedure as administrators and police inspected the building and its perimeter.
The threats at the Washington area schools come as dozens of Jewish community centers, schools, synagogues and cemeteries have recently faced hate messages and other discriminatory acts.
Jewish headstones were toppled in cemeteries in Missouri and Pennsylvania in recent weeks. This week Jewish schools in Florida have also received automated bomb threats. In all, more than 70 bomb threats have been called into Jewish institutions since January, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Rabbi Mitchel Malkus, head of the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School, said in an interview that recent threats at other schools led his administration to be more vigilant.
“Given what’s been going on around the country were we very well prepared,” Malkus said. “We knew exactly what to do.”
Malkus said that police arrived less than five minutes after the school notified law enforcement about the threat.
Malkus said that the goal of the incidents is “raise tension and anxiety in the community, and unfortunately that’s what happens when you have these threats.”
Malkus noted that dozens of Jewish institutions have received similar attacks.
“There’s been a significant increase in anti-Semitic incidents and threats in the Jewish community over the last year and I believe that’s directly attributable to the political climate that exists in our country,” Malkus said. He noted that President Trump last week addressed the rise in hate messaging against Jewish groups in recent months and condemned the attacks involving Jewish graves.
“I do welcome what the president said,” Malkus said. “He wants to make sure these incidents do not continue. I would like to see more of that in a clearer message.”
(c) 2017, The Washington Post ยท T. Rees Shapiro
