- Following a 911 call, police searched the Shaare Zion Temple in Brooklyn and the Riverdale Jewish Center in the Bronx around 6:15 a.m., the NYPD told
Two New York synagogues were raided by police after bomb threats caused panic on Christmas Eve.
Following a 911 call, police searched the Shaare Zion Temple in Brooklyn and the Riverdale Jewish Center in the Bronx around 6:15 a.m., the NYPD told .
The department could not provide details about the threats the synagogues received, but said they were believed to have been sent via email.
“Officers responded and searched the buildings and found no devices,” an NYPD spokesperson said. “Nothing was found.”
Police searched the Shaare Zion Temple in Brooklyn and the Riverdale Jewish Center in the Bronx around 6:15 a.m. after receiving a 911 call about bomb threats on Christmas Eve, the NYPD told . (Pictured: an NYPD patrol car parked in front of a Lower East Side synagogue)
The ministry said police would continue to “search and patrol” areas affected by recent swatting incidents – where people call emergency services because of false threats.
Since Hamas slaughtered around 1,200 people in Israel on October 7, hundreds of synagogues across America have been targeted with threatening messages about fake bombs.
Last weekend, a nationwide raid sent threats to nearly 200 Jewish institutions in what the FBI believes was part of a coordinated effort by a foreign group.
In a confidential memo to partner law enforcement agencies, FBI Assistant Director Cathy Milhoan said, “At this time, based on similar language and specific email action, it appears that the perpetrators of these threats are connected.”
“Furthermore, these threats appear to originate from outside the United States.”
Between Friday and Saturday last week, 199 swatting incidents and false bomb threats were tracked by the Secure Community Network, a nonprofit organization that provides information about safety and security to Jewish institutions in the United States.
This is breaking news, updates to follow.