A wave of threatening emails sent to Jewish community centers throughout the United States led to a full evacuation of one facility in Albany, New York.
On Sunday night, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that nearly 100 people were evacuated from the Albany Jewish Community Center after a threatening email was sent to the facility. Law enforcement searched the building using trained dogs and later deemed the facility safe. Roughly 100 people, including children, were in the center at the time of the evacuation, Cuomo said.
Authorities found that 18 other Jewish community centers around the nation received similar vague threats, which Cuomo condemned and acknowledged that incidents of anti-Semitism are on the rise. He also noted the FBI would be investigating the incident but did not disclose which other cities were targeted.
“These types of situations are so ugly and so unfortunate,” the governor said. “What’s worse is we’re seeing more and more of them. We’ve had about 42 incidents of anti-Semitism in this state this past couple of months, so it’s not getting better. It’s only getting worse.”
Just before the year’s end, five Hasidic Jews were injured after a man wielding a machete targeted a Hanukkah celebration in the home of a New York rabbi. New York has struggled to contain a growing number of anti-Semitic attacks within the state.
The Albany Jewish Community Center is set to be open for regular hours on Monday.
