A seal reading “Department of Justice Federal Bureau of Investigation” is displayed on the J. Edgar Hoover FBI constructing in Washington, DC, August 9, 2022.
Stefani Reynolds | AFP | Getty Images
The FBI said on Thursday it had received credible details about a “broad” threat to synagogues in Latest Jersey.
The FBI’s Newark office released an announcement urging synagogues to “take all security precautions to guard your community and facility.”
The alert was posted after officials discovered an internet threat directed broadly at synagogues in Latest Jersey, a law enforcement official said. The posting, though, didn’t goal any specific synagogue by name, the official said. The official couldn’t discuss details of the investigation publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
More specific details weren’t released, and a message was left with the FBI in Newark.
In Jersey City, Mayor Steven Fulop said police could be posted at the town’s seven synagogues and foot patrols could be added within the broader Jewish community. In 2019, two assailants motivated by anti-Jewish hate killed three people in a kosher market in Jersey City, together with a police officer.
In Hoboken, adjoining to Jersey City along the Hudson River waterfront across from Latest York City, patrols were increased at a synagogue and Jewish center.
Five years ago, two Latest Jersey men were sentenced to 35 years in prison after being convicted for a series of attacks in 2012 that included the firebombings of two synagogues. Additionally they threw a Molotov cocktail into the house of a rabbi as he slept along with his wife and kids.
Democratic Rep. Josh Gottheimer, whose district encompasses a part of the realm in northern Latest Jersey affected by those attacks, said in an announcement Thursday that recent comments by Kanye West and NBA star Kyrie Irving have contributed to the issue.
“I’m deeply concerned and outraged by today’s alert from the FBI,” Gottheimer said. “That is what happens after years of antisemitic comments from public figures, including, most recently, Kanye West, Kyrie Irving, and others,” he said.
Associated Press author Michael Balsamo in Washington contributed to this report.
