Synagogues across the country are bracing for “swatting” attacks and bomb threats as Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, begins at sunset on Sunday.
“We have learned that preparation matters,” Larry Glickman, director of congregational shared services for the Union for Reform Judaism. “We know all too well that if someone is determined to make trouble, they will do their best to make trouble.”
Bomb threats generally are made to a synagogue via email or a congregation’s website contact form, but “swatting” attacks — incidents in which police SWAT teams are dispatched — are phoned in to law enforcement, according to experts at a briefing by the Secure Community Network, a safety organization for the Jewish community in North America.
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Deputy Chief Dori Koren said his department and others in major cities have seen “an uptick but more so associated with the holiday period rather than this year versus last year … an uptick in the bomb threats and hate crime activity.” Swatting “tend to take place when services are active,” Mr. Wilson said, adding that “facility bomb threats … primarily occur in the early hours in the morning, often going unnoticed for hours or even days. More than half of these threats were received on a Sunday.”is considered the most solemn day of the liturgical year; observant Jews spend the day in prayer at synagogues before a 25-hour fast is broken after nightfall.
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