In Wake of Hyde Park JCC Bomb Threat, Simon Wiesenthal Center reiterates call to Attorney General Sessions for Special Taskforce

February 21, 2017

CHICAGO --

Simon Wiesenthal Center, a leading Jewish Human Rights NGO, is reiterating its call for Attorney General Jeff Sessions to convene a special task force to catch the culprits who have launched bomb threats against scores of Jewish Community Centers across the country, including yesterday’s threat against the Hyde Park Jewish Community Center.

Earlier this week, senior center officials wrote to the new US Attorney General, urging a stronger effort to deal with such threats. 

“We applaud the Jewish Community Center’s quick and efficient protocol in ensuring everyone’s safety”, Alison Pure-Slovin, Midwest Regional Director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center said. “However, the latest bomb threat that took place in Chicagoland is proof that much more needs to be done to protect Jewish Communities in America,” Ms. Pure-Slovin added.

Commenting on the recent upsurge of anti-Semitic attacks in the United States, Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean, stated: “American Jewry is being targeted by extremists from multiple sources: On our nation’s campuses, where incessant anti-Israel campaigns have created a climate of intimidation; in New York, home to the world’s largest Jewish community, which reports a spike in anti-Semitic incidents, and just this week, 100 headstones in a Jewish Cemetery in Missouri were overturned.”

For more information, please contact:
Alison Pure-Slovin
Midwest Director, Simon Wiesenthal Center
aslovin@wiesenthal.com
312.981.0105
708.714.0749