Simon Wiesenthal Center Urges Attorney General Sessions to Set Up Special Taskforce to Catch Culprits Who Threatened Bombing of Scores of Jewish Community Centers

February 21, 2017

Against the backdrop of surging hate crimes targeting Jews and Jewish institutions across the US, the Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) is urging US Attorney General Jeff Sessions (pictured), to establish a special taskforce to apprehend the culprit or culprits who have launched four waves of bomb threats against scores of Jewish Community Centers across the US and for President Trump to outline his Administration’s plan to combat surging anti-Semitism.

“The multi-pronged threats of anti-Semitism today demand concerted action. We look to President Trump to take a leadership role in addressing the problem of anti-Semitism and hate in America head-on in a speech at a time and place of his choosing,” said Rabbis Marvin Hier and Abraham Cooper, Dean and Founder and Associate Dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a leading Jewish Human Rights NGO.

“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 (see photo).

“Further, social media is being deployed 24/7 by extremists to target and demonize individual Jews, entire communities, our faith and values. We need lead leadership from the top to effectively combat the hate,” the Rabbis concluded.

The SWC letter to Attorney General Sessions read in part;

“Jewish institutions have, for many years, been spending millions of dollars a year to protect our Houses of Worship, Community Centers, Kindergartens and Jewish Schools from attacks from extremists… While we appreciate the efforts made by law enforcement to protect people of all faiths… given the current circumstances … the Simon Wiesenthal Center is urging you to create a special taskforce with the assignment of identifying and capturing the culprit or culprits who seek to terrorize American Jewry through their threats.”

Read letter in full here

For more information, please contact the Center's Public Relations Department, 310-553-9036, join the Center on Facebook, www.facebook.com/simonwiesenthalcenter, or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sent direct to your Twitter feed.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).