Jewish Community Center of Syracuse receives 3rd threat this year

The Jewish Community Center of Syracuse on Tuesday was locked down for the third time this year after receiving a telephone threat, according to Syracuse.com.

The center previously received two bomb threats in January. The center, which is located in DeWitt, did not have to be evacuated Tuesday, per Syracuse.com.

New York state Gov. Andrew Cuomo released a statement Tuesday morning denouncing the threat.

“New York has always stood as a beacon of diversity and inclusion, and we will continue to stand united in the face of this virulent strain of hatred and anti-Semitism,” the governor said in the statement. “The bomb threats at the Brighton and DeWitt Jewish Community Centers and the Anti-Defamation League headquarters in Manhattan mark the latest pointed assault on the values we hold dear, and we will not allow these types of threats to continue to pervade our society.”

Several other Jewish centers across the U.S. also received threats Tuesday, including ones in Atlanta, Chicago, Boston, New York City and Washington, D.C. In a bipartisan letter, all 100 members of the U.S. Senate on Tuesday called on Trump to take more action to prevent the continuing threats.

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer on Tuesday condemned the threats.

“We denounce these latest anti-Semitic and hateful threats in the strongest terms,” he said at his press briefing. “It’s incredibly saddening that I have to continue to share these disturbing reports with you. … As long as they do continue, we will continue to condemn them and look at ways in which we can stop them.”

Cuomo in his statement directed the New York State Police to work with federal and local authorities to investigate the threat at the Jewish Community Center of Syracuse and other similar threats made Tuesday to a separate JCC and a Jewish civil rights organization in the state.

The Louis S. Wolk Jewish Community Center of Greater Rochester was evacuated Tuesday morning, after also receiving a threat, according to The Democrat and Chronicle. The Anti-Defamation League’s Manhattan office — the organization’s national headquarters — was evacuated Tuesday after receiving a threat, according to NBC News.

In 2017, the Jewish Federations of North America has counted 98 threats made across the country to JCCs and Jewish Day schools, per NBC News.

Cuomo also said in the statement any threat against JCCs across New York is an attack “on all of us.”

“These incidents go against every tenet of our state’s tradition, and we will continue to send a strong message that New York has zero tolerance for intolerance,” he said in the statement.