NEW YORK — The Anti-Defamation League and several Jewish community centers across the country received a new round of bomb threats Tuesday, adding to the scores they have been plagued with since January.
New York Police Department Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said there were five threats in New York City on Tuesday morning, including to the ADL.
The JCC Association of North America said several Jewish community centers received email or phone threats overnight and early Tuesday.
Federal officials have been investigating more than 120 threats against Jewish organizations in three dozen states since Jan. 9 and a rash of vandalism at Jewish cemeteries.
On Friday, Missouri resident Juan Thompson was arrested on a cyberstalking charge and accused of making at least eight of the threats nationwide, including one to the ADL. Authorities said Thompson was trying to harass and frame his ex-girlfriend by pinning the threats on her.
A criminal complaint said Thompson started making threats Jan. 28 with an email to the Jewish History Museum in New York written from an account that made it appear as if it were being sent by an ex-girlfriend.
In another round of emails and phone calls, he gave the woman’s name, rather than his own, the court complaint said. The Council on American-Islamic Relations received an anonymous email saying the woman put a bomb in a Dallas Jewish center.
Thompson is scheduled to appear in court Wednesday in St. Louis for a hearing to determine if he should remain detained pending trial.
