2017 Jewish Community Center bomb threats

In early 2017, a wave of more than 100 bomb threats were made against Jewish Community Centers in the United States. An Israeli resident (with dual Israeli and US citizenship) and an African American convert to Islam have been arrested in connection with the threats and investigations are ongoing.

Theories

According to a January 2017 article by Slate's Elissa Strauss, the threats were the responsibility of the alt-right who viewed them as "a practical joke". The same month, Jerry Silverman of the Jewish Federations of North America said the threats were part of a "coordinated effort" to intimidate American Jews. In February, during an interview on CNN, U.S. Congressman Jerrold Nadler said that some supporters of Donald Trump were responsible for the threats.

In an op-ed for the Baltimore Sun, deputy editor Tricia Bishop said there was probably no specific group or person responsible for the threats but, rather, a growing attitude of racial intolerance was the root cause of the incidences. She implored readers to "stand up ... before it's your children they come for".

However, it subsequently became clear that almost all of the threats, and perhaps all of them. were perpetrated by two individuals. One was a dual Israeli and US citizen living in Israel and the other was Juan M. Thompson, an African-American former journalist. Neither of these individuals were involved with the Alt-right and their actions seem to be Hate crime hoaxes.

Suspects

In March 2017, two persons were arrested on separate charges of making a number of the bomb threats:

• Juan M. Thompson, a former journalist for The Intercept, was charged with responsibility for at least eight of the incidents. According to media reports, Thompson had called in the threats in an attempt to frame a woman whom he had previously dated. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the woman had been the subject of previous harassment by Thompson, which included an alleged attempt by him to falsely report her for possession of child pornography.
• An unidentified 19-year-old Israeli-American man was arrested in March in Ashkelon, Israel and charged with responsibility for "dozens" of the threats. The man had earlier been rejected from enlistment in the Israeli Army due to mental health issues. According to Israeli police, the man had used "advanced technologies" to disguise his voice and mask the fact the calls were originating from Israel. The man's defense attorney said he has a brain tumor, which may have influenced his behavior. In April 2017 he was charged in an Israeli court with several crimes including an attempt to extort a United States senator, "publishing false reports causing public panic, conspiring to commit a crime, hacking computers to commit a crime, and violations of money-laundering laws". The indictment alleges that he threatened "2,000 different institutions around the world, including the Israeli embassy in Washington, the Israeli consulate in Miami, schools, malls, police stations, hospitals and airlines." In the same month he faced a similar indictment in a Florida court which included 28 crimes.

See also

• Hate crime hoaxes
• Antisemitism in the United States
• Juan M. Thompson