Synagogues brace for bomb threats, ‘swatting’ attacks as Yom Kippur begins

Synagogues across the country are bracing for bomb threats and “swatting” attacks as Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, begins at sunset on Sunday.

“We have learned that preparation matters,” Larry Glickman, director of congregational shared services for the Union for Reform Judaism. “We know all too well that if someone is determined to make trouble, they will do their best to make trouble.”

Several congregations that are part of the Union for Reform Judaism have experienced bomb threats and swatting incidents “during the last several weeks,” Mr. Glickman said.

Bomb threats generally are made to a synagogue via email or a congregation’s website contact form, but “swatting” attacks — incidents in which police SWAT teams are dispatched — are phoned in to law enforcement, according to experts at a briefing by the Secure Community Network, a safety organization for the Jewish community in North America.

Agents from the FBI and officials from the Major Cities Chiefs Association, an organization of big-city police executives, also spoke at the virtual briefing.

Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Deputy Chief Dori Koren said his department and others in major cities have seen “an uptick but more so associated with the holiday period rather than this year versus last year … an uptick in the bomb threats and hate crime activity.”

David Wilson, intelligence operations director for the Secure Community Network, said the group “anticipates a further escalation” in such incidents “based on recent trends and the most recent social media analysis,” which found an uptick in people looking for tutorials on how to carry out attacks.

Swatting “tend to take place when services are active,” Mr. Wilson said, adding that “facility bomb threats … primarily occur in the early hours in the morning, often going unnoticed for hours or even days. More than half of these threats were received on a Sunday.”

Yom Kippur is considered the most solemn day of the liturgical year; observant Jews spend the day in prayer at synagogues before a 25-hour fast is broken after nightfall.

“When we begin our services, we recognize that [for] a lot of people this may be one of just a very few times during the year that they’re actually in services or in the facility that they’re in,” said Michael Masters, national director and CEO of the Secure Community Network.

Mr. Masters said his congregation begins these services with an announcement of “what we’re going to do in case there’s a medical emergency, in case there’s a need to evacuate and how to do so. It’s a good reminder for people and it gives them information. We empower people with information.”

The Anti-Defamation League reported in March that 91 of 3,697 bomb threats in 2022 were identified as antisemitic.