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A Romanian national pleaded guilty on Monday to charges related to his role in a “swatting” ring that targeted dozens of public officials, including a former US president. Going by the aliases “Plank,” “Jonah” and “Cypher,” 26-year-old Thomasz Szabo took part in a years-long conspiracy to place bogus 911 calls, claiming emergencies were taking place at the homes of top government officials, and make bomb threats against government buildings and houses of worship, according to Justice Department. Szabo and a co-conspirator, 21-year-old Serbian national Nemanja Radovanovic, allegedly targeted about 100 people, including members of Congress, governors, cabinet-level executive branch officials...

A new federal indictment was issued against a Jewish woman, a self-described Lebanese-American Hamas operative and a third person on charges of conspiracy, defacing and damaging a Jewish religious site, making false statements in a matter within the jurisdiction of the Executive branch of the United States, and possession of destructive devices, the US Justice Department announced on Wednesday. Mohamad Hamad, 23, of Coraopolis, Talya A. Lubit, 24, a Jewish resident of Pittsburgh, were previously indicted for defacing synagogues with pro-Palestinian, anti-Zionist graffiti. Antisemitism is at a record high. We're keeping our eyes on it >> Hamad, according to the...

“Billions of us will come and kill you.” Thirty minutes after Hamas supporters first set up their operation outside a Los Angeles synagogue, they maced their first Jew. And the Los Angeles police did nothing.Not until an hour into the terrorist rally outside a synagogue, did the LAPD finally step in, pushing back masked Jihad supporters in keffiyeh terror scarves from the entrance of Congregation Adas Torah (Congregation of the Bible) which they had occupied.And then the mob, chanting calls for “intifada” and the destruction of Israel, moved outward to target two smaller synagogues attended by Persian Jewish refugees from...

15 police officers and several civilians, including an Orthodox priest, killed in terrorist attack in Dagestan. Foreign Ministry: No Israelis or Jews among the victims. X link

Combined attack against non-Muslim houses of worship in the Dagestan region of the North Caucasus; No known Jewish or Israeli casualties; Attack comes in the wake of a host of reports from Russia in recent months about thwarting ISIS attacks against Jewish institutions

Three synagogues in New York City and the Brooklyn Museum were reportedly subjected to false bomb threats on Saturday. Congregation Rodeph Sholom in the Upper West Side received a bomb threat around 3:15 p.m. and was subsequently evacuated, police told the New York Post. The threat was ultimately unfounded, police confirmed. Then another bomb threat, which was also determined to be false, was reported at the Congregation Beit Simchat Torah, which is “progressive” and “LGBTQ-friendly,” according to the report. No one was inside the synagogue at the time of the threat, police said.

Bomb threats were sent to Jewish schools and synagogues across Southern California this week, as a wave of antisemitism continues. Breitbart News sources indicate that 20 Jewish institutions in Los Angeles received bomb threats on Tuesday, causing those Jewish schools that had been scheduled to open on January 2 to remain closed. In San Diego, six synagogues (or temples) were threatened, as the San Diego Union-Tribune reported Wednesday:

LOS ANGELES, California — Pro-Palestinian protesters vandalized buildings near synagogues, as well as a nearby church, with anti-Israel graffiti on Friday night after demonstrating against President Joe Biden at a nearby fundraiser on Friday night. As Breitbart News reported, the protesters gathered outside a fundraiser near Beverly Hills, waving signs that included “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” — a call for Israel to be destroyed.

WASHINGTON — President Biden told a group of rabbis on Thursday that he was “raised in the synagogues” of Delaware — after previously claiming to have been raised by the state’s then-tiny Puerto Rican community. “I, you might say, was raised in the synagogues of my state. You think I’m kidding, I’m not,” Biden said during a call ahead of Rosh HaShanah, the Jewish new year holiday that begins Friday.

American Jews are feeling vulnerable. The 2018 Tree of Life and 2019 Poway Chabad house synagogue shootings; the Colleyville, Texas hostage standoff in January of this year; and arrests of those threatening to harm Jews in synagogues in New York, New Jersey, and Michigan in recent months contribute to this unease. Coupled with largely unpunished street violence against Jews in Brooklyn and social-media threats worsened by Kanye West’s anti-Semitic ravings, Jews have had to bolster security measures at houses of worship. While President Biden recently announced an interagency taskforce to combat anti-Semitism, and while the governor and mayor of New...

A highly unusual move by the Justice Department to retry Florida nursing home owner Philip Esformes on health-care fraud criminal charges after then-President Donald Trump commuted his 20-year prison sentence is headed to an appeals court hearing as defense lawyers suggest prosecutors are motivated by anger at Trump. "The situation is entirely unique because the actions of the prosecutors here are incredibly outrageous," said Joe Tacopina, a leading New York criminal defense attorney. "There's no question in my mind that the [Justice Department's] flagrant disregard of President Trump's clemency order is motivated by acrimony towards him," said Tacopina. Tacopina is...

Portland reporter Mike Bivins was arrested on Saturday over alleged attacks of vandalism and arson at houses of worship, according to the Portland Police Bureau. Michael E. Bivins, 34, of Portland, Oregon was booked into the Multnomah County Detention Center early Saturday. Bivins was charged with multiple counts of criminal mischief in the first degree, criminal mischief in the third degree, and arson in the first degree. On April 30, Bivins allegedly broke windows to Congregation Shir Tikvah, a Jewish Synagogue, located at 2420 NE Sandy Blvd in Portland. On May 2, Bivins allegedly graffitied the Jewish Synagogue Congregation Beth...

On July 11, the American Jewish establishment tried to prove that it could fight anti-Semitism and be progressive at the same time. It failed. Outside of Congress that day, dozens of American Jewish groups co-sponsored a rally against the rising tide of Jew-hatred in America. The organizers had hoped that tens of thousands would show up for the event, and for good reason. In April 2002, a hundred thousand American Jews from all over the country congregated in Washington on short notice to rally in support of Israel during “Operation Defensive Shield.” And here they were supposed to rally...

A New York judge has released a man suspected of vandalizing synagogues across the Bronx - just hours after another judge defied the state's bail reform laws and ordered him locked up. Jordan Burnette, 29, faces 42 charges over a string of attacks on Jewish places of worship. He appeared in court Sunday, and was expected to be freed because New York State's bail reform laws say a suspect with his charges cannot be held on bail.

A Bronx judge went rogue on Sunday and set $30,000 bail for the alleged vandal charged with terrorizing Riverdale’s Jewish community — even though the man was set to be sprung under the state’s new bail reform laws. Jordan Burnette, 29, was hit with 42 charges, including a number of hate crime-related offenses for smashing windows at various synagogues. But none of them are on the so-called “bail eligible” list, prosecutors noted at his arraignment in Bronx Criminal Court. “Given the number of attacks, we probably would have asked for substantial bail before January of 2020,” Assistant District Attorney Theresa...

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is downplaying the significance of a Supreme Court decision blocking him enforcing stringent attendance limits on religious institutions in Covid hot spots. “That Supreme Court ruling on the religious gatherings is more illustrative of the Supreme Court than anything else,” Cuomo said on a Thanksgiving morning briefing call. “It’s irrelevant from any practical impact.”

In Agudath Israel of America v. Cuomo, (2d Cir., Nov. 9, 2020), the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in a 2-1 decision refused to grant an injunction pending appeal to a group of Jewish synagogues and to the Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn in a case challenging New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's restrictions on spots in which clusters of COVD-19 cases have broken out. (See prior posting.) The majority said in part: The Court fully understands the impact the executive order has had on houses of worship throughout the affected zones. Nevertheless, the Appellants cannot clear the high bar necessary...

In a meeting of the government's coronavirus cabinet today, Construction and Housing Minister Yakov Litzman (UTJ) demanded that synagogues be subject to the same restrictions as those applied to hotel restaurants, which are permitted to accommodate up to 35% of their capacity at any one time. "There is no logical reason for discriminating between people coming to pray in a synagogue, where only 10 people are currently permitted to gather at any one time, and restaurant clientele, where up to 35% of the area's capacity may be filled. The discrimination is even more blatant considering that people eating in a...

President Donald Trump spoke briefly at the White House Friday and called for state governors to allow for churches and other places of worship to reopen to the public. Trump says he considers houses of worship “essential” and wants them to reopen this weekend.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told American rabbis on Thursday that synagogues in the US may be able to be open for the Jewish High Holy Days in the fall, but only if certain conditions are met in terms of testing, contact tracing and social distancing. Speaking during a conference call organized by the Orthodox Union and quoted by Haaretz, Fauci expressed optimism that religious activities could be renewed before the end of the year. He noted, however, that synagogues would not be able to operate in the same way as...