'These are our people'

Since the start of the new year, the Levite Jewish Community Center has received four bomb threats. As far as the community is concerned, that’s four too many.

“One of the unique things I think about now as opposed to, let’s say the 1930s during the inception of the Holocaust and so on, is that the world kept quiet,” said Betzy Lynch, executive director of the LJCC. “That’s not happening now. That is not OK with people, and people are speaking out.”

Community members — both local and national — are speaking out against recent bomb threats to Jewish community centers. They are speaking out against anti-Semitism. They are speaking out against hatred.

They are also speaking out to spread love and support for their local Jewish community.

Wave of threats

The first bomb threat to the LJCC, both of the new year and in the

center’s history, came on the morning of Jan. 18; subsequent calls were made on Feb. 20, Feb. 27 and March 7, with the last two called in to the N.E. Miles Jewish Day School at the LJCC.

Rebecca Williamson, who has a child at the day school and is a member of Parents of the JCC, was present for the first call, as well as two additional calls. 

“That was the worst feeling I’ve ever had in my life [after the first call]. The first thing I could think was, ‘Where is my baby?’” Williamson said. “Nobody knew anything at that time other than the call was a very viable threat.”

“Obviously, it [the call] was disconcerting, to say the least,” Lynch continued, adding she was pleased their bomb threat procedures worked well.

Protocol evacuated the facilities and called local law enforcement, including the Mountain Brook and Birmingham police, the K-9 unit and the FBI. Lynch said the calls have all been during the morning hours, which are the busiest for the center, and have all been from a digitized voice. 

“From our perspective, someone is calling in, and they’re not carrying out the threat,” said Birmingham police spokesman Lt. Sean Edwards, adding that every threat is taken very seriously. “I think they’re also aware that not only is it impacting there [the LJCC], but also several cities across the country.”

According to the Anti-Defamation League, as of March 21, 120 institutions, including 18 Jewish day schools, have been targeted over a series of 166 bomb threats. “We are deeply disturbed by bomb threats directed against Jewish community centers in multiple states across the United States,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the ADL. “This is not ‘normal.’ We will not be deterred or intimidated.”

Since the wave of threats across the country started, one arrest was made March 3 in connection to at least eight previous threats to Jewish community centers across the country, but calls have continued.

“I was hopeful [when the arrest was made], but when they shared the details and the profile of the individual, I thought, ‘Well, he’s not our guy yet.’ But it did hearten me that we were getting closer,” Lynch said. 

Community support

In addition to working closely with local law enforcement and officials, whom Lynch said are using all available resources to investigate the calls both nationally and locally, the LJCC hosted a town hall meeting March 6 to update patrons and community members.

Speakers included local officials and law enforcement, and Lynch said many people asked law enforcement oriented questions and what they could do to help. 

“Security is everybody’s job. It’s not just the job of the people who walk around with guns,” Lynch said. “That was probably the biggest message and takeaway.” 

Many crowd members continued to express their gratitude for local officials and officers, a sentiment the LJCC echoed. 

“I cannot say enough about how local law enforcement have responded,” Lynch said, adding that even though the LJCC is not in Mountain Brook’s jurisdiction, the MBPD has partnered on every call. “They’ve been phenomenal.”

Support for the LJCC has expanded far beyond the walls of the facilities, too.

Nearly every day, the center has opened letters expressing encouragement and love from across the country, and Mary Anne Glazner of Smith’s Variety has started selling large bows in blue and white, the colors of the LJCC. The bows help community members show their solidarity, and proceeds go toward additional security measures. 

“These are our people. These are our friends,” Glazner said. “They deserve our love and concern.”

Williamson added that the National Christian Foundation of Alabama, together with many other local Christian ministries, recently started a campaign to raise $100,000. Of those funds raised, 100 percent will be sent to the Birmingham Jewish Federation, which is campaigning to raise $1,000,000 to allocate to all Birmingham-area Jewish community agencies and congregations for security enhancements. 

The group Parents of the JCC has also taken a more active role by mobilizing against recent threats and keeping other parents informed. “That’s something that can be really frightening as a parent, to not know what’s going on,” Williamson said.

So far, the group has met with the mayor’s office to discuss raising awareness and has spoken with a counselor to learn how to communicate recent events to children who have been affected. 

“I can’t imagine going through this in other cities without parent support, because no one else really knows what we’re going through other than the other parents,” Williamson said, adding that the community outreach has helped members and parents of the LJCC greatly.

While Lynch mentioned there are a small number of patrons who have chosen to rescind their memberships, there has been an even larger number who have chosen to join the LJCC out of solidarity. And, Lynch said their relationship with the local Muslim community has only strengthened after having an “unfortunate shared experience.” 

“There’s a part of me that feels sad that it’s taken conflict to bring that unification [of the community],” she said, “but on the other side of it is, is if we had to look at the silver lining of having this type of experience, I think it’s actually resulted in more positive than negative.”

Moving Forward

While Lynch emphasized how grateful she and the staff of the LJCC are for the support of local officials and the community, she still said, “There’s no doubt” that the series of calls to the LJCC and across the country are connected and everyone takes each threat very seriously.

With each call, the LJCC has implemented a different protocol to “make it hard to figure out.” Lynch added that in the future, the LJCC will have increased security measures, both seen and unseen, to protect patrons, guests and schoolchildren. The LJCC has also helped put together the Jewish Community Task Force, which has a representative from over 15 local Jewish organizations and is designed to help address the needs of the entire community at one time.

Despite the recent hardships, Lynch said the LJCC will keep their doors open for those who wish to visit.

“We recognize that these are difficult times … and yes, there will be things that we will have to do to enhance our culture of security because of this,” she said, “but we are going to continue to keep doing the same thing that we have done for 110 years, which is bringing together the entire diverse community of this city.”