Jewish Children's Museum in New York
evacuated for bomb threat
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[March 10, 2017]
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Jewish
Children's Museum in New York City was evacuated for a few hours on
Thursday after it received a bomb threat by email, police said, the
latest in a rash of recent threats to U.S. and Canadian Jewish
organizations.
The museum, a multi-media center of Jewish history and heritage, was
reopened around midday after police said they found no explosives during
a search of the six-story building in the city's Brooklyn borough.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who was nearby for an unrelated news
conference when the museum was evacuated, told reporters at the scene
that a special state police unit was being assembled to investigate the
rash of threats to Jewish organizations.
"It's immoral, it's unethical and it's also illegal, and we are going to
find the people who are doing these threats," Cuomo said.
Police declined to release details on the contents of the threat, which
was reported at 9:30 a.m. EST (1430 GMT). But the New York Daily News,
which said it obtained a copy, reported that the sender claimed to be
part of a group that planted three pipe bombs in the building before
having a change of heart.
"I made wrong decisions in my life which I deeply regret," the message
said, according to The Daily News. "I befriended these people and went
on with them to carry out this attack. I recently cleared my mind and I
want to prevent this bombing attack for taking place by notifying you."
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The evacuation follows a new round of bomb threats against Jewish
community centers in the United States and Canada this week. Threats
were phoned in or emailed to Jewish community centers in several
states, including New York, Wisconsin, Illinois and Florida. Centers
in Toronto and elsewhere in Ontario also said they were threatened.
U.S. federal authorities have been investigating a surge of threats
against Jewish organizations, including more than 100 hoax bomb
threats in five separate waves in January and February against JCCs
in dozens of states.
(Reporting by Peter Szekely; Editing by Dan Grebler)
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