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The
boy was arrested in September after creating a detailed plan to
carry out an attack at the Temple Israel in Canton, just south
of Akron, Ohio, according to a complaint from an official with
the Stark County Sheriff's office.
On Friday, he entered "true" pleas to counts of "inducing panic"
and "disorderly conduct" in Stark County Family Court, according
to a record of the hearing. A pretrial hearing previously
scheduled for Wednesday was canceled, the court confirmed.
Judge Jim James sentenced the boy to a year of probation and
ordered that he submit a book report to the probation department
about Carl Lutz, a Swiss diplomat who saved thousands of Jews in
Hungary from the Nazis during World War II, according to the
record of Friday's hearing.
The judge also ordered that the boy have no unsupervised use of
the Internet and continue with counseling through a licensed
therapist.
Although the teenager allegedly planned his attack before the
Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel, his sentencing comes amid a
surge in reported antisemitic incidents across the United
States, according to Jewish advocacy groups such as the
Anti-Defamation League (ADL).
The advocacy group on Wednesday posted on the X social media
platform that it was "horrified" by the Ohio case, and expressed
hope that it could be a "teachable moment" for other young
people.
The rise in antisemitic and Islamophobic rhetoric and alleged
discrimination in U.S. schools during Israel's ongoing war in
Gaza prompted the U.S. Education Department in November to open
investigations into six colleges and one Kansas school district.
(Reporting by Julia Harte; Editing by David Gregorio)
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