SAN FRANCISCO—A section of Market Street between Grant Avenue and Kearny Street was closed from 4 p.m to 7 p.m. on Monday, February 27, after a bomb threat against the San Francisco Anti-Defamation League office. The Osher Marin Jewish Community Center in San Rafael and the Oshman Family Jewish Community Center in Palo Alto were also forced to evacuate after receiving similar threats.
“They said that they had a bomb,” said Seth Brysk, the Central Pacific Regional Director for the Anti-Defamation League. “That they had planted a bomb and they had planned to kill us… to be evacuated because of a threat that they may be blown up is terrorizing and fear-inducing.”
A staff member from the ADL received a phone call at 4:19 p.m. about of a possible bomb, leading to the evacuation of the entire building. The incident was part of a nationwide wave of over 20 threats made against Jewish organizations. Monday’s string of threats is part of an increase in anti-Semitic acts across the country; last week over 100 Jewish headstones in a Philadelphia cemetery were vandalized.
“One threat or evacuation is one too many, and yet we’ve now seen more than 20 incidents in a single day not just to ADL, but to children’s schools and community centers — and more than 90 incidents since the start of this year,” said ADL CEO Jonathan A. Greenblatt in a statement. “The level of threats and incidents is astounding, and must not stand. We will do everything in our power to combat this wave of anti-Semitism.”
The Anti-Defamation League is an international non-governmental organization founded in 1913 to fight anti-Semitism and bigotry.
