Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) recently publicly urged FBI Director James Comey via letter to investigate a series of threats made against 13 Jewish Community Centers across the United States.
“On Tuesday, January 31, 2017, at least 13 Jewish Community Centers across the country were evacuated,” Fitzpatrick said. “This was the third wave of bomb threats in January made against Jewish Community Centers. On January 9, 2017, 16 Jewish Community Centers in nine states received threats. Just nine days later, 28 centers in seventeen states received threats.”
Fitzpatrick detailed how Jewish Community Centers offer comprehensive resources that provide educational, cultural, social, Jewish-identity building, and recreational programs for people of all backgrounds and that they need to be protected from bigotry and intolerance.
According to a report conducted by the Anti-Defamation League in June, a total of 941 anti-semitic incidents occurred in 2015. Fifty-six of those incidents were categorized as assaults, which represented a three percent rise in violent anti-semitic occurrences from the previous year.
Fitzpatrick is a first term congressman representing Pennsylvania’s 8th Congressional District. He is a member of the House Homeland Security, Foreign Affairs, and Small Business Committees.