SEATTLE — Leaders in the Jewish community met with law enforcement as they have been experiencing an increase in anti-Semitic threats.
Four Jewish places of worship have received threats prompting both evacuations and hazmat responses in less than a week.
A suspicious letter sent to a Seattle synagogue prompted a hazmat response Monday night.
According to the Seattle Fire Department, officials responded to the Congregation Shaarei Tefilah-Lubavitch located on 43rd Avenue Northeast at around 8:30 p.m. for a report of a possible hazardous substance.
Approximately an hour after the call, officials confirmed the substance that was found in a mailbox outside the building was not hazardous.
“We are not going to allow those who seek to deny us our right to religious freedom to succeed in what they’re seeking to do,” said Rabbi Danie Weiner of Temple De Hirsch Sinai.
Nothing will stop Rabbi Danie Weiner from practicing his faith – though today the focus is on keeping his congregation safe.
“I think that one of the things that’s most jarring for American Jews is that we felt that the incredible moral upward trajectory of how other marginalized groups have been treated and have been supported and accepted and embraced in unprecedented ways, we felt that extended to us as well, Weiner said.
This incident follows three similar ones that occurred in Seattle on Friday evening.
The Sephardic Bikur Holim Congregation, an orthodox synagogue located at 6500 52nd Avenue South, was evacuated as a safety precaution after receiving a suspicious letter.
The building security manager, Ben Tilson, said an employee was opening mail when they discovered an envelope with multiple documents. When opening the envelope, a white, powdery substance fell out.
An FBI spokesperson says that the powder “has not indicated a risk to public safety” but that “additional testing will be needed to fully characterize the material in the letters.”
The second location on Friday was at a synagogue on Wilson Avenue South at around 5:30 p.m.
While officers were investigating, a third 911 call came in about a suspicious package. This one was on 17th Avenue Northwest, near the University of Washington's Center for Jewish Life.
There have been no reports of any injuries or property damage at any location.
“It’s been an unprecedented time for the Jewish community where we already felt like anti-Semitic was at the highest level it’s been in decades,” said Miri Cypers of the Anti-Defamation League’s Pacific Northwest Office.
The Anti-Defamation League and the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office are coordinating a meeting with law enforcement and community leaders on Tuesday as they deal with a growing number of threats on Jewish people. The meeting was not open to the public as was hosted inside South Seattle Community College.
“And then when you see hazmat suits and ambulances surrounding your synagogue on a Friday night I think it really just reinforces that sense that we are not safe in the spaces that we go to,” Cypers added.
The focus now is on protecting those spaces – places of worship they feel are under attack.
“However many of us are now understanding and better understanding the mutating virus of antisemitism that finds its way left or right into the rhetoric and propaganda of individuals who are seeking to find and to project their own contempt and hatred onto an easily marginalized group,” Weiner continued.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
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