More Bomb Threats at Jewish Schools and Community Centers, and Another Jewish Cemetery is Vandalized

"The pitch of the voice was computer-altered, making the speaker sound a little like Donald Duck, but the message was hardly cartoonish.

'In a short time, a large number of Jews are going to be slaughtered,' warned the squeaky-voiced caller to a Jewish community center, according to a recording from last month that was obtained by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, a news service.

Threatening calls are pouring in to switchboards of Jewish schools and community centers with alarming frequency. Although authorities said no bombs had been located so far, the threats were tying up bomb squads and detectives, terrifying children who have been repeatedly evacuated from their classrooms and prompting some worried parents to withdraw their children.

The latest rash of threats on Monday hit 20 Jewish institutions in Alabama, Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Virginia. It was the fifth round of similar threats that have come during the last two months, according to the Anti-Defamation League, which has counted 90 bomb threats this year...

Monday's bomb threats set nerves on edge coming on the heels of two separate incidents in Philadelphia and St. Louis where headstones in Jewish cemeteries were toppled...

Over the weekend, more than 100 tombstones were toppled in the Mt. Carmel Cemetery in Philadelphia. The vandalism was discovered Sunday morning by Aaron Mallin, a 36-year-old New Jersey accountant who arrived early to mark the anniversary of his father's death...

The extent of the damage suggests the attack was not simply the work of teenage pranksters, who frequently are blamed for toppling tombstones.

'Desecration of Jewish cemeteries goes back to the 19th century with the emergence of pogroms,' said Michael Meng, an associate professor of history at Clemson University who writes extensively about Jewish history..."