Case Closed

On the one hand, it is very good news to learn that authorities have identified a young man in Israel responsible for calling in bomb threats to Jewish Community Centers in America. The young man, apparently, is eighteen years old and suffers from some serious mental illness.

Once identified, the relief was palpable throughout the Jewish American community and authorities in the United States tasked with stopping the huge increase in anti-Semitic crimes since the Trump election. The number of such crimes, at last count, was well over 150 in about an eight to nine week period.

While anti-Semitic crimes have always, regrettably, been greater in number in America than crimes against any other group, the greatly increased number of such recent crimes put a lot of pressure on police. The identification of the young man responsible for some of the called-in bomb threats was a major news item and has, it seems, now put the issue to rest. Case closed.

But not so fast. While, as we are told, the Israeli boy may have been responsible for calls to Jewish Community Centers, he certainly could not have had anything to do with any of the many physical acts desecrating the Jewish cemeteries in America where tombstones were destroyed and toppled – reminiscent of Holocaust days. The young man was a computer expert, but he could not have also been a wizard capable of living in Israel and causing great destruction of cemeteries in America.

It is unconscionable that everyone has simply moved on to other concerns. The arrest of the boy in Israel cannot be allowed to close the book on the recent and significant up-tick of crimes against Jews in America.

The case should not be closed.