Bomb threats target houses of worship throughout New Jersey, police say

🔵 Hopewell house of worship was evacuated Sunday

🔵 A bomb threat had been sent via email

🔵 The same threat was sent to other houses of worship

HOPEWELL TOWNSHIP (Mercer) — An email threatening to detonate bombs hidden in a house of worship in this Mercer County town has also been sent to other houses of worship throughout New Jersey and the country.

The Hopewell Township police said a local house of worship received an email containing the threat around 9:45 a.m. Sunday morning.

"In order to preserve the safety of the facility, we are not providing the name or address," Hopewell police Lt. Louis Vastola said to New Jersey 101.5.

It said there were "multiple explosives" in the building and they would detonate in a few hours, police said. There were people inside the building when a spiritual leader received the message.

Officers, with help from Pennington police and fire, evacuated the house of worship.

A K-9 dog was used to clear the building. No explosives were found.

Bomb threat sent throughout New Jersey

Investigators found the same email threat had been sent to multiple houses of worship throughout New Jersey, police said.

Police said the threat did not appear credible and there was no specific connection to Hopewell.

Several synagogues throughout New Jersey were also targeted with similar hoax incidents involving bomb threats. The FBI found none of those threats were credible either.

"The FBI is aware of the numerous hoax incidents involving bomb threats being made at synagogues. We take hoax threats very seriously because it puts innocent people at risk," Thoreson said.

Federal and state agencies are investigating the matter with the Hopewell Township police.

New Jersey 101.5 has contacted the Hopewell Township police, Mercer County Prosecutor's Office, and U.S. Attorney's Office in New Jersey for more information.

Synagogues in Maine, Georgia get email threats

Hopewell Township police said the same threats may have been sent throughout the country.

Similar evacuations at Jewish temples throughout the Atlanta metropolitan area in Georgia took police Sunday morning, reported WSB-TV.

A religious class at a synagogue in South Portland, Maine was cut short when the building was evacuated for a threat emailed to the organization Sunday morning, reported WABI-TV.

The threats come just days after more than a dozen synagogues throughout the greater Philadelphia area including Montgomery, Chester, Delaware, Bucks, and Berks counties received email threats prompting evacuations on Thursday, the last day of Hanukkah.

Increase in threats against Jewish communities

Since the Oct. 7 surprise attacks by Hamas on Israel, there has been a nearly 400% increase in antisemitic threats including bomb threats and similar threats nationwide, according to Rabbi David Levy, the regional director of the New Jersey chapter of the American Jewish Committee.

"Well before this recent increase in antisemitism, one in four Jews said that they were altering what they were doing or were staying away from places because of fear. Bomb threats toward synagogues create the kind of fear that would keep Jews away from their own communities," Levy said.

The rabbi said he, like the rest of the public, was waiting to find out from the police who sent the threats.

"They're ugly people. That's all I can say. They're ugly, hateful people," Levy said of whoever was behind the emails.

It's unclear which, if any, of the threats could be connected to the threats received in New Jersey on Sunday.

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