Police evacuated the Albany Jewish Community Center on Sunday afternoon after an email containing a bomb threat was sent to someone connected to the JCC earlier in the day, ABC News 10 reported.
Law enforcement officers conducted a thorough search of the building and the day care center next to it and determined that there were not any threatening devices there.
The Albany JCC said the center would remain closed for the rest of the day.
In response to the threat, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo tweeted that New York has “zero tolerance for anti-Semitism — we won't let hate & fear win.”
He also arrived at the scene to offer his support and condemn the threat, saying that there had been more than 40 anti-Semitic incidents in the state in the past couple of months, according to CNN.
Cuomo added that there were about 100 people inside the JCC when the threat was received, according to the New York Daily News.
“The way people worry about the coronavirus, which we’re watching in this state, there’s also a virus of hate and it’s spreading," the governor said. "Unfortunately, this state has also been infected.”
Cuomo said a probe is under way in an attempt to trace the email, which was sent to accounts associated with JCCs nationwide but did not mention any of them specifically, the Times Union reported.
Due to the increase in anti-Semitic incidents, Attorney General William Barr vowed last month that the Justice Department would get involved in fighting such hatred, according to CNN.
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.