Jewish community center in St. Louis Park evacuated after bomb threat

Updated: 4:06 p.m. | Posted: 12:53 p.m.

A Jewish community center in St. Louis Park is the latest in a string of Jewish centers that have been targeted by bomb threats in the United States and Britain in the last few weeks.

St. Louis Park police say the bomb threat was called into the Sabes JCC on Cedar Lake Road at 10:03 a.m. Wednesday, leading to evacuations of its daycare, school and other facilities. Police said Wednesday afternoon that they inspected the building and found nothing of concern.

Arielle Kaufman, who has two children who go to school and daycare at the center, came to get them shortly after the school told parents about the threat.

"It's a really scary day, but people just did an amazing job and to come and see your kids so comfortable and to help them understand what happened and why and how we can make it a safe experience for everyone," she said. "Unfortunately, it's the world we live in."

Children were taken off campus for pickup and reunited with their parents, police said.

Anthony Sussman is the director of security and communications for the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas. He said several JCCs across the east coast — including New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Florida, Massachusetts and Maine — received similar calls this morning.

He said the Sabes JCC acted quickly when the threat came in.

"Leadership at the JCC locally showed tremendous poise in responding to this incident," he said. "And the Sabes JCC and Barry Family Campus were safely evacuated this morning."

He said his organization, as well as JCCs throughout the Midwest, are closely monitoring this string of targeted bomb threats.