A day after it issued an alarming warning about a threat to synagogues in New Jersey, the FBI said it has identified the person behind it.
On Thursday afternoon, the FBI’s Newark office tweeted that it had “received credible information of a broad threat to synagogues in NJ.” Further details were not shared, but they asked the public to “take all security precautions to protect your community and facility.”
Antisemitic beliefs and conspiracy theories have at times inspired deadly violence against Jewish people, with several of the attacks being committed at synagogues. In October 2018, a man who railed against Jews online fatally shot 11 people at a synagogue in Pittsburgh. Less than a year later, a man who praised the Pittsburgh shooter in an online diatribe fatally shot a woman at a synagogue in Poway, California. And in recent weeks, antisemitism has trended on social media, as some of the biggest names in the country have spouted conspiracy theories and disturbing beliefs.
On Friday — just hours before the beginning of Shabbat, the Jewish holy day — the FBI said it had “identified the source of the threat,” who it said “no longer poses a danger to the community.”
“As always, we would like to remind the public, to remain vigilant and if they observe suspicious activity to report it to law enforcement immediately,” the FBI said.
In an email, a spokesperson for the FBI’s Newark office declined to comment to BuzzFeed News on whether the individual is in custody, or what it meant that he “no longer poses a danger to the community.”
The individual has not been publicly identified.
Source: https://www.buzzfeed.com/juliareinstein/fbi-new-jersey-synaogogue-threat-identified