NYPD Reports Bomb Threats and Fake Grenades at NYC Jewish Sites Amid Ongoing Gaza Conflict

Reported bombs at separate Jewish sites caused alarm on Saturday and prompted an NYPD response as anti-Semitic incidents sparked by the war in Gaza continue to rise, police said. First, police were called to Holocaust Memorial Park on West End Ave. in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, just before 10 a.m. when someone walking through the park found a grenade among the markers dedicated to Jews killed during the Nazi regime. The NYPD Bomb Squad was called and ultimately cleared the scene after the grenade was found to be inert, an NYPD spokesman said. No one was injured and no arrests were made. Less than an hour later, someone texted 911, claiming that he had left two backpacks filled with pipe bombs inside Central Synagogue on Lexington Ave. near E. 54th St. in Midtown. Cops responded to the scene, but found nothing, cops said. The synagogue wasn’t evacuated. The two incidents came as hate crimes against Jews in the city have nearly tripled during the month-long war in Israel. Since Oct. 7, when a series of sneak attacks on Israeli communities near Gaza sparked the ongoing conflict, the NYPD has investigated 82 anti-Semitic incidents, 31 more than the previous year. That’s a jump of 164%, cops said. There have also been eight hate crimes against Muslims. This time last year there were none, cops said. Throughout October, 69 anti-Semitic incidents were reported in the city, compared to 22 in October 2022 — a 214% increase, officials said. Blowback from the war in Israel is a daily concern for Jewish New Yorkers, Bob Moskovitz, executive coordinator of the Flatbush Shomrim Safety Patrol in Brooklyn, told the Daily News Wednesday. “We’re feeling it 100%,” Moskovitz said of the uptick in hate crimes. “Our hotline, which the community utilizes to report any incident has probably increased in this last month and a half by 300%. The phone is simply not stopping.”