Washington, D.C. – Today, Rep. Terri A. Sewell (D-AL) released the following statement on recent anti-Semitic attacks and bomb threats to Jewish facilities nationally, as well as in Birmingham, AL:

“I am deeply disturbed by the threats against Jewish community centers in Birmingham and nationwide,” said Congresswoman Terri A. Sewell (D-AL). “These hate crimes will not be tolerated. Many of my constituents still remember the 1963 bombing at the 16^th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham that killed four young black girls. We cannot and will not let that kind of hate rock our community ever again. The families in my district reject anti-Semitism or discrimination against any religion or race, and we will call out and confront discrimination wherever it is present.”

On Feb. 23, Congresswoman Terri Sewell joined 157 members of Congress in a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), urging the agencies to swiftly assess the recent threats against Jewish community centers and to advise Congress on any steps which it can take to help counter those threats.

On Monday, the Birmingham police investigated a bomb threat at the Levite Jewish Community Center, the third bomb threat to the Community Center over the past month. According to the FBI’s Birmingham division, the FBI and the Justice Department’s Civil Rights division will investigate as part of a nationwide probe into threats against Jewish community centers.

In the first two months of 2017 alone, there have been more than 60 incidents targeting Jewish community centers nationwide. The bomb threat reported on Monday was the third to be reported this year against Birmingham’s Levite Jewish Community Center this year.  The first bomb threat happened Jan. 18 and then again on Feb. 20.

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