Pittsburgh Jews rally around church after jihadi bomb plot

JTA — Pittsburgh’s Jewish community has rallied around a church in the city after the FBI arrested a man it said was a Syrian supporter of Islamic State who was allegedly planning to bomb it.

The Rev. Michael Anthony Day of the Legacy International Worship Center said at a service Sunday that the first call he received after learning of the would-be attack was from Rabbi Ron Symons, senior director of Jewish Life at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.

“He said, ‘Where are you?’ I said, ‘I’m on my way to my fourth interview,’” Day recalled. “He said, ‘Well, I need to find you. I just need to give you a hug.’”

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Members of the Jewish community attended the Sunday service in solidarity with the church, according to local reports. They were joined by members of the Muslim community and leaders of other local churches.

A menorah is tested outside the Tree of Life Synagogue in preparation for a celebration service at sundown on the first night of Hanukkah, December 2, 2018, in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh. A gunman shot and killed 11 people while they worshiped at the synagogue on October 27, 2018 at the temple. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Federal authorities on Wednesday arrested Mustafa Mousab Alowemer, 21, of suburban Pittsburgh, on charges of plotting to bomb the church in support of the Islamic State.

The religious communities in Pittsburgh rallied around the local Jewish community following the October 27, 2018, attack on the Tree of Life synagogue building by a white supremacist that left 11 worshipers dead.