San Antonio Jewish community urged to stay ‘vigilant, aware’ after FBI lifts alert
Security warning sees community events, services canceled Saturday; federation says there’s no longer a ‘known imminent threat’
The FBI issued an alert on Saturday against a potential threat to a Jewish facility in San Antonio, Texas, causing the Jewish Federation of San Antonio to cancel all public events, before lifting the warning after several hours.
The federation said Jewish services and events in the city and its environs would be suspended Saturday afternoon, later issuing an update on Facebook saying the FBI said there was no longer a “known imminent threat” to the San Antonio area Jewish community.
The federation urged people to stay “vigilant and aware” of their surroundings.
The FBI told the Jewish federation earlier in the day that there was a “potential threat to an unconfirmed Jewish facility in the San Antonio area,” possibly a synagogue, and that the agency was investigating the credibility of the threat.
“We are working to determine the credibility of the threat and sharing information with our law enforcement partners and our partners in the Jewish community,” the FBI said in a statement according to CNN.
In a statement following the FBI alert, the Federation said: “In an abundance of caution, we are taking all appropriate steps to ensure the safety of the community. After communicating with all local synagogues and organizations, it was recommended that all formal Jewish gatherings be suspended until further notice.”
The city’s Temple Beth-El, the oldest synagogue in San Antonio, said on Facebook that Shabbat services would be canceled for the day following the alert.
FBI Director Christopher Wray told CNN on Friday that the agency was “working more and more closely than ever all across the country because we recognize that they are increasingly the targets of violent extremism from all manner of views and ideologies, and it’s gotta stop,” he said.
“We’re not going to tolerate it and we’re going to stand with the Jewish community,” he added.
Texas experienced an attack on a synagogue earlier this year when a man entered Congregation Beth Israel in the Dallas-area suburb of Colleyville on January 15 and held the synagogue’s rabbi and three others hostage for several hours.
Malik Faisal Akram, a 44-year-old British citizen, demanded the release of a Pakistani woman imprisoned nearby on charges of trying to kill American service members in Afghanistan.
A 10-hour standoff ended with the hostages escaping and an FBI tactical team rushing in and shooting Akram dead.
The Times of Israel Community.