To my Gentile (non-Jewish) friends

You may not be aware of this, although I hope you are.

Today was the sixth wave of bomb threats to Jewish community centers, schools, and synagogues in the United States and Canada since early January. These centers are receiving explicitly antisemitic threats - these are not random calls.

Since then, I have heard from about ten friends from all over the United States and Canada who have personally experienced these bomb threats. One non-Jewish friend posted because she had been swimming at her local JCC - she had to get out of the pool and evacuate the building along with everyone else. Today, a Jewish friend wrote about how the school her child goes to was evacuated because of a bomb threat - she is one of several friends whose children had to be evacuated. A former student of mine from Vassar, who is now a rabbi, wrote today that his synagogue had received one of these bomb threats. A friend of mine in Massachusetts, also a rabbi, wrote earlier this month that her local JCC had received a bomb threat.

These bomb threats touch many Jews (and non-Jews, because JCCs accept members of any religion), like myself, who don't even belong to a JCC or send a child to a Jewish school, because we know people who experienced this.

Try to imagine how you would feel if the school your children went to had received targeted bomb threats, because of the kind of school they went to. Try to imagine how it would feel if the YMCA you regularly went to was targeted by bomb threats because it was, specifically, a YMCA. Try to imagine if your church (if you go to church) was specifically targeted because it was a place of worship for Christians.

Please reach out to your Jewish friends or relatives, and let them know that you have heard about these threats, and that you care about them and want them to be safe. Let them know that you too oppose antisemitism. They will appreciate it.