Bomb Threat Forces Evacuation Of North Side Jewish School

CHICAGO, IL — A North Side Jewish school was evacuated after a bomb threat was phoned in Tuesday morning, according to the Chicago Tribune. But Chicago police and K-9 units found nothing during a building search, and students were allowed to return to class, the report added.

Chicago police said the Chicago Jewish Day School, 5959 N. Sheridan Road, received the threat at about 9:10 a.m. Tuesday, March 7, the report stated.

Police also were blocking off parts of Sheridan Road near the school in the Edgewater neighborhood , according to one online report. According to the Tribune, Sheridan was closed from Hollywood to Granville, and ABC 7 Chicago reports parts of North Broadway were were shut down.

CPD officers and K-9 units searched the building, and an all-clear signal was given by authorities just before 11 a.m., and students were allowed to return to class, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.

U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-9th District), whose congressional district includes a large chunk of Chicago's North Side along Lake Michigan, responded to the phoned-in threat to the school:

“The latest instance of anti-Semitic ‘telephone terrorism’ was committed this morning, targeting a Jewish day school not too far from my district office. I am monitoring the situation closely and offer my full support to the community during this troubling time. I will support law enforcement in their investigation, and hope that justice will brought swiftly to the perpetrator of this heinous act. Anti-Semitism, in all of its ugly forms, is unacceptable and has no place in our country today.”

Opened in 2003, Chicago Jewish Day School is multi-denominational, progressive Jewish day school with an enrollment of more than 200 students from kindergarten to eighth grade.

RELATED: Jewish Community Centers Targeted Again In Another Round Of Threats

Jewish community centers in three other states also were targeted with bomb threats Tuesday, including a center in Milwaukee. Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, said four of the Jewish group's offices in Atlanta, Boston, New York and Washington, D.C., also received bomb threats Tuesday.

"This is not 'normal'," he said in a statement. "We will not be deterred or intimidated. … It is time for action, and we call on the Administration and Congress to take concrete steps to catch those threatening the Jewish community."

Since the beginning of the year, more than 100 bomb threats have been made against Jewish centers, schools and synagogues across the country. Last week, Juan Thompson, a former journalist who briefly worked as an intern in Chicago, was arrested by federal authorities and accused of making at least eight threats against Jewish organizations.

More via the Chicago Tribune

Patch will continue to update this story.

UPDATED (11:57 a.m. Tuesday, March 7)

Chicago Jewish Day School (photo via Google Earth)

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