SEATTLE, Wash. — For the second time in a week, a suspicious package containing white powder was delivered to Tempe De Hirsch Sinai in Seattle.
“That is patently an act of antisemitism and is something that is all too common today,” Rabbi Daniel Weiner said. “Words and language and rhetoric, particularly toxic rhetoric has consequences and has implications.”
These incidents are the latest in several examples where letters or packages with white powder have been delivered to election headquarters and Jewish organizations.
“We are both concerned by these threats and these potential attacks, and we are doing everything we can to ensure that our community is safe,” Weiner said.
Hazmat crews from Seattle Fire responded to Thursday’s incident. Crews tested the powder and determined it was not hazardous. Seattle Police said the package was being submitted into evidence.
The FBI told KIRO 7 they are aware of these incidents but that there is no threat to the public. Weiner said these acts of Jewish hate are related to the war between Israel and Hamas.
“We are doubling down on our insistence that we will not allow that kind of intimidation or that kind of terrorism to impact our ability to live our lives and express our identity the way that we need to,” he said. Now, he said the Jewish community needs to know they have support and are not alone.
“As individuals or as communal organizations to reach out to Jewish people and Jewish organizations to reaffirm their support of our free and unfettered comfortable existence,” he said. “That rhetoric is having significant consequences and blowback here in Seattle and the United States and in the world more generally.”
©2023 Cox Media Group
