Cleveland, OH – Temple Israel Ner Tamid received a threatening phone call Nov. 3 during its Shabbat service and filed an incident report with the Mayfield Heights Police Department, which is investigating the incident.
Jeff Fine, president of TINT, told the Cleveland Jewish News on Nov. 6 the call came into the temple’s office and “it was an extremely threatening message.” The temple responded by reporting the call to the Mayfield Heights Police Department and the Jewish Federation of Cleveland.
“If this was an attempt for swatting, which we know is happening these days, we did not react in that way,” Fine said, as swatting is a fake call in an attempt to bring a large number of police officers to one address. “Our security even immediately went into action. We allowed the service to continue and the police did an outdoor sweep of the building and so forth and determined we could continue to do that.”
JFC Security, LLC is the community-wide security provide for the Federation led by its director Jim Hartnett.
“We were promptly notified of the threatening phone call placed to Temple Israel Ner Tamid on Friday night and immediately dispatched two JFC Security officers to help support the local law enforcement already on site,” Hartnett wrote to the CJN in a Nov. 6 email to the CJN. “Thanks to the swift and immediate response by the Mayfield Heights Police Department, which was able to confirm the call was a hoax, services were able to be held as planned and without further disruption.”
According to the dispatch call log, the police department received a call at 7:55 p.m. Nov. 3 and requested extra patrol until services ended, with extra units standing by.
“The Mayfield Heights Police Department is committed to the safety of the residents and visitors of our city,” Police Chief Anthony Mele wrote in a Nov. 6 email to the CJN. “Our department is keenly aware of the heightened threat to the Jewish Community. We continue to work in collaboration with the Jewish Federation and federal agencies in a effort to ensure their safety.”
Congregants were not informed of the incident at the time, but a letter and email was sent on Nov. 5. The temple has been working with the Federation and police department, which have both extended extra police patrols as a security measure.
“Mayfield Heights takes very good care of us since we’re the only synagogue in the area,” Fine said.
