Hundreds of bomb threats have been called into Jewish centers across the country. Now Southwest Florida Jewish leaders say more people need to condemn this wave of anti-Semitic events.
In December the community came together to support Temple Shalom in Naples after it was vandalized. "With a simple message of there is no us in them, there's only us, and that kind of response is what tamps down anti-Semitism," said Rabbi Miller.
Miller wants community leaders and elected officials, including President Trump to speak out loudly against a rash of bomb threats and vandalism at Jewish centers and cemeteries over the past few weeks.
"To stand up and let people know that this is not something they will accept here in our nation, and their leaders do that, people will take their cues from them," said Miller.
None of these bomb threats have been carried out an no one has been hurt in these incidents, but the Jewish federation of Collier County the people behind these threats have been successful.
"It is a terror attack in that way, in that it is creating a fear both within the Jewish community and in the general community," said the federation's director Jeffrey Feld.
Miller says he hasn't seen a decrease in attendance at Temple Shalom services because of these crimes around the country.
But he says anti-Semitism no matter where it happens, doesn't just hurt the Jewish community.
"Unfortunately anti-Semitism can be the canary in the coal mine and that it can be the pre-cursor to other kinds of racism against other groups."
