FBI agents. Photo: Wiki Commons.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is working with law enforcement agencies to identify those responsible for a series of swatting incidents targeting Jewish institutions in recent weeks.

Swatting is a form of criminal harassment that involves falsely reporting a crime or emergency with the intention of triggering an aggressive response — often involving a SWAT team — from law enforcement. The idea is to use the hoax emergency calls to harass and intimidate a target.

The recent, ongoing wave of swattings — at least 26 across 12 states — mostly struck synagogues that livestream their services and, in some cases, caused interruptions of prayer. The most recent incident took place on Wednesday, when members of the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta were forced to evacuate the building after law enforcement told them a bomb would detonate in 20 minutes.

Two other swattings occurred late last week in California, with police evacuating members of Beth Torah Jewish Temple in Fremont and Temple Beth Tikvah in Fullerton.

“We continue to investigate and work with law enforcement on finding the people who are responsible,” Oren Segal, vice president of the ADL’s Center on Extremism, told The Algemeiner, noting the incidents have created panic in Jewish communities across the US.

“Swatting is tended to create fear and anxiety in communities as they’re carrying on their everyday activities,” he continued. “There have been times when law enforcement has been able to come in and respond to the threat as they need to do without creating panic and doing it calmly. There have been times, though, when institutions have to be evacuated, and anybody who has had to experience that knows how alarming it can be. People don’t know what’s going on — whether it’s real or fake.”

Segal explained that a sense of confusion and danger isn’t only shared by congregants who are physically inside of a facility that has been targeted. Worshipers viewing services online witness what transpires, too, and they have no way of knowing what is going on.

“Imagine the alarm that people who are watching may feel,” he said. “And that’s why so many of these institution have been targeted: they’re livestreaming their services.”

Swatting is a growing problem that has even caused fatalities. In April 2020, Mark Herring, 60, fell and dropped dead of a heart attack outside his home in Tennessee when police arrived on the scene and aimed their guns at him. Law enforcement had been told that a woman was shot inside his house and that pipebombs would detonate should they attempt to enter the front or back doors.

“I can only say that swatting hoaxes, while upsetting, should not prevent Jewish worshipers from returning to in-person prayer in the post-pandemic world,” Rabbi Mati Kirschenbaum of Temple Beth Tikvah in Fullerton told The Algemeiner. “I am grateful to our local police department and other institutions for their swift reaction. I am also blessed to serve a congregation with strong ties to the local community, which offered us their solidarity and support.”

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.