After last week's apparent terror plot involving explosives-filled packages being shipped via UPS and FedEx to Chicago synagogues (officials believe the explosives were meant to detonate mid-air), Jews in New York City are worried all over again. State Assemblyman Dov Hikind told WCBS 2, "When something like this happens, it’s an awakening call to all of us saying the threat of radical Islam is not over, and will not be over, and we’ve got to be on alert all the time."
He added, "I told my staff, my wife is the head of a Jewish organization, I told her on Friday, I said ‘Don’t open anything. Be extra careful, because that’s the reality of life. That’s the world we’re living in, we’re living in a world where there are enemies of America that want to kill us." While it's been reported that fancy condo, 15 Central Park West, whose residents include Goldman Sachs chair Lloyd Blankfein and Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez, has halted deliveries, a UPS deliveryman told 1010 WINS he wasn't having issues delivering there.
Security was heightened around local synagogues over the weekend A worshipper at Chabad Lubavitch in Crown Heights, Brooklyn told Vos Iz Neias, "It’s always related to a Jewish organization... The threat is alive and well. I’m not gonna say I’m used to it, but anything can happen anytime, anywhere. We hope and pray that law enforcement takes it seriously. It’s a different world now," while an Upper East Side congregant of the Fifth Avenue Synagogue said, "It’s a sad state of affairs not just for synagogues, but for the world today. Everybody has to be on heightened alert as Americans."
NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said, "Our counterterrorism coverage will continue to include coverage of synagogues, at least for the next few days. Although I want to emphasize that there’s nothing to suggest New York is being targeted in this instance."
