Brooklyn Jewish Children’s Museum evacuated after bomb threat

An email to the Jewish Children’s Museum in Crown Heights claiming there were several pipe bombs hidden in the building prompted an evacuation and three-hour police search Thursday morning.

The email claimed that a museum staffer had helped plant the bombs, and that the writer had a change of heart and was therefore providing the warning, reported the Daily News.

No bombs were discovered in the exhaustive search at the Crown Heights museum, which was built in honor of a Jewish teen killed by a terrorist on the Brooklyn Bridge in 1994.

Both Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo went to the museum to denounce the act of terror, one of many bomb threats and acts of vandalism that have plagued the New York Jewish community in recent weeks and account for a113percent increase in anti-Semitic acts from last year.

On March 7, a wave of bomb threats targeted Anti-Defamation League headquarters in several states and in New York.

“This is one of the cruelest ironies yet in this rash of anti-Semitism that we’ve been experiencing,” the governor said outside the building. “This is a museum that is a monument to tolerance.”

During an impromptu visit to Israel last week, Gov. Cuomo pledged $25 million for a statewide effort and special state police unit to boost security at Jewish schools and daycare centers.

To supplement the state funding, this week members ofCity Councilare asking the city to match that amount with a $25 million grant to ramp up security for Jewish, Muslim and other community institutions.

“Though there are state and federal programs to enhance security for at-risk schools and daycare centers, our city’s community centers and cultural institutions…Investing in the safety and security of these institutions is vital to protecting the values we share as New Yorkers,” Council Member Mark Levine, chair of the Jewish caucus, stated in a news release Thursday.

“The security grant program will be an essential resource to keep New Yorkers safe,” said Council Member Rory Lancman who is helping to spearhead the proposal.

The mayor chimed in while en route to the museum as the bomb search continued.

“NYPD is investigating the threat at the Jewish Children’s Museum. We take every threat seriously. New York City stands united against hate,” he wrote.

The mayor’s office did not respond to Metro’s request for a comment on the council’s $25 million grant request.