Federal law enforcement is on high alert for potential threats to the US Jewish community as Pesach approaches, FBI Director Christopher Wray said on Wednesday.

Speaking at an event hosted by the Secure Community Network, a Jewish community nonprofit safety and training organization, Wray expressed concern about lone actors targeting Jews over the Yom Tov.

“We at the bureau remain particularly concerned that lone actors could target large gatherings, high-profile events, or symbolic or religious locations for violence – particularly a concern, of course, as we look to the start of Passover on Monday evening,” Wray said.

Wray noted that threats to the US Jewish community had already been elevated before Hamas’ October 7 terrorist attack on Israel, but the number of FBI hate crime cases tripled in the wake of the incident.

“Between October 7 and January 30 of this year, we opened over three times more anti-Jewish hate crime investigations than in the four months before October 7,” he said.

The FBI is also observing a range of threats from abroad, including calls by global terrorist groups to target Jewish communities in the United States and Europe.

“We’ve seen – since October 7 – a rogues’ gallery of foreign terrorist organizations call for attacks against the United States and our allies,” Wray said.

Wray also warned of state-sponsored threats, particularly from Iran. “After the last few days, in particular, the threat posed by Iran itself is very real,” he said, urging all partners to “stay vigilant” against potential threats that may emerge from Iran or its proxies.

The warnings come as the Anti-Defamation League released an audit showing a dramatic upward trend of incidents after the start of the Israel-Hamas war, with 5,204 incidents reported between October 7 and December 31. The ADL tracked 8,873 antisemitic incidents in the United States in 2023 – the highest number of incidents reported since the organization began tracking data in 1979.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)