The FBI’s Pittsburgh office is investigating violent threats made this week against religious schools and places of worship in Western Pennsylvania.
They included two threatening emails sent to a Catholic school and a handful of antisemitic online messages sent to members of the Jewish community in the city.
The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh has seen an increase in antisemitic comments and actions toward its members in recent years, said Shawn Brokos, the federation’s director of community security — a position created nearly two years before the Tree of Life synagogue shooting that killed 11 people in October 2018.
But a recent series of online threats generated enough concern to involve law enforcement.
Brokos said members of the federation — which supports about 60 Jewish nonprofits, day schools, community centers and synagogues in the Pittsburgh region — have received more than a handful of threats since April 11.
“They were clearly antisemitic and more graphic than we had seen in the past, so very disturbing for the recipient to read,” said Brokos, who worked 24 years in the FBI before her role at the federation.
Wendell Hissrich, director of safety and security for the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh, said the concerning emails sent to one of the Catholic schools were received one after another. He declined to name the school that received the threats, but he said parents were notified of the situation.
“They were obviously, by the verbiage, they were somewhat related, so the administrator was concerned enough to bring it to the authorities and the diocese,” said Hissrich, who began assembling a police force for the diocese in January.
The federation and the diocese notified local police and FBI of the threats. The diocese increased its security in the school impacted by the incident, Hissrich said. The federation aims to continue its regular safety training, Brokos said.
The FBI released a statement on social media Tuesday discussing the recent threats.
“The FBI is aware of numerous threats of violence communicated to schools and houses of worship over the last 48 hours,” the statement read. “While we have no information to indicate a specific and credible threat, we continue to partner with local law enforcement to investigate threat information as it comes to our attention.”
The statement encouraged the public to report suspicious activity by calling 911 or leaving a tip for the FBI by calling 1-800-CALL-FBI or visiting tips.fbi.gov.
The statement concluded saying the FBI has no further information to release. Calls seeking additional comment were not returned as of Friday afternoon.
Pittsburgh police are working with the FBI on the investigation, said public information officer Cara Cruz. She deferred to the FBI for further comment.
Within the past few years, Brokos said antisemitic emails and social media posts and verbal and physical assaults of Jewish people have been on the rise across the country. Pittsburgh is no exception, she said, particularly in light of the trial for Tree of Life shooter Robert Bowers, who was found guilty in June.
The onset of the Israel-Hamas war also has contributed to antisemitism, Brokos said. When the federation placed yard signs throughout Squirrel Hill reading “We Stand With Israel,” they were defaced with images of bloody handprints.
Brokos aims to empower the city’s Jewish community amid the recent threats.
“We have worked so hard and so long to protect our organizations and protect our community as best as possible, and we have great relationships with our community leaders, law enforcement,” Brokos said. “We are a resilient community and this is the time to celebrate our Jewish life — not to live in fear — knowing that we have done everything we can in our power to be as safe and secure as possible.”
The Diocese of Greensburg has not been the subject of any threats this week, said diocesan police Chief Ryan Maher.
“Federal and state agencies have kept us informed as the investigation progresses,” he said. “We have been in contact with our counterparts at the Diocese of Pittsburgh. We stand ready to assist in this investigation should the need arise.”
The Diocese of Greensburg launched its own police force in 2023. Each of the 12 schools in the diocese are patrolled by an armed police officer.
The Diocese of Pittsburgh hired four supervisors for its police force in January, Hissrich said. Seven officers were hired from then until February, and another officer was added to the ranks within the past two weeks.
The Pittsburgh diocese has 60 parishes and more than 100 churches across the six counties it covers. Its school system has 10 high schools and 35 middle and elementary schools.
The Pittsburgh diocese does not yet have enough police officers to staff each of its 10 high schools and 35 middle and elementary schools, Hissrich said.
“We’re not to the point where we have an officer in every school, but we do make sure that the officers are visible,” Hissrich said. “We make sure that they’re there at key times, and we also rely on the infrastructure within the schools and, of course, the vigilance of the teachers, administrators and even the students. If you see something, bring it to the attention of the administrators or the authorities.”
He plans to continue hiring for the force.
“The officers that we hire have to meet certain qualifications,” Hissrich said. “They’re all retired law enforcement officers, most of which have over 20 years’ experience, most of which have either been state troopers or municipal police officers. They know the area. They know the local law enforcement agencies that they’re responsible for.”
Prior to his hiring by the diocese, Hissrich was a paramedic, served 25 years in the FBI and worked six years as Pittsburgh’s public safety director.
The diocese created the police force partially because of hoax active shooter threats that led to evacuations and lockdowns across the state in March 2023, Hissrich said, including at Oakland and Central Catholic high schools.
“I think that that was an eye-opening experience, not only for the diocese, but for other school districts as well — where there was a rash of incidents basically forcing law enforcement officers to respond to schools thinking that there was an active shooter when, in fact, there wasn’t,” Hissrich said.
“Having officers in the schools, even if they aren’t in the schools full time, they’re able to liaison with the local police departments. If there is an incident, there’s that communication.”
Quincey Reese is a TribLive reporter covering the Greensburg and Hempfield areas. She also does reporting for the Penn-Trafford Star. A Penn Township native, she joined the Trib in 2023 after working as a Jim Borden Scholarship intern at the company for two summers. She can be reached at qreese@triblive.com.
