Bomb fear proves unfounded

Police and fire personnel responded with the utmost caution to investigate an abandoned suitcase left in front of the Ohel Torah Synagogue Tuesday. Photo by Karsten Moran

By N. Clark Judd

The police activity that caused a brief stir on Independence Avenue late Tuesday morning turned out to be a response to an empty threat.

Congregants at Congregation Torah V’Chesed Nanash on West 239th Street, also called the Riverdale Schteeble, called the police when they noticed an unattended suitcase on the street not far from their synagogue.

Police and firefighters cordoned off the synagogue’s block of West 239th Street between Independence and Blackstone avenues as a precaution, treated the suitcase as a suspicious package, and called in the bomb squad.

When police finally cut open the suitcase, they found it completely empty — likely left unattended because it had been discarded.

Onlookers who watched law enforcement officials work seemed more curious than afraid, pausing as they walked their dogs. One congregant from the Schteeble prayed quietly. Several people said they hoped and believed they were at the scene of a false alarm.

Capt. John D’Adamo, the commander of the local 50th Precinct, said at the scene that police were obliged to take every potential threat seriously.

“You’re always cautious,” said James Adelson, a member of the Schteeble. “We live in a strange world.”

The congregation’s rabbi declined to be quoted.

The commotion on West 239th Street comes nearly two months after four men were arrested just a few blocks away, between Riverdale Temple and Riverdale Jewish Center on Independence Avenue, and accused of attempting to detonate explosives in front of both institutions as well as fire surface-to-air missiles at military planes on a Newburgh, N.Y. Air National Guard base.

This is part of the July 9, 2009 online edition of The Riverdale Press.

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