Northeast Florida synagogues on alert, reviewing security after Colorado flamethrower attack
A violent hate crime hundreds of miles away has faith leaders in Northeast Florida on high alert.
On Sunday, federal agents say 45-year-old Mohammed Soliman used a homemade flamethrower to attack a Jewish group in Boulder, Colorado, injuring eight people.
The group had gathered for a weekly demonstration supporting the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza. According to the FBI, Soliman shouted 'Free Palestine' during the assault, later confessed, and said he would do it again.
The attack triggered immediate concern at Temple Bet Yam in St. Augustine, where security is already a top priority.
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'We got the alert this morning and shared it with our board right away,' Temple President Teresa Freedman said. 'We take every incident seriously—even when it's hundreds of miles away.'
Temple Bet Yam is part of a network that includes a former FBI agent who monitors threats and distributes real-time alerts to synagogues across Northeast Florida.
'Every synagogue in Northeast Florida is looped in,' Freedman said. 'We all get the same alerts, the same briefings—and we act fast when needed.'
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Though she said recent bomb threats to local Jewish organizations haven't resulted in violence, Freedman isn't taking any chances. The temple is equipped with indoor and outdoor security cameras and holds events only when armed guards are present.
'We just held a drill during a community gathering to test our emergency plan,' Freedman said. 'We may be small, but we're not unprotected. We've done everything we can to keep our members safe.'
Temple officials say they will continue evaluating and adjusting security measures as national threats evolve.
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Yahoo
39 minutes ago
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As with others on the list, including Iran, the country is further accused of not co-operating with the US to accept deported Burmese nationals. For each of these countries, the first allegation made by Trump is that they have questionable competence at issuing passports and civil documents. Eritrea and Sudan are further accused of having relatively high visa overstay rates. Eritrea is also blamed for failing to make the criminal records of its national available to the US, and of refusing to accept deported nationals. As with Somalia, Yemen is also accused of lacking control over its own land. Trump's proclamation highlights that it is the site of active US military operations. The US has been combating Houthis, who have seized much of the north and west of the country during an ongoing civil war. People from seven other nations face partial restrictions: Venezuela is accused of lacking a "competent or co-operative" central authority for issuing passports and similar documents. Allegations of visa overstays and a refusal to accept deportees are again mentioned. In response, the South American country has described the Trump administration as "supremacists who think they own the world" Cuba is labelled as another "state sponsor of terrorism" - a designation that was made by the US in 2021, and condemned by Havana. An alleged refusal to accept deportees is also mentioned, as are visa overstays Visa overstays are again presented as the key issue in the cases of Burundi, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo and Turkmenistan
