An Oregon man admitted in federal court on Wednesday to making bomb threats targeting Jewish hospitals in Queens and Long Island, JNS reported.
According to the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, Domagoj Patkovic, 31, made six separate phone calls beginning in May 2021 to Jewish hospitals and care centers in New York, during which he issued violent threats, including threats to detonate explosives.
John Durham, US attorney for the Eastern District of New York, condemned Patkovic’s actions, stating, “intentionally targeted Jewish hospitals and care centers in our district with bomb threats. In doing so, he needlessly endangered patients and staff and diverted critical law enforcement resources from their core mission of keeping our community safe.”
“We will prosecute dangerous bomb threats and swatting schemes to the fullest extent of the law,” he added.
In September 2021, one of Patkovic’s threats—later determined to be a hoax—led to a partial evacuation and lockdown of an entire hospital on Long Island. Authorities found no explosives at any of the reported locations.
Jessica Anderson, regional security adviser for the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland, told JNS that while Patkovic was not charged with a hate crime, the Jewish community views his actions as antisemitic.
“For Jews hearing and responding to this type of incident, there is no change to how it’s interpreted. It’s an antisemitic act, and it feels like that for Jews,” she said. “The legal process, though, can be constrained by how it’s able to view facts or how it decides what is provable and what’s not.”
Anderson also emphasized that this case serves as a reminder for the Jewish community to continue prioritizing security—an issue that existed even before the sharp rise in threats observed in the US since October 7, 2023.
“The numbers of antisemitic acts per year have been increasing since well before 2021, and although we’ve seen a steeper increase in the past year, this is really just a continuation of an already existing trend that is not lost on anyone in the Jewish community,” she told JNS.
“Frankly, we expect it to continue,” Anderson added. “We all know that there are many antisemitic acts that go unsolved, and I do think it is important for the Jewish community to see that people who are doing these acts are being held accountable.”
