Boy, 13, Accused of Plotting Mass Shooting at Ohio Synagogue

A 13-year-old boy has been charged after sharing plans on social media detailing a mass shooting that targeted an Ohio synagogue, authorities said.

The teen, who has not been identified due to his age, is accused of plotting an attack on Temple Israel in Canton and has been charged with two misdemeanors, inducing panic and disorderly conduct, according to court documents filed with the Stark County Family Court Juvenile Division. His trial is set for December 20, according to local media.

The 13-year-old created a “detailed plan to complete a mass shooting” at the synagogue and posted it on the social media and messaging platform Discord, the court documents said.

Newsweek reached out via email on Wednesday to representatives of the Stark County Sheriff’s Office and Temple Israel for comment.

Candles and the Star of David are pictured at a synagogue on November 8, 2023, in Cologne, Germany. An Ohio teen is facing charges after planning a mass shooting at a local synagogue, authorities said.
Lukas Schulze/Getty

Law enforcement received a report of the incident that took place on or around September 1, sparking an investigation. The threat prompted “public individuals and agencies including the school system” to be notified, according to the complaint, which was shared online by local station WKYC.

Hate crimes against the Jewish community have dramatically increased in the past two months, according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), an advocacy group that frequently speaks out against antisemitism and extremism.

Since Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel and subsequent beginning of the Israel-Hamas war, the ADL has tracked more than 2,000 acts of antisemitism in the United States.

From that day to December 7, the ADL recorded a total of 2,031 antisemitic incidents, up from 465 during the same period in 2022, the advocacy group said in a statement shared Tuesday. The spike of more than 330 percent includes 40 reports of physical assault, 337 of vandalism, 749 of verbal or written harassment and more than 900 rallies featuring antisemitic rhetoric or “expressions of support for terrorism against the state of Israel,” the ADL said.

“On average, over the last 61 days, Jews in America experienced nearly 34 antisemitic incidents per day,” the anti-hate organization states.

Last week in Albany, New York, the state capital, a man was arrested, accused of hurling threats while firing a shotgun outside a synagogue when dozens of children were inside, police said. No one was harmed and police apprehended Mufid Fawaz Alkhader, 28, who told authorities that “events in the Middle East have impacted him,” according to police.

The ADL previously told Newsweek in an email that the result of the conflict in the Middle East is “a surge in antisemitism unlike any we’ve ever seen since as long as ADL has tracked antisemitic incidents.”

The anti-hate organization said it is important to note that historically anti-Muslim hate also rises during similar times of crisis in the region.

The war has inflamed tensions, causing Jewish and Muslim families across the world to deal with the fallout. A week after the Hamas attack that killed at least 1,200 Israelis and led to the deaths of more than 18,000 Palestinians from Israeli counterstrikes, an Illinois landlord was charged with a hate crime in an attack on his Muslim tenants. The landlord fatally stabbed a 6-year-old boy and injured the child’s mother because he was upset about the Israel-Hamas conflict, the local sheriff’s office said.

Last month, three Palestinian-American students in Vermont were injured in a shooting. While it is unclear if the shooting was a targeted hate crime, authorities noted that at least two of the men were wearing keffiyehs, a Palestinian headdress.

“While it’s understandable that people have strong opinions on the war between Israel and Hamas, there is simply no excuse for antisemitic harassment, assaults and vandalism, especially on our nation’s campuses, just as there is no excuse for acts of anti-Muslim bigotry,” the ADL said. “America is better than this.”