The head of one of the region’s leading Jewish groups said on Monday that the recent uptick in the number of anti-Semitic incidents in the Western Pennsylvania has not included the types of threats and vandalism reported else where.

The director of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh's Community Relations Council ‘Joshua Sayles’ said "That's the silver lining, if you can call it that,"
About 52,000 Jewish people live in the Pittsburgh metro area.

More than 100 headstones at a Jewish cemetery in Philadelphia were vandalized over the weekend, less than a week after a similar vandalism in Missouri.

According to the Jewish Community Center Association of North America on Monday, bomb threats resulted evacuation of Jewish community centers and schools in at least 11 states across the country, including in York and Harrisburg.

Sayles said that local incidents in a past few months consisted mostly anti-Semitic comments and threats among students and graffiti posted in area schools

"In a normal year, I'll have one or two (anti-Semitic) incidents that I'm dealing with at any given time, if any at all. Right now, I have seven or eight," Sayles said.

Public officials have condemned the recent attacks.

In a statement Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf said that any anti-Semetic act or act of intimidation aimed at the Jewish community in the state is truly reprehensible. He said that responsible vandals must be held accountable. This is not who we are as Americans or Pennsylvanians, he said.

Read full story on Jewish cemetery headstones damage

AMandeep