Police Say Teen Made Antisemitic Calls To Jewish Rockville Outreach Center

ROCKVILLE, MD — A 17-year-old Montgomery County resident is facing charges of making harassing and antisemitic telephone calls to the Jewish Rockville Outreach Center, police said Thursday.

The antisemitic calls were reported to police, as Montgomery County experiences a surge in antisemitic incidents. Antisemitic messages and graffiti have been found at numerous schools across the county in recent months. Antisemitic flyers also were found in late January on the porches of several Kensington residents.

In December, the Montgomery County Police went to the Jewish Rockville Outreach Center, in the 11300 block of Old Georgetown Road, where they met with a staff member who reported receiving multiple calls from a person who used antisemitic language.

After responding to the incident on Dec. 20, detectives from the police department’s 2nd District Patrol Investigations Unit were able to determine the identity of the caller, a juvenile who lives in the community, police said Thursday.

Police forwarded the juvenile's case to the Montgomery County Department of Juvenile Services for consideration, with the recommended charge of telephone misuse against the teen.

Also in December, a sign at Walt Whitman High School was vandalized with antisemitic graffiti. In November, antisemitic graffiti was found along the Bethesda Trolley Trail.

A $5,000 reward is being offered for information about those two incidents by the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington and the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington.

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