Seder plate causes bomb scare at Germantown Jewish Centre

A suspicious package that led to the evacuation of the Germantown Jewish Centre this morning turned out to be a Seder plate apparently placed at a side entrance by someone who wanted to donate it.

Senior Rabbi Adam Zeff said the Centre’s maintenance director spotted the package leaning against the building outside a side entrance around 7 a.m. and decided to alert police.

About 25 people evacuated the building, including teachers and people participating in a Monday morning prayer service, Zeff said. The Centre’s daycare opened two hours late.

“We’ve occasionally had a suspicious object like that in past years, and it’s always turned out to be nothing, but we always want to be as careful as we can be,” Zeff said.

He said police and a small bomb squad quickly determined the package was harmless, and people were allowed back into the building at 9:30 a.m.

Posted by Morgan Zalot @ 5:02 PM Permalink |

About The PhillyConfidential team

Dana DiFilippo has covered murder, mayhem and miscellany at the Daily News since 2000. She grew up in Delaware County and studied journalism and photography at Penn State University. E-mail tips to difilid@phillynews.com.

---

Stephanie Farr has been reporting for the Daily News since 2007, covering everything from gay porn stars who entered the burglary business to moon trees, skinheads, murders and naked bike rides. She covers crime, both in the city and suburbs, and keeps clippings of bizarre Associated Press articles. Her favorite this year was the story about the drunk in Punxsutawney who gave mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to a dead opossum. E-mail tips to farrs@phillynews.com.

---

Phillip Lucas joined the Daily News crime team in 2011. He grew up on the mean streets of Seattle and studied journalism and psychology at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Before landing in the City of Brotherly Love, Phillip was a reporter for The News Journal in Wilmington, Del. Email tips to lucasp@phillynews.com.

Morgan Zalot is the newest crime reporter at the Daily News, starting in 2011 after interning at the paper twice as a Temple University journalism student. In her past stints at the DN, she covered just about everything, from drunken Phillies fans to a barber shop in a high school to a grisly murder-suicide. She’s a born-and-raised Philly girl who grew up in the Northeast. E-mail tips to zalotm@philly.com.

Follow on Twitter