"We are disgusted and outraged by those who have threatened to use violence and arson against Presbyterian churches to protest the Presbyterian Church (USA)'s recent steps toward divestment from Israel," said Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism.

Cincinnati, Ohio. US Jewish groups have condemned a terror threat against the Presbyterian Church (USA) that threatened retaliation for what it said were the denomination’s “anti-Israel and anti-Jewish attitudes”.

“Threats of violence against any houses of worship are intolerable,” said Kenneth Bandler, spokesman for the American Jewish Committee (AJC).

Officials at the Presbyterian Church’s headquarters in Kentucky have tightened security and have urged the denomination’s 11 000 congregations to exercise caution, after receiving the threat.

The handwritten letter, which also includes a Swastika, said, “I promise violence against Presbyterian Churches - They will go up in flames, bet your ass that’s a terrorist threat.” It was unsigned and postmarked Queens, New York, setting a 15 November deadline for the church to reverse its Middle East policies or face retribution.

“The overwhelming majority of these kind of threats never come to fruition,” said the denomination’s stated clerk, the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick. “At the same time, it is helpful to be aware and prepared.”

The letter was received after a vote by the Presbyterian church’s governing body in July to begin phased, selective divestment in multinational firms said to be contributing to the Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza, and a meeting in Lebanon in October between two denominational officials and members of the Hezbollah movement in Lebanon.

The two officials were dismissed last week although the denomination has not disclosed the reason for the sackings.

The Jewish committee’s Bandler told Ecumenical News International, “AJC opposes the Presbyterian Church decision to launch a process towards divesting from companies doing business with Israel, an economic boycott step that undermines the peace process. However, differences are not resolved through violence.”

Still, he commended the PCUSA leadership’s decision to fire the two officials who conducted meetings with Hezbollah, an organization which is on the US government’s watch list of terrorist groups, but which is regarded in the Arab world as a legitimate, militant Shia political party.

The AJC earlier this year led a high-level interfaith dialogue with the Presbyterians to address the divestment issue as well as other domestic and international matters.

Leaders of the Union for Reform Judaism and the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights organization, released separate statements expressing their solidarity with the Presbyterian Church.

“We are disgusted and outraged by those who have threatened to use violence and arson against Presbyterian churches to protest the Presbyterian Church (USA)’s recent steps toward divestment from Israel,” said Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, and Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism.