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Police departments in Long Branch and Deal are closely monitoring the Jewish community's safety after three local synagogues received a bomb threat less than two weeks after the FBI's corruption busts rocked the area.

The Synagogue of Deal, Congregation Brothers of Israel in the Elberon section of Long Branch, and Ohel Simha Congregation in Elberon were evacuated and searched after the Deal Police Department received an anonymous phone call Aug. 4 at 8:10 p.m. reporting that bombs were about to explode at all three sites, according to a press release from the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office. No bombs were found.

Synagogue of Deal is led by Rabbi Isaac Dwek, father of Solomon Dwek, the government's cooperating witness in a two-year investigation that netted 15 arrests for a $3 million international money-laundering scheme, among them five rabbis from the Syrian communities of Deal and Brooklyn, and 29 arrests for bribery and influence peddling.

Additionally, Rabbi Edmund Nahum, an assistant rabbi at Synagogue of Deal, is charged with laundering $185,000 for Dwek.

The location and timing of the threat hasn't been lost on the Long Branch Police Department, which dispatched special bomb-sniffing dogs to the scene last week and has since maintained increased patrols in the area of the synagogues, Detective Lt. Robert Sama told The Jewish State.

The sensitivity of the FBI's July 23 arrests to the Syrian community means that the busts must be explored as a possible motive for the bomb threat, Sama said. There are no suspects yet, but "it's an active investigation," he said.

"There is heightened awareness because of all the incidents in the Sephardic community," Sama said. "You have to look at every angle [in the investigation]."

"We leave no stone unturned," he added. "You can't with things like this."

Police officers in Deal have been "more cognizant of what is going on" in the community since the corruption busts, Police Chief Stephen Carasia told The Jewish State. The department is always concerned about the safety of the Syrian community, he said, but doesn't immediately assume a bias crime when an incident takes place at a synagogue.

"We don't necessarily try to narrow it down," Carasia said. "We try to keep an open mind, think of any possibilities, and follow any leads that we have."

At Ohel Simha Congregation, the threat disrupted a wedding with about 300 guests. Prosecutors described the individual who made the threat as "a male who spoke with what sounded like a Middle Eastern accent."

Rabbi Nasanayl Braun, of the Ashkenazi Congregation Brothers of Israel, was at the synagogue when the threats took place, and said that five people were in the building along with four in the parking lot. Braun said that the synagogue never had security issues before, but is now calling security companies to see what upgrades are needed moving forward.

"Obviously we are concerned," Braun said. "Any threat against targets is unfortunate and disconcerting. We hope this is an isolated incident, but we want to be careful."

Braun said he didn't want to speculate on the motivation behind the threats.

Etzion Neuer, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League's New Jersey Region, said that while we may never know the motivation behind the threat, he thinks speculation of its connection to the corruption busts is fair because the arrests "received worldwide attention and thrust the community into the limelight for all the wrong reasons."

In 2008, Monmouth County led New Jersey with 43 anti-Semitic incidents, according to the ADL's annual audit, and New Jersey saw a nation-high 238 incidents. Neuer said he issued a security bulletin to Jewish institutions across the state the day after the bomb threat.

"It contributes to the unease and puts a community on edge," Neuer said of the bomb threat. "It brings the threat of violence into play."

Neuer said that in light of scares like this, synagogues need to review their staff procedures for handling threats, review protocol for allowing people into their buildings, determine how to identify suspicious people, and obtain all the necessary emergency contact information from local law enforcement.

"Unfortunately, I worry about the reinforcement of [anti-Semitic] stereotypes over the long term," Neuer said of the aftermath of the corruption busts. "The charges themselves were so sensationalized that I do worry specifically how it will play out locally."

Besides for the Long Branch and Deal Police departments, the incident remains under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Monmouth County Office of Homeland Security, the New Jersey State Police, and the Monmouth County Sheriff's Office, the Prosecutor's Office said in a press release.

Special Agent Brian Travers, a public affairs officer at the FBI's New Jersey office, told The Jewish State that any perceived connection between the bomb threats and the FBI's corruption busts was "just mere speculation on the part of the media at this point."

"We will investigate [this case] based on its own merits," Travers said.