Man Charged With Trying to Blow Up Jewish Assisted-Living Home

The incident came as assisted-living centers and nursing homes around the country have been ravaged by the coronavirus and as Jews have faced spasms of anti-Semitic violence, including attacks on synagogues in Poway, Calif., last April and in Pittsburgh in 2018.

Anti-Semitic attacks in the New York area have also been more frequent in recent months, with three people killed in a shooting at a kosher supermarket in Jersey City, N.J., and a knife attack at a rabbi’s home in Monsey, N.Y.

“In times of national crisis, hatred based on religion often blossoms into violence,” said Andrew E. Lelling, the United States attorney for Massachusetts. “We will find, investigate and aggressively prosecute anyone engaged in this kind of mayhem.”

Mr. Rathbun, who made an appearance in federal court via videoconference on Wednesday, has not yet entered a plea. A federal magistrate judge, Katherine A. Robertson, released him to his home in East Longmeadow, Mass., over the objections of prosecutors, who said the decision “appears to have been greatly influenced by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.”

“Unfortunately, at this time, I’ve been advised not to comment,” Mr. Rathbun said in a brief telephone interview on Thursday. “I have nothing to say.”

Mr. Rathbun’s federal public defender, Timothy Watkins, declined to comment.

Ruth’s House is part of a 23-acre campus that includes a rehabilitation center and several other facilities run by JGS Lifecare, which was founded in 1912 by 13 Jewish women as the Daughters of Zion Home for the Aged in Springfield, Mass. A spokeswoman for JGS Lifecare referred questions about the episode to federal prosecutors.