Ohio boy who planned synagogue attack ordered by judge to write book report

A 13-year-old Ohio boy who pleaded guilty on Friday to planning a mass shooting at a synagogue was sentenced to a year of probation and must write a book report about a World War II diplomat who saved Jews, according to court records.

The boy was arrested in September after creating a detailed plan to carry out an attack at the Temple Israel in Canton, just south of Akron, Ohio, according to a complaint from an official with the Stark County Sheriff's office.

On Friday, he entered "true" pleas to counts of "inducing panic" and "disorderly conduct" in Stark County Family Court, according to a record of the hearing. A pretrial hearing previously scheduled for Wednesday was canceled, the court confirmed.

Judge Jim James sentenced the boy to a year of probation and ordered that he submit a book report to the probation department about Carl Lutz, a Swiss diplomat who saved thousands of Jews in Hungary from the Nazis during World War II, according to the record of Friday's hearing.

The judge also ordered that the boy have no unsupervised use of the Internet and continue with counseling through a licensed therapist.

Sentencing comes amid surge in antisemitic incidents

Although the teenager allegedly planned his attack before the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel, his sentencing comes amid a surge in reported antisemitic incidents across the United States, according to Jewish advocacy groups such as the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).

The advocacy group on Wednesday posted on the X social media platform that it was "horrified" by the Ohio case, and expressed hope that it could be a "teachable moment" for other young people.

The rise in antisemitic and Islamophobic rhetoric and alleged discrimination in US schools during Israel's ongoing war in Gaza prompted the US Education Department in November to open investigations into six colleges and one Kansas school district.