In the Hebrew language, the word for security, “bitachon,’’ shares the same root as the word for trust. Never was that connection more pertinent than on Jan. 18, at the Leventhal-Sidman Center in Newton. On that rainy Wednesday, along with 27 other Jewish Community Centers (JCCs) nationwide, we received a phoned-in bomb threat.

Just over a week earlier, 16 JCCs up and down the East Coast had received strikingly similar threats. Since then, there have been three additional rounds of phone calls to more than 100 JCCs and Jewish day schools across North America, including Worcester, Providence, Hartford, New Haven, and Portland, Maine, here in New England.

We are not surprised that JCCs were targeted. JCCs are vital centers of Jewish life in communities large and small across this country. We are exemplars of open-tent pluralism and welcome people of all faiths. If you are offended by this idea, then you are likely to attack any entity that supports it.

JCC Greater Boston alone serves more than 50,000 people in more than 90 communities. We impact more people in the community than all other Jewish organizations combined. In short, we are the hub of social life, physical fitness, and cultural resources for the Jewish community.

While threatening calls induce fear and anxiety, we’re inspired and immensely proud of the response by our staff and community members. They refused to be deterred from our mission.

At the end of that very long day in January, a group of our early-childhood educators held a debriefing. They used the framework of the seven values that constitute our early-childhood curriculum to describe the actions and emotions they had experienced that day. There was conversation on the concept of “kedusha’’ — holiness or sacredness — and the sacred role teachers play in young children’s lives.

A number of teachers revealed that parents had called to check in on them. “We knew [our children] would be OK because they were with you,’’ one parent said to the teachers. “I am so happy my children are in this school.’’

We have received dozens of postcards from caring citizens from Scituate to Lowell to Burlington, Vt. “We love you and we have your back,’’ read one. A moving letter of support from the Islamic Center of Boston was shared at our last board meeting, bringing several board members to tears.

But as the calls continue, we need more support. Stand with us. Attend an event. Come to a program. Contact your representatives and senators and remind them that acts of hate against any one group affect us all. Urge them to make every resource available to identify those responsible and bring them to justice. Join our social media campaign #IStandWithTheJCC.

When you stand with JCCs, you deny the haters the opportunity to damage our dream of a better future. Show them that community and trust are stronger than hate and fear.

Lori K. Sidman is chair of the governing board of JCC Greater Boston, and Mark Sokoll is the organization’s president and CEO.