Houston, I mean Colleyville, We Have a Problem

On January 15, 2022, a gunman held four hostages captive at a synagogue named Congregation Beth Israel. This attack on the synagogue located in Colleyville, Texas was considered an antisemetic act. Fortunately, all four hostages were able to escape before the attacker, Malik Faisal Akram, was shot and killed by the FBI. According to Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker, who was one of the hostages, he was put through many training scenarios for how to deal with different types of threats. The Rabbi of the synagogue explained that his training was very beneficial for the attack on his synagogue.

This is not the only attack on the Jewish community in the past decade. For example, the Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh happened less than four years prior to the shooting in Texas. Then only one year after the incident in Pittsburgh, a rabbi and his guests were stabbed while celebrating Hanukkah at the rabbi’s house in Monsey, New York. These are just two examples of the many acts of hate towards the Jewish community in the past few years. In fact, an article from 2021 explains that around one of four Jews in the United States claimed being part of antisemitism over the past year. As Dozier would say, these situations are considered "Us vs Them" conflicts. Acts of hate are in response to "Us vs Them" and they are the result of anger, such as the shooting in an Oregon high school by one of its students, Kip Kinkel. Kinkel wrote, “Hate drives me… I am full of rage… Everyone is against me” (Dozier 3). This shows that he was driven to shoot his school by feeling alone, and saw himself against the whole school.

So, how do we prevent acts of hatred and violence towards Judaism? Well, the public needs to be aware of these actions going on around the world just as the Black Lives Matter movement did and many other movements and activists had done in the past. We need to protest and think of other creative ways to show that there are still specific groups targeted, such as the Jews, in the modern world. For example, support Jewish businesses. Attend a synagogue service even if it’s not your religion. Or even learn to speak Hebrew. In general, just do a small act because every small step helps.


While the world may never fully reach peace everywhere and eliminate hate and violence, it should be our goal as a community to make everyone feel as though they have a place in this world. No gender, race, religion, or ethnicity should feel scared of the world around them.



Citations:

Dozier, Rush W. Why We Hate: Understanding, Curbing and Eliminating Hate in Ourselves and Our World. Contemporary, 2003.

https://www.texastribune.org/2022/01/23/texas-colleyville-hostages-attacks/

https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/28/us/pittsburgh-synagogue-shooting/index.html

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/hanukkah-stabbing-suspect-had-also-been-eyed-november-synagogue-knifing-n1109981

https://www.npr.org/2021/10/26/1049288223/1-in-4-american-jews-say-they-experienced-antisemitism-in-the-last-year