There's something I've been thinking about, and since this is my personal blog, I figured I'd write it out and maybe share it -- maybe I'll get to the end of this post and close it without saving, maybe I'll tuck it away into my drafts. I don't know yet.

I am ethnically Jewish, but I wasn't raised in the culture. My family situation is complicated, due to divorces, remarriages, and relocations, but I usually just tell people that I'm patrilineal, raised secular, and that I'm reconnecting with the community, with a potential conversion in my near future. After nearly 10 years of independent study and hanging around with other Jewish people both online and offline, and then moving into a city that has a large Jewish community, I decided this year to take a more earnest stride into Jewish communal and religious life.

This started with me signing up for social events around the High Holidays, and that's how I found myself in the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History on the evening of Yom Kippur. I'd been to the museum a few years before for a film festival, so I had seen some of the things they had on display, but I've not yet actually toured the building. This time I was there for an event being held in one of the empty conference rooms, meeting with a friend to have a pre-fast dinner before sundown and then joining in group prayer. It was an emotional evening for me for many reasons, particularly because it was my first time observing the holiday in the ritual sense, and that it seemed like an appropriate time to meditate on the nature of the new life that I'm trying to live. But it was also a memorable evening for me for another reason.

If you ever find yourself in Philadelphia, you can visit this museum yourself. Admission is free. On the ground floor, there is a piece on display across from the elevator, and I noticed it there as I was leaving the event. At first, I thought it was misplaced, because the display is a chair, and a cup of tea.

These items were donated by the Congregation of Beth Israel, a reform synagogue in Colleyville Texas. It was a somber sight for me on that night in September. I had only really heard a vague overview of what had happened there barely two years ago -- if you read the Wikipedia article linked above, you will notice it happened in January of 2022. And I remember that the one thought that crossed my mind as I stood in front of that chair is that when you enter a history museum, you expect to see things that are old, maybe from the 40s or something. And you will. But you'll also see the chair a rabbi threw at a man who was holding his synagogue hostage in 2022. Because this part of our history is still ongoing.

Read this part of the article:

A livestream of the synagogue's services on its Facebook page streamed the ongoing situation, including the forceful taking of hostages. In the livestream, Akram could be heard speaking to authorities, who attempted to negotiate with him. At one point, Akram claimed (apparently falsely) to have a bomb. The livestream also streamed Akram saying that he had flown to the city where Siddiqui was imprisoned with the intent of taking hostages. He also said that he chose to take hostages in a synagogue because the U.S. "only cares about Jewish lives" and because "Jews control the world. Jews control the media. Jews control the banks."

And that has been in the back of my mind constantly since a group of people in this city decided to protest outside of a fucking falafel restaurant chanting "we charge you with genocide." It's this idea that Jews are responsible for the acts of every other Jew, and on top of that, Jews are responsible for everyone else, too, when convenient. Like a sort of universal scapegoat. It makes me furious, of course, but mostly it just makes me sad.

I have zero regrets about throwing my lot in with this side of my family, my heritage, my history... but it is unbelievably heavy at times. Still, I feel like I have to carry it. Stronger people than me have died for it, but I will do what I have to do. I do have hope for the future, and more broadly speaking I have hope for the world, too.

מיר וועלן זיי איבערלעבן. עם ישראל חי

More than four in ten Jews in the United States feel their status in America is less secure than it was a year earlier, according to a new survey by the American Jewish Committee.

The survey, conducted in the fall of 2022, was released Monday by the AJC, a prominent Jewish advocacy organization.

The survey was taken in a year of high-profile incidents of antisemitism, including a hostage-taking at a Texas synagogue and anti-Jewish statements shared by celebrities on social media. Former President Donald Trump dined with two openly antisemitic guests, drawing criticism from his own Jewish supporters.

According to the AJC survey, 41% of the respondents said the status of Jews in the U.S. is less secure than it was the year before, while 55% said it was the same. Only 4% thought it was more secure.

The results show anxieties increasing since a comparable survey in 2021, when 31% of respondents thought their status was less secure than a year earlier.

Four in five Jews said in the 2022 survey that antisemitism has grown in the past five years; nearly half said it’s taken less seriously than other forms of bigotry or hate.

A quarter of the respondents said they were directly targeted by antisemitic expressions, either in person or on social media, with 3% reporting a physical attack. Nearly four in 10 changed their behavior to lower risks to their safety.

Similarly, nearly four in ten reported avoiding visible expressions of Jewishness in public, such as wearing a skullcap. Smaller percentages reported taking similar steps on campus or at work.

Other findings:

—Nearly 90% of U.S. Jews — and the same percentage of the country's total population — believe antisemitism is a serious problem, up from 73% in 2016.

—Of the Jews surveyed in 2022, 63% said that they see law enforcement as appropriately responsive when it comes to antisemitism, a substantial drop from 2019 when that number was 81%.

The survey collected data from a nationally representative sample of 1,507 adults of Jewish religion or background. It was conducted from Sept. 28 through Nov. 3.

News of antisemitic incidents surfaces almost daily in the U.S. Earlier this month, for example, numerous antisemitic flyers were distributed in suburban Atlanta, including at the home of Georgia’s only Jewish state legislator.

Rep. Esther Panitch, a freshman Democrat, denounced the flyers from the floor of the House of Representatives, with dozens of colleagues surrounding her to show solidarity.

“This weekend, it was my turn to be targeted,” Panitch said. “Unfortunately, it’s not the first time to be afraid as a Jew in the United States.”

On Thursday, Doug Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, took his campaign against antisemitism to the United Nations, urging diplomats from many nations to speak out against the rising global hatred of Jews and stressing: “Silence is not an option.”

Emhoff pointed to celebrity comedians too often using antisemitism “to draw cheap laughs, high profile entertainers and politicians openly spouting tired antisemitic tropes (and) others making comments laced with not so subtle innuendo.”

Among the most dramatic antisemitic incidents in 2022 was the January hostage standoff at Congregation Beth Israel synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, a suburb of Forth Worth.

A pistol-wielding British man took four people at the synagogue hostage and held them for 10 hours before they escaped, and the captor was killed by the FBI.

ADL tracked 3,697 cases of antisemitic harassment, vandalism and assault in 2022 : NPR

The Congregation Beth Israel synagogue in Colleyville, Texas was the site of an attack by British national Malik Faisal Akram, who was in a 10-hour hostage standoff with law enforcement. A new report by the Anti-Defamation League says antisemitic incidents in the U.S. rose 36% in 2022. Brandon Wade/AP hide caption toggle caption Brandon Wade/AP The Congregation Beth Israel synagogue in…

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Colleyville one year later. Colleyville, Texas. Beth Israel Synagogue.

The antisemitic attack began, the first cry for help was “I’ve got someone who has a gun and ... he says he has two bombs and he’s asking police to move back.”

It wasn't the first and it won't be the last synagogue to come under attack if we don't change things. If our allies don't stop it before it starts. It isn't even the first synagogue in Texas to be under attack.

The one change in the usual script is this man not only wanted to hold Jews in Texas hostage, but Jews in New York. He demanded the number of another rabbi based in New York. He wanted the release of a prisoner. This was supposedly his whole purpose for being at Beth Israel. He was under the impression not only that Beth Israel could aid him in this, but Rabbi Buchdal from New York.

Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker no longer is rabbi at Beth Israel. He moved to a congregation in North Carolina back in July of last year. Not because of what happened at Beth Israel, he had already been given the job when he was taken hostage. He says he has not suffered any post traumatic stress, which is a blessing in and of itself.

We are used to being told we have far more power than we actually do. The antisemite was certainly convinced that a grand total of 5 Jews could get a Pakistani terrorist released. Without having any actual connection to the prison the terrorist-- Aafia Siddiqui-- was being held. Beth Israel is a relatively small congregation in a moderately affluent part of the DFW metroplex. Nowhere could anyone find how he expected these 5 random Jews to have the power he wanted.

We apparently have all this hidden power and yet we are murdered. Antisemitic attacks have risen sharply in the past few years. If we had all this power antisemites claim, we would not be dying in senseless violence in our places of worship or even just being in our neighborhoods.

We have seen it all before. We know the script. We yell 'never again' and are ignored. The only power we have is getting right back up and proclaiming we are still here. Thousands of years, millions murdered, and yet, Jews are still here. Our power doesn't extend beyond that, though we wish it did. We wish we could wake up tomorrow and be free of the worry that today is the day we're going to be killed for the crime of being Jewish in public. A vast majority of our holidays are this proclamation: they tried to kill us. They failed. (Let's eat.)

We have no other power. We are told 'choose life' and so we do. Every time. When will the people around us do the same?

I posted 3,249 times in 2022

That's 1,765 more posts than 2021!

1,308 posts created (40%)

1,941 posts reblogged (60%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@perfectquote

@akindplace

@anxious-and-in-pain

@spooniestrong

@gliklofhameln

I tagged 3,214 of my posts in 2022

Only 1% of my posts had no tags

#jumblr - 599 posts

#inspirational quotes - 391 posts

#life quotes - 343 posts

#periodic reminder - 343 posts

#motivational quotes - 327 posts

#mental health - 308 posts

#mental illness - 272 posts

#chronic illness - 216 posts

#judaism - 212 posts

#chronic condition - 198 posts

Longest Tag: 75 characters

#almost this exact thing happened in a dream i had after my grandmother died

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

In Judaism joy is the supreme religious emotion. Here we are, in a world filled with beauty. Every breath we breathe is the spirit of God within us. Around us is the love that moves the sun and all the stars. We are here because someone wanted us to be. The soul that celebrates, sings.

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, Studies in Spirituality, p. 258

264 notes - Posted October 13, 2022

#4

No people has believed as lucidly and long as have Jews that life has a purpose; that this world is an arena of justice and human dignity; that we are, each of us, free and responsible, capable of shaping our lives in accordance with our highest ideals. We are here for a reason. We were created in love and forgiveness by the God of love and forgiveness who asks us to love and forgive. However many times we may have failed to live up to our aspirations, God always gives us the chance and the power to begin again. On Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the holiest days of a holy people, God summons us to greatness.

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, Ceremony & Celebration, p. 3

264 notes - Posted September 30, 2022

#3

One of Judaism’s most distinctive and challenging ideas is its ethics of responsibility, the idea that God invites us to become, in the rabbinic phrase, his ‘partners in the world of creation’. The God who created the world in love calls on us to create in love. The God who gave us the gift of freedom asks us to use it to honour and enhance the freedom of others.

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks z"tl, To Heal a Fractured World, p.3

328 notes - Posted November 21, 2022

#2

https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/texas-synagogue-hostage-situation/index.html

433 notes - Posted January 15, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

What has given Yom Kippur its unique place on the map of the Jewish heart is that it is the most intensely personal of all the festivals. Pesach, Shavuot, and Succot are celebrations of Jewish memory and history. They remind us of what it means to be a member of the Jewish people, sharing its past, its present and its hopes. Rosh Hashanah, the anniversary of creation, is about what it means to be human under the sovereignty of God. But Yom Kippur is about what it means to be me, this unique person that I am. It makes us ask, What have I done with my life? Whom have I hurt or harmed? How have I behaved? What have I done with God’s greatest gift, life itself? What have I lived for and what will I be remembered for?

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, The Koren Sacks Yom Kippur Machzor, p. xx

535 notes - Posted October 3, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

Who wrote the play the hostage

Texas authorities evacuated nearby residents during the ordeal. “At any moment, I thought there was going to be a gunshot,” she said. The man reportedly told congregants that he was “not a criminal” and vacillated from apologetic concern, speaking in different languages and “screaming hysterically,” congregation member Stacey Silverman later told CNN. Roughly 200 federal, state and local law enforcement officers, including a team of FBI agents from Virginia, converged on the synagogue on Saturday morning.Įmergency teams near Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas on Saturday (Smiley N. She said her client maintains her innocence. Though she has not spoken to Siddiqui since the attack began, she said her client would “condemn this and not support this in any way” and had “always maintained that no violence should be done in her name”. we don’t know who he is and why he decided to do the irrational thing he’s doing now.” “We have no idea where this guy came from. “He has no relation to the family, no relation to the supporters, nothing,” Ms Elbially said. Marwa Elbially told The Independent that she has no idea who the man is nor does he have any connection to the Siddiqui family. In a statement, the Texas Department of Public Safety said the man demanded to see his “sister” Siddiqui.Īn attorney who represents Siddiqui said “she has absolutely no involvement with” the incident, nor is the man her brother. US Representative Michael McCaul of Texas, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told CNN on Sunday that “the FBI has now fanned their investigation out to London and Tel Aviv, so this has now turned into an international investigation.” “We will continue to work to find motives and we will continue on that path in terms of the resolution of the incident,” he said. Mr DeSarno said that police believe the man was “singularly focused on one issue and it was not specifically related to the Jewish community”. “We have been in contact already with multiple FBI to include Tel Aviv and London,” he said. Video captured at the scene shows law enforcement surrounding the building as people flee from a side door of the synagogue.įBI special agent in charge Matthew DeSarno told reporters on Saturday that a law enforcement investigation “will have global reach.” One hostage was released shortly after 5pm, and the standoff with police concluded after 9pm. The man, who was reportedly armed with a gun and explosives, took four people hostage, including the rabbi. On the livestream, a man with an apparent British accent could be heard shouting and demanding the release of Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist suspected of ties to al-Qaeda and convicted in Texas of trying to kill US military officers in Afghanistan. Inventor: John Leslie.Police were called to Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, outside of Fort Worth, before 11am on Saturday during a morning service which was being live-streamed to Facebook. You can help out by making a small donation or by using this site's affiliate links when you shop at or. This site is supported by advertising and by donations. WWW Page Added: Sunday, December 30, 2001 These are simple illustrations rather than strong opponents.īug Reports - Thank you! Keep them coming! If you cannot, a pawn may not be taken to your far rank. Swap promoted pawns with pieces that your enemy has in prison. Must be of equal or greater value than the prisoner your replace. Pieces after first returning one of your own prisoners to the airfield You should find this in the Security tab of your Java control panel. Besides that, recent versions of Java will block this script unless you add to your Java exceptions list. Internet Explorer and Safari should still support it. Recent versions of Chrome, Firefox, and Edge do not support Java.

Texas synagogue siege: hostage-taker named as 44-year-old Briton

Texas synagogue siege: hostage-taker named as 44-year-old Briton

A man who died after taking four people hostage at a Texas synagogue has been named by the FBI as 44-year-old British national Malik Faisal Akram. Akram began a standoff with police after disrupting a religious service at the Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area, and taking hostages including the rabbi. He released one hostage unharmed after six…

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(...)

The notion that such a minuscule and unmanageable minority secretly controls the world is comical, which may be why so many responsible people still do not take the anti-Semitic conspiracy theory seriously, or even understand how it works. In the moments after the Texas crisis, the FBI made an official statement declaring that the assailant was “particularly focused on one issue, and it was not specifically related to the Jewish community.” Of course, the gunman did not travel thousands of miles to terrorize some Mormons. He sought out a synagogue and took it hostage over his grievances, believing that Jews alone could resolve them. That’s targeting Jews, and there’s a word for that.

(...)

“Anti-Semitism has real impact beyond just hate crimes,” the civil-rights activist Eric Ward once told me. “It distorts our understanding of how the actual world works. It isolates us. It alienates us from our communities, from our neighbors, and from participating in governance. It kills, but it also kills our society.”

(...)

“Anti-Semitism isn’t just bigotry toward the Jewish community,” Ward explains. “It is actually utilizing bigotry toward the Jewish community in order to deconstruct democratic practices, and it does so by framing democracy as a conspiracy rather than a tool of empowerment or a functional tool of governance.” In other words, the more people buy into anti-Semitism and its understanding of the world, the more they lose faith in democracy.

...

A pre-emptive fuck you to anybody who tries to "All Lives Matter" the Beth Israel hostage situation and make it all about Islamophobia. If you're centering the terrorist instead of the Jews who were affected, you can shove a cactus up your ass. Thank you.

Not that Islamophobia isn't an issue. It is. But this act was pure antisemitism and you need to center Jews right now instead of bleating about how other groups are going to be affected by this.

DALLAS -- A man who sold a pistol to a man who used it to hold four hostages inside a Texas synagogue before being fatally shot by the FBI early this year pleaded guilty Thursday to a federal gun crime, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

Henry “Michael” Dwight Williams, 32, pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm, prosectors said. Williams sold Malik Faisal Akram the weapon Arkam used when he entered Congregation Beth Israel in the Dallas-area suburb of Colleyville on Jan. 15 and held the synagogue’s rabbi and three others hostage, according to prosecutors.

Williams faces up to 10 years in federal prison. A sentencing date has not been set.

Williams, who previously was convicted of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and attempted possession of a controlled substance, sold Akram a semi-automatic pistol on Jan. 13. In plea papers, Williams admitted to possession of that firearm despite his prior conviction, prosecutors said.

Akram, a 44-year-old British citizen, held hostages while demanding the release of a federal prisoner. The standoff ended after more than 10 hours when the temple’s rabbi threw a chair at Akram and fled with the other two remaining hostages just as an FBI tactical team was moving in. None of the hostages were injured.

Williams was arrested less than two weeks later.

I rarely comment on current events, and this is a horrible thing I wish had never happened and an example along several different axes of institutional antisemitism. But I will say that the dry, calm, INTENSE SALT coming from the congregants and Rabbi trapped inside is giving me life. From “We weren’t freed” to “not a shot fired” right down to the Rabbi letting the shooter in because he seemed in need of shelter. It’s genuine class all the way around.  

May we all have the compassion to welcome the dispossessed and the courage to throw a chair in defense of the innocent. 

A hostage situation is underway at a synagogue in the Dallas-Fort Worth area Saturday, several sources told ABC News.

An armed suspect claiming to have bombs in unknown locations took a rabbi and three others hostage at the Congregation Beth Israel, a source familiar with the situation told ABC News. It is unclear to what extent the hostage-taker is armed.

A U.S. official briefed on the matter told ABC News the hostage-taker is claiming to be the brother of convicted terrorist Aafia Siddiqui, but authorities have not yet confirmed his identity. The suspect is demanding to have the sister freed, the official said.

Siddiqui is incarcerated at Carswell Air Force Base near Fort Worth, according to the source. She had alleged ties to al-Qaida and was convictedof assault and attempted murder of a U.S. soldier in 2010 and sentenced to 86 years in prison.

There is believed to be one suspect at this time, the source said. The FBI has responded to the scene, along with local authorities and hostage negotiators. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is also responding to the situation, according to an agency spokesperson.

A White House official confirmed to ABC News that the White House is "closely monitoring" the hostage situation. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has also been briefed on the situation, according to a DHS spokesperson.

The Colleyville Police Department's SWAT team responded to the area midday Saturday and evacuated residents in the immediate area.

As of 2:20 p.m. local time, the situation "remains ongoing," the department said on social media. "We ask that you continue to avoid the area."

ABC News' Luke Barr contributed to this story.

https://amp.star-telegram.com/news/local/crime/article257360862.html

Everything you need to know about the hostage attack on congregation Beth Israel in Colleyvlle, Texas. Fair warning: it is an extremely long and detailed read. Worth it. I am so sad that the rabbi and his congregation had to go through this. I don’t really know how to talk about the situation but from what I have heard, this rabbi is an awesome person and a strong ally to anyone who needs him and so I want to say that I stand with this rabbi and this congregation and anyone who would hurt the Jewish people is not a friend of mine.

In this Letter to the Editor, faith leaders from throughout the Spokane area express support for the local Jewish community

Hostages in Dallas-Fort Worth area synagogue out safe, hostage taker dead

Hostages in Dallas-Fort Worth area synagogue out safe, hostage taker dead

AUSTIN (KXAN) — After a hostage situation that lasted all day at the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue near Dallas-Fort Worth, all of the people being held for nearly 12 hours are out alive and unharmed. The hostage taker is dead, according the chief of police at Colleyville. Law enforcement would not confirm his identity Saturday night. One of the hostages, a man, was released shortly after 5…

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