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Old January 20th, 2022 #41
Kosher Clown
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Originally Posted by Robbie Key View Post
Mayorkas, Garland and other US officials meet with Jewish groups to discuss synagogue security post-Colleyville

BY ANDREW LAPIN JANUARY 18, 2022 6:29 PM

(JTA) — Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said the United States considers the hostage-taking at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas, “an act of terror” and “an antisemitic attack targeting the Jewish community,” according to a Jewish leader who joined a phone call with top U.S. officials Tuesday morning.

Majorkas, Attorney General Merrick Garland, FBI Director Chris Wray and other national security officials held a call with major Jewish groups Tuesday to discuss synagogue security concerns in the wake of the week’s hostage crisis in Texas.

The executive director for the Orthodox Union Advocacy Center, Nathan Diament, described the discussion to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency as a meeting of around 1,200 synagogue leaders, including representatives from the OU as well as the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. Diament also said that representatives at the Union for Reform Judaism and United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism had been alerted.

Garland and Mayorkas, both of whom are Jewish, spoke about the personal resonance the attack has had for them, according to a report in the Forward. Mayorkas said he did not get to plant his annual tree for Tu B’Shvat as he normally does.

Garland described seeing police cars in front of his own synagogue. Garland and his family are longtime members of Temple Sinai in Bethesda, Maryland.

“This is not the way it should have to be in America, but unfortunately it is the way,” he said.

During the call, which lasted for more than an hour, federal officials reiterated security measures already in place, such as Nonprofit Security Grant Program funds available to synagogues, email information systems available for local congregations to sign up for and online resources for synagogue security training.

“The purpose of convening this Zoom in the wake of the terrible events in Texas was twofold,” Diament said. “One, we thought was important for the synagogue community to directly hear from these national leaders a message of reassurance and solidarity and commitment to combating antisemitism. And secondly, to also hear from them about the current threat environment and any top-line additional, practical steps that they ought to be taking in the coming days or weeks.”

Also on the call were Melissa Rogers, White House executive director of faith-based and neighborhood partnerships, and other federal undersecretaries.

https://www.jta.org/2022/01/18/unite...st-colleyville
Uh, huh. Major new push for bi-partisan, (Uniparty), Federal "Anti-Semitic Hate Speech" legislation incoming in 4...3...2...1...

 
Old January 21st, 2022 #42
Stewart Meadows
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‘Quite simply a mensch’: Meet Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker, freed after hostage crisis at his synagogue


BY ANDREW LAPIN JANUARY 16, 2022 12:44 AM



(JTA) — Over the course of a harrowing 12 hours on Saturday, the entire world found out just what the Jews of Colleyville, Texas, think of their hometown rabbi.

“Our rabbi is a wonderful human being,” Ellen Smith, who grew up at Congregation Beth Israel, said about Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker during an online vigil while he was being held hostage inside the synagogue building.

Cytron-Walker was leading services on Saturday morning when a man took him and three others hostage, reportedly in an effort to free a woman who was convicted of attempting to kill American military personnel. The crisis, which streamed online for some time before being taken down, drew the world’s attention to a rabbi who is in many ways synonymous with the synagogue he leads.
(...)
Cytron-Walker is married to Adena Cytron-Walker, a vice president of a Fort Worth organization focused on diversity with whom he remains “completely in love,” according to his biography on Beth Israel’s website; the couple has two daughters.
(...)
His commitment to social justice has extended throughout his career: between graduating from college and entering rabbinical school, he worked for a variety of social services organizations including Focus: HOPE, a Detroit nonprofit that provides education, job training and other services to underrepresented groups; and an assistant directing role with the Amherst Survival Center, a soup kitchen and food pantry in western Massachusetts. His thesis in rabbinical school, where he received an award for his leadership on LGBTQ issues, was on “Jewish Service-Learning.”
https://www.jta.org/2022/01/16/unite...-his-synagogue
 
Old January 21st, 2022 #43
Stewart Meadows
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Colleyville synagogue hostage-taker killed by multiple gunshots — medical examiner


FBI acknowledges attacker’s death ‘a result of the deadly force’ it used; special agent, rabbi say they recognized deteriorating situation at same time, acted almost simultaneously

By AP and JACOB MAGID
Today, 9:09 pm Updated at 12:56 am

COLLEYVILLE, Texas — The gunman who held four people captive at a Texas synagogue in a 10-hour standoff that ended with the hostages escaping and an FBI tactical team rushing in was killed by multiple gunshot wounds, according to a medical examiner, who ruled the death a homicide.

The Tarrant County Medical Examiner released initial information from the autopsy of Malik Faisal Akram on Friday, six days after the 44-year-old British citizen took hostages during morning services at Congregation Beth Israel in the Dallas-area suburb of Colleyville.

In Texas, a death being ruled a homicide indicates that one person was killed by another, but does not necessarily mean the killing was a crime.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/colley...ical-examiner/
 
Old January 21st, 2022 #44
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Family of Texas synagogue attacker says he released hostages before the shootout


BY SHIRA HANAU JANUARY 16, 2022 7:35 AM UPDATED JANUARY 16, 2022 3:49 PM



(JTA) — The man who held four people hostage at a Colleyville, Texas synagogue Saturday was a British citizen whose family said he released the hostages before being killed in a shootout.

FBI’s office in Dallas on Sunday named the man as Malik Faisal Akram, 44.
(...)
“Although my brother was suffering from mental health issues we were confident that he would not harm the hostages,” said the statement, which was reposted on Twitter by Nicole Lampert, a British Jewish journalist. “At around 3 am the first person was released then an hour later he released the other 3 people through the fire door unharmed. Don’t believe the bull#### in the media they were released from the fire exit and Not rescued.”
https://www.jta.org/2022/01/16/unite...l-not-released
 
Old January 22nd, 2022 #45
Stewart Meadows
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Top US security officials to US Jews: Colleyville was a ‘terrorist attack on Jewish community’


BY RON KAMPEAS JANUARY 21, 2022 3:06 PM



WASHINGTON (JTA) — Top United States security officials told Jewish Americans on a pre-Shabbat call that the attack last Saturday in Colleyville, Texas, was a “terrorist attack on the Jewish community” and that authorities are continuing to investigate how the British Islamist who held a rabbi and three congregants hostage got into the country.

The webinar Friday at noon, organized by the White House, drew at least 5,000 viewers, Chanan Weissman, the White House Jewish liaison, said at its outset. It was designed in part to reassure Jews that they could attend services this Shabbat. Among those speaking was the Temple Beth Israel rabbi held hostage during the 11-hour crisis, Charlie Cytron-Walker.

It also was clearly aimed at rolling back the impression conveyed in the immediate aftermath of the attack by an FBI official that authorities were not treating this as an antisemitic attack.
https://www.jta.org/2022/01/21/unite...wish-community
 
Old January 22nd, 2022 #46
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Old January 24th, 2022 #47
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Colleyville is an opportunity for American Jews to rethink our approach to curbing antisemitism


JUDAH BERNSTEIN
JANUARY 19, 2022 4:09 PM



(...) Or consider one of the most successful books to grapple with the question, Bari Weiss’s 2016 manifesto “How To Fight Antisemitism.” Weiss’s answers to the titular query included calling out antisemitism even when it’s hard, displaying one’s Jewish pride without fear, expecting solidarity from neighbors and allies, disavowing identity politics, remaining committed to “liberalism,” supporting Israel and striving to “nurture” one’s Jewish identity.

Many feel that these are important first steps, but Weiss’s suite of answers is puzzling given her view that antisemitism is ubiquitous in American politics and culture. By her own argument, antisemitism is part of the west’s “cultural DNA” and therefore teeming on the political right and left in the United States. It is similar to how Nikole Hannah Jones, the journalist behind The New York Times’ “1619 Project,” asserts that “anti-Black racism runs in the very DNA of this country.”

Regardless of one’s opinions of anti-racism activists in the United States, their efforts have birthed ambitious policy proposals that seek to revamp criminal justice, policing, housing, schooling and more. Why haven’t activists against antisemitism done the same? If antisemitism is indeed a systemic bigotry on par with other varieties of prejudice, doesn’t it demand more thoroughgoing responses than pride and protest?

I don’t pretend to possess any panaceas for an inordinately complex problem, but I can imagine what bolder and more proactive rejoinders to violent antisemitism might look like.

If extremist rhetoric is more of a threat today, maybe Jews should propose limits on group libel that are as of now shielded by First Amendment protections. There is historical precedent for this, as explored in a 2019 article by Jewish historian James Loeffler. In the 1940s and ’50s, American Jews engaged in pioneering legal and legislative advocacy to criminalize group libel. Their efforts resulted in a major 1952 Supreme Court victory in the case of Beauharnais v. Illinois, which held that a white supremacist’s campaign against Blacks amounted to libel and was therefore beyond constitutional protection. That this history is largely forgotten and required Loeffler’s uncovering is instructive.

If social media is a repository of antisemitic bile, Jews should be at the front of those pushing for tech companies to moderate their content more vigorously. The Anti-Defamation League has taken this on, but it appears to be alone in the Jewish space.

If violent antisemitism flows downstream from socioeconomic despair, or if it in some way overlaps with the scourge of mental illness, as this latest attack once again suggests it does, maybe Jews should get behind reinvigorated social welfare programs.

If the danger comes from easy access to guns,which may have played a role in Colleyville as well, perhaps gun control ought to be a higher communal Jewish priority. True, gun reform has attracted the tireless work of a number of laudable Jewish organizations, but there’s still much more that could be done to place it at the top of the communal agenda.
https://www.jta.org/2022/01/19/opini...g-antisemitism

 
Old January 24th, 2022 #48
bedford
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Or another solution I can propose to jews who are always grappling with the problem of antisemitism.
Stay the F away from anti semites, or better yet stay the F away from non jews. Just my 2 cents. I would offer more than 2 cents but ZOG stole the rest of my money.
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Old January 28th, 2022 #49
Stewart Meadows
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Feds arrest man who allegedly sold gun to Texas synagogue hostage-taker


BY RON KAMPEAS JANUARY 26, 2022 6:10 PM



(JTA) — Federal agents have arrested the man who they allege sold a gun to Malik Faisal Akram, who held a rabbi and three congregants hostage inside their Texas synagogue earlier this month.

Henry “Michael” Dwight Williams, 32, was not aware of what Akram planned to do with the gun, according to a U.S. Department of Justice release. Instead, the justice department said, Williams told law enforcement officials that Akram said he intended to use the gun to intimidate someone who owed him money.

Chad Meacham, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, on Tuesday charged Williams with being a felon in possession of a firearm, according to the release. Williams made his first appearance in court on Wednesday.
https://www.jta.org/2022/01/26/unite...-hostage-taker
 
Old February 8th, 2022 #50
Stewart Meadows
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Texas rabbi who faced down hostage-taker to appeal to Congress for security funds


BY RON KAMPEAS FEBRUARY 7, 2022 6:18 PM

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker, who faced down a hostage crisis at his Texas synagogue, will join a Jewish federations movement appeal to Congress to double security funding for nonprofits to $360 million.

Cytron-Walker will join Eric Fingerhut, the CEO of the Jewish Federations of North America, in an appearance Tuesday before the U.S. House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee.

Cytron-Walker has said that a camera system paid for through the federal nonprofit security grant program allowed federal agents to monitor the 11 hour Jan. 15 crisis in Colleyville, which ended when Cytron-Walker threw a chair at the hostage-taker and fled with his congregants, and agents rushed the building, killing the assailant.
https://www.jta.org/2022/02/07/polit...security-funds
 
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aafia siddiqui, charlie cytron-walker, colleyville, malik faisal akram, texas synagogue

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