Jewish leaders, allies defiant after standoff
On the eve of her 100th birthday Saturday, Ruth Salton told her daughter she was going one way or another to Friday night Shabbat services at Congregation Beth Israel, just days after a gunman voicing antisemitic conspiracy theories held four worshippers hostage for 10 hours at the Fort Worth-area synagogue.
“I want to support my people,” said Salton, a Holocaust survivor. She said she told her daughter “if she doesn’t take me, I’ll go by myself, because I feel I belong there. I am Jewish, and this is my faith, and I am supporting it.”
She’s far from alone. At synagogues around the U.S., Jewish leaders marked the first Sabbath since last weekend’s hostage-taking at Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas, with a show of defiance.
Many called for a strong turnout to show unity among the faithful. Rabbis, public officials and others spoke out during the Friday night and Saturday services against acts of violence, hatred and intimidation aimed at Jews.
At Beth Israel’s service Saturday, Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker and the three other people who were taken hostage last weekend stood in front of the congregation, linking arms as they sang the ritual blessings before and after the weekly reading of the Torah.
And at Friday night services marking the start of the Sabbath, or Shabbat, Cytron-Walker said: “The words Shabbat Shalom, to be able to offer that to each and every one of you, those words have never, never felt so good. While we have a lot of processing to do, God willing, the worst is over … and we can have a Shabbat of peace.”
Similar observances took place at other congregations.
“A terrorist tried to steal Shabbat from us last week. Claiming it this week is an act of resistance,” Rabbi Angela Buchdahl, of Central Synagogue in New York City, said.
During the standoff, the hostage-taker forced Cytron-Walker to call Buchdahl in a bid to win a federal inmate’s release, according to authorities. She then reported the call to law enforcement.
Christian and Muslim clergy joined in Central Synagogue’s Friday service in a show of solidarity, linking arms and swaying with Buchdahl and Mayor Eric Adams as the congregation sang a song of thanksgiving.
In Pittsburgh, Rabbi Jeffrey Myers of the Tree of Life Congregation struck a similarly defiant tone. On Oct. 27, 2018, a gunman killed 11 worshipers from three congregations meeting at Tree of Life’s synagogue in what authorities said was the deadliest antisemitic hate crime in U.S. history.
“I, for one, did not survive Oct. 27 to become a professional victim for the rest of my life,” Myers said, adding that the response to antisemites is to engage more deeply in Jewish practice.
Authorities say Malik Faisal Akram, a British national, took the four people who were at Congregation Beth Israel hostage on Jan. 15. He was demanding the release of Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist convicted of trying to kill U.S. troops in Afghanistan and who is serving a lengthy sentence in a prison in Fort Worth, which is 15 miles southwest of Colleyville.
The hostages said Akram cited antisemitic stereotypes, believing that Jews could wield power over President Joe Biden to have Siddiqui released.
The siege ended after the last hostage ran out of the synagogue and an FBI SWAT team rushed in. Akram was killed by multiple gunshot wounds.
Congregation Beth Israel’s services this weekend were being held at another location because the investigation at the synagogue is ongoing. Attendance was limited to members.