« It was terrifying. We were overwhelmed and we are still digesting what happened. On the American channel CBS, Monday morning January 17, Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker speaks in a slow and measured voice when recounting the hostage-taking of which he was the victim in his synagogue in Colleyville (Texas), in the night from Saturday to Sunday. This resulted in the death of the kidnapper, a British national named Malik Faisal Akram, and the securing of the four captives.
→ THE FACTS. United States: end of hostage-taking in a synagogue in Texas, the kidnapper killed
Despite this positive outcome, the emotion has not subsided within the American Jewish community, already very worried about its safety. In its 2021 annual report on anti-Semitism, the AJC (American Jewish Committee), an influential Jewish organization across the Atlantic, indicates that 24% of the 1,500 Jews surveyed report anti-Semitic acts targeting the institutions they frequent. . And 82% of them believe that the phenomenon is on the rise in the United States – a feeling shared by only 44% of non-Jews. ” I am angry and outraged that in 21st century America Jews who simply want to exercise their faith on Shabbat are in danger said AJC President David Harris on Sunday.
« Dame d’Al-Qaida »
Many Jewish personalities now fear that this hostage-taking will not be considered an act of hatred against their community. A feeling amplified by the comment of the special agent of the FBI office in Dallas responsible for coordinating the response to the attack. The latter initially claimed that the terrorist’s claims ” were not specifically linked to the Jewish community “. The actions of the hostage taker were allegedly motivated by the release of Aafia Siddiqui, a terrorist who is serving an 86-year prison sentence in Texas. The Pakistani, nicknamed “Lady Al-Qaeda”, was known to Jewish associations for her anti-Semitic remarks.
→ ANALYSIS. In the United States, anti-Semitism with increasingly protean origins
If the FBI recovered on Sunday evening, the conservative columnist Bari Weiss regretted that the media and the authorities did not describe the hostage-taking more frankly as an anti-Semitic act. In question, according to her: the fact that the kidnapper does not have the profile of a right-wing extremist, unlike the white supremacist behind the massacre at the Tree of Life synagogue (“Tree of life”) in Pittsburgh in 2018.” Malik Faisal Akram was not white, he was not talking about the Nazis or Hitler, but about an injustice committed against a jihadist “, observes the journalist.
Shelter and tea
For Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of a coalition of Reform Jewish organizations, the anti-Semitism underlying the action of the hostage taker no doubt ». “He didn’t attack a mall or a McDonald’s. He went to a place of worship on a day when people gather to pray. »
→ INVESTIGATION. Anti-Semitism, the convergence of hatreds
Joe Biden acknowledged that anti-Semitism had grown in his country and sought to reassure the Jewish community, saying his government did not ” will not tolerate of such manifestations of hatred. Pending concrete measures, synagogues and other Jewish institutions have increased their security arrangements and their reception protocols. Rabbi Cytron-Walker had let his captor into the synagogue thinking he needed shelter. He offered her some tea before the man pulled out a gun.
.