What was supposed to be a calm, easy week has turned into something quite the opposite.
In the middle of feeling sad, I stopped long enough to get really, really angry. The hostage taking during shabbat morning services at Congregation Beth Israel. Yes, it was horrifying and terrifying, but my anger came from some of the responses...or lack of them.
As soon as I heard, I logged into The New York Times. Nothing. I turned on CNN; they were covering the story live. That was all disappointing, but that wasn't what made me mad. Save that for that august news service, The Beeb.
The BBC headline said:
This is a great case of semantics matter. What the FBI Special Agent Matthew DeSarno said after the hostages were safe was:
He was singularly focused on one issue, and it was not specifically related to the Jewish community.
Yeah, I understand some people were unhappy with Special Agent DeSanto, but reports support the idea that he had an outcome in mind and the synagogue was an opportunity. Granted the guy was also homeless and rather unstable in his rants and raves, lending credence to the idea that he was just plain off his rocker. The BBC, however, published a headline that made the selection of the location a benign point in the standoff. I'm not buying that.
According to one of the zoom viewers, Stacey Silverman, he was not exactly benign about Jews.
He was foul-mouthed. He was swearing. He was saying antisemitic tropes. He was talking about Israel, Palestine, Islam, and that he had a gun. He implied he had a bomb in his backpack, and that he could, you know, let it loose at any minute. It was horrifying.
She was theoretically in the room. I kinda guess she knew what was going on.
See, this wasn't an isolated incident.
Here's a list of synagogue shootings taken from Wikipedia.
1960 Congregation Beth Israel (Gadsden, Alabama). Gunman injured two worshippers after fire-bombing synagogue.1986 Neve Shalom Synagogue. During Shabbat services gunmen killed 22 worshippers and wounded 6.[2] (Istanbul, Turkey()
The highlight is my contribution; those are attacks in the last 5 years.
Open the search parameters to Jewish institutions, you get a very different picture:
- 1957 – November 11: A bomb at Temple Beth-El in Birmingham, Alabama was discovered before it exploded.[1]
- 1958 – February 9: Thirty sticks of dynamite discovered by police in suitcase at Temple Emanuel in Gastonia, North Carolina.[1]
- 1958 – March 16: An explosion caused severe damage to school wing of Temple Beth El in Miami, Florida.[1]
- 1958 – March 16: Bombing of Jewish Community Center in Nashville, Tennessee at 8:07pm, claimed by segregationists of the Confederate Union. The front of the unoccupied building was damaged by dynamite, including broken windows and the front door, but the center reopened two days after the bombing.[1][2]
- 1958 – April 28: Bombing of Jewish Center, a synagogue in Jacksonville, Florida.[1]
- 1958 – April 28: A suitcase containing more than 50 sticks of dynamite failed to explode at Temple Beth El in Birmingham, Alabama when overnight rain soaked the explosives.[1]
- 1958 – October 12: bombing of The Temple in Atlanta, Georgia by white supremacists.[3][1]
- 1958 – October 14, bomb damaged Temple Anshei Emeth, Peoria, Illinois.[1]
- 1960 – Shooting and firebombing attack on Congregation Beth Israel in Gadsden, Alabama.
- 1967 – series of attacks by white separatists on Beth Israel Congregation in Jackson, Mississippi.
- 1968 – series of attacks by white separatists on Congregation Beth Israel in Meridian, Mississippi.
- (ca.) 1972 – Bombing of kitchen. No casualties. Shaare Tikvah Synagogue (Temple Hills, Maryland)
- 1977 – Shaare Zedek Synagogue(University City, Missouri). Synagogue shooting, 1 dead, 2 seriously injured.
- 1977 – An attack and hostage-taking at B'nai B'rith headquarters in Washington, D.C.
- 1991 – Crown Heights riot
- 1994 – 1994 Brooklyn Bridge shooting shooting attack on a van carrying Chabad-Lubavitch students crossing the bridge as part of an identifiably Jewish convoy of 20 vehicles carrying members of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement.[4]
- 1994 – attacks on Temple Beth Israel in Eugene, Oregon by white separatists
- 1999 – arson attacks on three Jewish congregations in Sacramento, California, including B'nai Israel
- 1999 – Los Angeles Jewish Community Center shooting by a white supremacist
- 2000 – White supremacist Richard Baumhammers shoots out windows at Congregation Beth El, Pittsburgh, and Congregation Ahavath Achim in Carnegie, Pennsylvania.[5]
- 2000 – Arson attack on Temple Beth El in Syracuse, New York. Hate crime by perpetrator who claimed Palestinian descent.[6]
- 2000 – Firebombing of Conservative Synagogue Adath Israel of Riverdale, New York by group of Palestinian-American men.[5]
- 2002 – 2002 white supremacist terror plot
- 2002 – 2002 Los Angeles International Airport shooting – attack on El Al, the airline of Israel.
- 2002 – Another attack on Temple Beth Israel in Eugene, Oregon by white separatists
- 2003 – Molotov cocktail thrown through window at Valley Beth Shalom synagogue in Encino, California
- 2005 – 2005 Los Angeles bomb plot. Failed plan by Muslims to bomb a synagogue.
- 2006 – 2006 Seattle Jewish Federation shooting committed by Naveed Afzal Haq
- 2009 – United States Holocaust Memorial Museum shooting
- 2009 – Bronx terrorism plot to bomb the Riverdale Temple and nearby Riverdale Jewish Center
- 2011 – 2011 Manhattan terrorism plot. Failed plan by Muslims to bomb a synagogue.
- 2014 – Overland Park Jewish Community Center shooting by a Neo-Nazi
- 2016 – 2016 Ohio restaurant machete attack. Islamist attack on a Middle Eastern restaurant displaying an Israeli flag.
- 2018 – Pittsburgh synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
- 2018 – Los Angeles synagogue attack[7]
- 2019 – Shooting at Chabad of Poway synagogue in Poway, California[8]
- 2019 – Failed plot to bomb the Temple Emanuel Synagogue in Pueblo, Colorado and poison its members. The would-be perpetrator pled guilty in 2020.[9]
- 2019 – 2019 Jersey City shooting. Shooting at a Kosher supermarket in Jersey City, New Jersey[10][11]
- 2019 – July 28, 2019, a member of synagogue in N. Miami Beach, FL, 68, was shot in the legs, as he was unlocking the front doors of the synagogue prior to a religious service. The suspect, Carlints St. Louis of Hallandale drove up in a black Chevrolet Impala, and shot him multiple times.[12]
- 2019 – Monsey Hanukkah stabbing. Five people were stabbed during Hanukkah festivities at the home of a rabbi (which was being used as a synagogue) in Monsey, New York.[13]
- 2020 – On May 30, 2020, synagogue in Los Angeles was vandalized with graffiti of "Free palestine".[14]
- 2021 – Attempted forced entry in Bal Harbour synagogue on February 7, 2021. Arab speaking man with package who began shouting praying in Arabic.[15]
- 2022 – Colleyville synagogue hostage crisis. Four hostages taken at a synagogue in Colleyville, Texas.[16]
This is the whole list that Wikipedia publishes for Attacks on Jewish institutions in the United States. I left the citations and links in just in case you want to see some of these for yourself.
We, the Jews of the United States, are targets. We know this. We may comprise less than 2% of the US population, yet 54.9% of religious bias crimes are targeting Jews, according to the American Jewish Committee report issued in August, 2021. That a rather disproportionate number, dontcha think? But given the fact almost every Jew, observant or not, is concerned about these attacks harkens back to early Nazi Germany and that ol' saying, It could never happen here.
It happened there and it can happen here just as easily. In fact, it already has.
This morning, like damn near every morning except shabbat, I'm in a synagogue at morning minyan. I've been doing this for a long time. I like morning minyan; it frames my day. But let me reassure you, we have spotters who watch the parking lot for unknown vehicles and visitors. Our security has been upgraded, and we are vigilant. This is the new reality.
Yes, you can still see in our windows. You can see us praying. You can see us reading Torah. It's what we do. Join us if you'd like...just wear an N95 mask, please. But when it's cold, there is coffee.
 |
| morning minyan is the best place to see dawn. |
We are not afraid. We are not hiding. We will welcome those who want to come to pray, for a yahrzeit, or for the chuckles we seem to have every day.
Jews came to this country to escape persecution and pogroms. We are not going to stand around pretending Colleyville didn't have anything to do with a synagogue. We're not gonna let you pretend either.
The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week
If someone offers you a class in shooter-preparedness,
take it.
The life you save may not just be your own.
You speak the truth. Jews are targets and we need Israel.
ReplyDeleteThis is sobering list Susan. I haven't seen it like this before. Thanks for being diligent.
ReplyDeleteMay you be safe each and everyday from this awful torrent of hate and anti-Semitism.
ReplyDelete