At Congregation Beth Israel, a synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, a gunman held four Jewish victims at gunpoint, including the congregation’s Rabbi, on Jan. 15. The gunman, Malik Akram, entered the synagogue during the Saturday services and began to make threats. According to PBS, Texas resident Victoria Francis “said she heard the man rant against America and claim he had a bomb.” The service was being live streamed, allowing remote viewers to witness the event. According to Yahoo News (news.yahoo.com), the remote witnesses heard the gunman say, “I don’t wanna hurt ‘em, yeah? Are you listening?” believing he was negotiating with police over the phone. After 11 hours, the FBI SWAT team helped the hostages escape, and there were no deaths or injuries among the victims. The SWAT team shot Akram, resulting in his death. 

The gunman and terrorist, Akram, was a 44-year-old British man. According to the New York Post, Akram is driven by strong anti-Semitism, but his motive for taking the synagogue hostage was a negotiation with the authorities. He attempted to persuade the Fort Worth Police to free Pakistani terrorist Aafia Siddiqui, who is serving time near Fort Worth for attempted murder of U.S. service members in Afghanistan. Akram raised no suspicion prior to the attack besides a phone call made to his brother saying, “I’m opening the doors for every youngster in England to enter America and [****] with them!,” according to the New York Post (nypost.com). 

On a phone call with his brother, Akram said that he was not going to come home alive. Junior Tyla Vuotto commented on the gunman’s suicide mission. “He is an awful person for wanting to hurt others to save another bad person,” Vuotto said. “He is also a horrible person because he was willing to give up his life to cause harm to others.” 

Synagogue shootings are, unfortunately, not a rarity. President Joe Biden and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, according to the New York Times, both agreed that this was “an obvious example of the grossest anti-Semitism.” This hate crime reminded many of the horrific attack at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018. 

Due to the fear and high risk of an attack, many synagogues take security very seriously. According to The Morning Call (mcall.com), Rabbi Daniel Wasserman from the Pittsburgh synagogue said, “In our synagogue, when people come to the door whom we don’t know, we try very hard to strike a balance between being a welcoming place to anyone and taking security very seriously.”

Senior Hunter Brenneis said, “I have never felt unsafe in my place of worship, which is church. It is awful to think that people walk into a place where they should feel comfort and belonging but feel afraid.” 

Senior Julia Swerdin confirmed this sentiment, sharing that she has worried about the safety of her synagogue, especially during the high holidays. “There are always police cars outside of my temple,” she said. “Although the police presence is a comfort, there is always the realization in the back of my mind that there’s a reason these police must be there: because there’s an ever present threat to the Jewish people.”