An armed man entered the Beth Israel Congregation of Colleyville, Texas, during the religious services of Saturday, January 15 and took three parishioners hostage and a rabbi.The confrontation ended more than ten hours later with all the hostages released, apparently unharmed, and the author - identified as Malik Faisal Akram, 44 years old and British nationality - dead.
Apparently, Akram made several anti -Semitic and antiisraelis statements during the confrontation, and demanded the release of Aafia Siddiqui, who serves an 86 -year prison sentence at the Federal Medical Center (FMC) Carswell of Fort Worth, Texas.
Here are six data that help contextualize threats like this one faced by the Jewish community.
1- Jews are the most attacked religious community in the United States
According to FBI's annual data on hate crimes, defined as criminal crimes motivated by prejudices, crimes against the Jewish community constitute more than half of all crimes based on religion.The number of hate crimes against the Jews has oscillated between 600 and 1.200 a year since the FBI began to collect data in the 1990s.In 2020 there were 683 hate crimes against the Jews, 963 in 2019 and 847 in 2018.
FBI data are based on voluntary reports from local authorities.For various reasons, dozens of large cities do not give complete information or do not inform the data of hate crimes.
2- Record levels in complaints of anti-Semitic incidents
The Annual Anti -Semitic Incident Audit of the Anti -Fame League (ADL), which tracks the incidents of harassment, vandalism and anti -Semitic attacks in the United States, also illustrates the danger facing American Jews face.In 2020, the ADL tabulated 2.024 anti -Semitic incidents denounced throughout the country.Although it is a four percent decrease with respect to the 2,107 incidents registered in 2019, it was the third highest year since the ADL began tracking anti -Semitic incidents in 1979.
Of the 2.024 incidents recorded in 2020, 1.242 were cases of harassment, a 10% increase compared to 1.127 of 2019;751 incidents were vandalism cases, a 18% decrease compared to 919 cases of 2019.The 31 incidents of anti -Semitic attacks (a 49% decrease compared to 61 of 2019), involved 41 victims and no deceased.Of the physical aggressions against Jewish individuals, the vast majority were perpetrated without using a mortal weapon.
3- Jewish institutions are vulnerable objectives
In 2020, 327 anti -Semitic incidents were reported in Jewish institutions —sinagogues, community centers and Jewish schools - an increase of 40% compared to the 234 of 2019.Two hundred and sixty -four (264) were incidents of harassment, 61 were incidents of vandalism and three were attacks. Of the 264 incidentes de acoso, 114 fueron “Zoombombings”.
Thirty -four of those incidents were perpetrated by extremists.Almost all of them were harassment, including white supremacist pamphlets or anti-Israel extremists protests.One was an act of vandalism.
4- Often Jews are the object of attacks because of their real or perceived support for Israel and Zionism
From 2018 to 2020, between seven and nine percent of the anti -Semitic incidents reported to ADL have explicitly incorporated antiisraeli or anti -ionist elements.This includes telling Jewish people who should "return to Israel", synagogues vandalized with pro-palestinian graffiti, the distribution of flyers blaming Israel from the terrorist attacks of September 11, or Jewish students harassed or excluded from student life dueto its real or supposed connections with Israel.In January 2022, an individual was arrested by detectives from the working group in hate crimes of the New York Police Department for using anti -Semitic insults while physically assaulting a Jewish man who refused to remove a sweater with the forces logoIsrael's defense.
Compared to the same period in 2020, anti -Semitic incidents in the United States doubled during and immediately after the military conflict of May 2021 between Israel and Hamas.The aggressions presented the most dramatic increase from one year to another, going from zero between May 11 and 31, 2020 to 11 in the same period of 2021.There is evidence that at least seven of the anti -Semitic aggressions were motivated by anger against conflict in the Middle East.
5- Extremists and anti-Semites incur deadly violence against Jews
Since 2016, individuals with connections with extremist groups or ideologies/anti -Semitic perpetrated at least six fatal attacks against Jews:
-The step, Texas, November 2020: the anti -Semitic Joseph Ángel Álvarez allegedly murdered the lawyer Georgette Kaufman and wounded her husband.According to the police, Álvarez said he was "executing and exterminating the pro-abortion Jews worshipers of Satan".
-Mansey, New York, December 2019: five people were injured and one subsequently died from their injuries when Graffon Thomas attacked a janucá party at the house of a rabbi in Mansey, New York.Prosecutors presented charges for hate crimes against Thomas after discovering evidence of anti -Semitic ideology in their newspaper and in their searches.
-Jersey City, New Jersey, December 10, 2019: David Anderson and Francine Graham shot and murdered a police officer in a cemetery before heading to a Kosher market and killing three more people.Both had expressed anti -Semitic opinions in last.
-Poway, California, April 2019: the white supremacist John T.Earnest opened fire in a synagogue in Poway, California, killing a person and hurting three before fleeing.Apparently, he emulated the killing of the white supremacist Brenton Tarrant in New Zealand in March 2019.
- Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, October 27, 2018.White supremacist Robert Bowers murdered 11 people and wounded seven others, including four police officers, during the services of the synagogue tree of life.Bowers was an anti -Semitic virulent that blamed the Jews to orchestrate the immigration of non -white people to the United States.
- Orange County, California, January 2, 2018.The Supreme White Samuel Woodward, a member of the Neonazi Atomwaffen group, was arrested for killing Blaze Bernstein, a former acquaintance of High School.Bernstein was Jewish and gay.
6- Since 2016, Jews have been the goal of at least 21 extremist plots or credible threats
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-Enean from 2022, Colleyville, Texas: an armed man entered the Beth Israel congregation in Colleyville, Texas, during the services, and took three congregants as hostages and a rabbi.
-Abril of 2020, Assumption, Illinois: federal agents accused the supremacist Blanco Randall Burrus of weapons crimes in relation to an alleged plot to attack a synagogue.
-Abril of 2020, East Longmeadow, Massachusetts: federal agents arrested the white supremacist John Michael Rathbun for the alleged attempt to burn a Jewish assistance center.
· March 2020, Belton, Missouri: the white supremacist Timothy Wilson died in a shooting with the FBI when they tried to stop him for conspiring to fly a hospital that housed patients from COVID-19 in the Kansas City area.Apparently Wilson spoke of other possible objectives, including a synagogue.
-NOVIVE, 2019, Town, Colorado: Federal authorities arrested the neo -Nazi and Supreme White Richard Holzer for charges related to an alleged plot to fly a synagogue.
-September 2019, Racine, Wisconsin: Yousef or.Barasneh, a member of the neo -Nazi The Base group, supposedly vandalized the Beth Israel Sinai congregation with anti -Semitic graffiti, as part of a multiestatal plot of the conspirators of the white supremacy against the Jews against the Jews.
-Agosto of 2019, Youngstown, Ohio: James Reardon JR., a white nationalist, was arrested for threatening a Jewish community center on Instagram.
-Agoso of 2019, Las Vegas, Nevada: the supremacist Blanco Conor Climo was arrested by a federal position of arms in relation to a plot to attack several local objectives, including a messianic church, an Adl office and a bar that welcomedThe LGBTQ community.
-Junio from 2019, Harlingen, Texas: Harlingen police arrested Joel Hayden Schrimsher for planning to send a bomb to the Federal Reserve, set a mosque, and fire and shoot against a synagogue.
-Junio of 2019, Concord, California: the supremacist Blanco Ross Farca was arrested for charges of criminal threats and manufacturing and possession of an illegal assault weapon after stating online that he wanted to imitate the alleged Poway shooter, John Earnest.
-Mayo of 2019, Carmel, Indiana: the white supremacist Nolan Brewer planned to burn a synagogue in Carmel, Indiana.
-Mayo of 2019, Kent, Washington: The authorities arrested the supremacist White Chase Bliss Colasurdo, Kent, Washington, and accused him of making violent threats against President Trump's family and media figures, as well as continuous bomb threatsto synagogues.
· May 2019, Basking Ridge, New Jersey: Islamist extremist Jonathan Xie was arrested for trying.
-Abril of 2019, Ocean City, Maryland: Corbin Kauffman (alias CK Shekels), by Lehighton, Pennsylvania, was accused of interstate transmission of threats.Kauffman “expressed his desire to commit genocide and‘ hate crimes ’, and requested or represented images of murders of Jewish, black and Muslim people”.
-Febrero, 2019, Silver Spring, Maryland: The Lieutenant of the Coast Guard Christopher Paul Hasson, white supremacist, was arrested for positions of possession of weapons and drugs in relation to an alleged terrorist plot to attack politicians and Jewish leaders.
-Coller 2018, Lake Forest Park, Washington: the white supremacist Dakota Reed was arrested for alleged threats to carry out mass murders of Jews and other minorities.
-Coller 2018, Toledo, Ohio: Damon Joseph was arrested for trying to give material to ISIS and conspiring to attack a synagogue in the Toledo area.
-NOViembly 2018, Cary, North Carolina: White Supreme William Josephus Warden was arrested after threatening to damage the Sha’arei Shalom congregation.
-Junio of 2017, New York, New York: Islamist extremist Ali Kourani was arrested for positions related to the realization of several intelligence missions for Hezbollah, including surveillance to people in the United States associated with the Israel Defense Forces.
-Mayo of 2017, Tampa, Florida: the founder of Atomwaffen and Neonazi Brandon Russell declared himself guilty of having an unregistered destructive device and illegal storage of explosive materials.According to the authorities, I wanted to "kill civilians and attack places such as electricity lines, nuclear reactors and synagogues".
-Febrero, 2017, Conway, South Carolina: the white supremacist Benjamin Thomas Samuel McDowell was convicted of illegal possession of a firearm and condemned after making violent comments aimed at a Jewish synagogue in particular in particular.
-Abril of 2016, adventure, Florida: Islamist extremist James Gonzalo Medina was arrested for conspiring to put a bomb in the Jewish center adventure Turnberry -which includes a synagogue, classrooms and meeting rooms -during Easter.
Aryeh Tuchman is an associate director of the Extremism Center of the Anti -Fame League (ADL).You can follow the ADL on Twitter.com/ADL_ES
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