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On the Edge of our Seats

Scott Gilman
13 min readJan 24, 2022

Jews in America are facing antisemitism at levels unexperienced in our lifetimes, adding to a precarious sense of isolation.

Photo from Pixabay

It had to be pointed out to the FBI that a gunman taking a rabbi and four other Jews praying during a Sabbath service at a synagogue constitutes an attack “related to the Jewish community.”

I suppose the bar has been set higher for a synagogue attack. If someone were targeting Jews in their house of worship, they would just go in shooting, right?

But since the perpetrator of the synagogue hostage taking in Colleyville, Texas thankfully never discharged his weapon, the FBI thought, that while terrorism, the incident was not inherently antisemitic.

Who knows, after coming all the way from England through New York to Fort Worth, it might have been easier to find a CVS or Starbucks, but no, it just happened to be a synagogue where he decided to take hostages. Got it.

To his credit, the FBI director later admitted the initial categorization was wrong. In the aftermath, top officials at the country’s law enforcement agencies have called the Colleyville incident what it was: an antisemitic act of terror.

Because in addition to holding Jews hostage at gunpoint in a synagogue, the perpetrator believed antisemitic tropes of the all-powerful, world-controlling

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Scott Gilman
Scott Gilman

Written by Scott Gilman

Thinking and writing about my place in the world, and making myself (and the world) a little bit better. I can be reached at scottmgilman@gmail.com.

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