Press Release: 2022-01-19

BBA Statement on the Hostage-Taking at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas

BBA Statement on the Hostage-Taking at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 1/18/2022

Contact: Michael Avitzur

Director of Government Relations

617-778-1942

We stand with the congregants of Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas, and with the entire Jewish community, in condemning the hostage-taking there during Shabbat services over the weekend. This is the latest in a distressing series of attacks across the nation, against the Jewish community, as well as against others targeted for their religion, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or immigration status. While we are thankful that none of the worshipers in Colleyville were physically harmed, we must remain vigilant against this type of hate, in all its forms, which poisons our democracy.

It is especially disheartening to witness this act of hate and violence on the weekend we set aside to remember Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., an ordained minister who dedicated -- and ultimately sacrificed -- his life to non-violence in the tenacious and resolute pursuit of justice.

As Dr. King preached in 1956 from the pulpit of another house of worship, New York City's Cathedral of St. John the Divine, "[T]he whole history of life is the history of a struggle between good and evil. There seems to be a tension at the very core of the universe. All the great religions have seen this tension at the center of life ... that in the midst of the upward climb of goodness there is the down pull of evil. ... In the long struggle between good and evil, good eventually emerges as the victor. Evil is ultimately doomed by the powerful, insurgent forces of good."