IU Hillel will offer an event at 5 p.m Monday for the IU Jewish community in response to the incident at Congregation Beth Israel in Texas. The event will allow students to discuss their feelings after the attack. Students can register for the event online.
On Saturday, a 44-year-old British man took four people, including a rabbi, hostage at the Texas synagogue, according to the New York Times. Over the course of the day, around 200 state, local and federal law enforcement officials worked to free the hostages. A male hostage was released around 5 p.m., and the other three people were freed around 9:30 p.m. They were all unharmed.
IU Hillel will also be holding an online event at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 27, over Zoom in congregation with local Bloomington congregation Beth Shalom.
“Although no clergy or congregants were physically harmed in yesterday’s attack, we as Jews are still reeling from this horrific Shabbat filled with terror and fear,” IU Hillel Executive Director Rabbi Sue Laikin Silberberg said in an email. “Once again, one of our holy places that should be free from attack was struck for one reason, and one reason alone, because it is a Jewish institution and a home for Jewish life.”
