AUSTIN, Texas — Saturday's hostage standoff at a North Texas synagogue ended with all hostages safe and the hostage suspect dead.
Jewish leaders in Austin felt a personal connection after multiple anti-Semitic attacks and signs occurred in the Texas capital over the past few months.
"My heart [was] just really, really just struggling to watch this situation unfold: Another Jewish institution and specifically a synagogue that's being attacked," Rabbi Daniel Septimus, the CEO of Shalom Austin, said. "But this one is even more personal for me, as I know Rabbi [Charlie] Cytron-Walker really well. We were in rabbinical school together."
Septimus got the call in the late morning hours Saturday that Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville had been taken hostage. When the call came in, Septimus immediately knew it was Cytron-Walker's congregation. He said Saturday's hostage situation was just the latest show of the Jewish community's strength and resiliency.
"It just resurfaces that anti-Semitism is only on the rise in the United States and around the globe," Septimus said. "It just becomes more real. And I think for us, it's how we constantly respond to it proactively and reactively and how we as a community come together with other communities outside the Jewish community to stand in solidarity, to fight against it."
The Austin-area Anti-Defamation League has responded to multiple incidents over the past few months, including a fire at Congregation Beth Israel (Austin), banners flown over MoPac, and anti-Semitic signs and stickers placed in local parks. Regional Director Renee Lafair said these acts, while horrendous and evil, have made the Jewish community stronger.
"I've had people come to me and say that they almost want to double down on their Jewish strength from seeing all of this," Lafair said. "The Jewish community here is tired, angry, a little weary and grateful to the greater community for supporting us in what has been kind of, you know, a really bad few months."
Late Saturday night, the FBI and Colleyville Police Department announced all the hostages were safe. Law enforcement officials did not give any identifying details regarding the suspect, who was pronounced dead.
Watch the full interview Rabbi Daniel Septimus and Rene Lafair below:
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