Jewish Museum to Display Chair Thrown at Texas Synagogue Gunman
by i24 News
A law enforcement vehicle blocks the street where a man has reportedly taken people hostage at a synagogue during services that were being streamed live, in Colleyville, Texas, U.S. January 15, 2022. REUTERS/Shelby Tauber
i24 News – The chair which Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker threw at his armed captor during a hostage situation at the Colleyville Congregation Beth Israel synagogue will be featured in an exhibit on modern antisemitism at a Jewish-American history museum.
Malik Faisal Akram, a British gunman, held four people captive at the synagogue back in January, but the hostages were able to escape unharmed after Cytron-Walker threw a chair at the assailant.
This same chair is set to be displayed at the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia alongside a teacup which Cytron-Walker offered to the gunman when he first entered the synagogue.
Misha Galperin, the museum’s CEO and president, said that the objects are representative of Jewish American values.
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“‘The Cup and The Chair’ are not only artifacts that document a historic event but are symbolic of fundamental Jewish values: ‘Welcoming strangers’ and ‘Redeeming captives,’” he told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in an email
“They also represent the basic American ideals of embracing newcomers and bravery in the face of danger. This is what Jewish Americans aspire to be and what the Weitzman Museum aspires to represent.”
The new exhibit is expected to open to the public this spring.
