Texas synagogue latest in a series of attacks on US Jewish institutions

Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas, the scene of a hostage situation, is the latest in a series of US Jewish institutions that have been attacked in recent years.

In October 2018, a gunman killed 11 worshipers at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh.

In April 2019, an attacker shot one congregant to death at the Chabad of Poway synagogue in Poway, California.

In December 2019 an assailant killed one and injured four at a Hanukkah celebration at a rabbi’s home in Monsey, New York. The attacker initially tried to break into a synagogue next door.

Also in December 2019, two shooters killed three people in an attack on a kosher supermarket in Jersey City, New Jersey. Police said they were motivated by antisemitism and they may have been targeting a Jewish day school next to the synagogue.

There have also been deadly attacks in recent years against Jewish institutions in Germany and France.

There are regularly acts of antisemitic vandalism against synagogues and Jewish schools in the US.

Jews are the targeted in hate crimes in the US more than any other religious group, by far, according to the FBI.