podcast and cohost of democracyish podcast. rick, i want to start with the 11 hour hostage stand-off at a texas synagog yesterday. all the hostages were safely released and the suspect dead according to officials. now, we ve seen similar incidents within the past three years. one at the tree of life synagog in pittsburgh and the other synagog in california. what was your reaction? how alarmed are you at the rise of crimes targeting jewish places of worship? well, reverend, good evening to you. it s very disturbing when someone would go into one of the most peaceful places you can find which is any place of worship, whether synagog or mosque or a christian church and to take people hostage and go out of the situation to resolve
year in america, jews are the number one target of antireligious hate crimes. that is a scandal. what has that got to do with four texas americans in a texas synagog? why take them hostage? whether it s the brown muslim far right, or white christian far right, attributing super powers to jews claiming they re responsible for all the world s ills both insane and deeply dangerous so we all have to fight against these tropes. in the wake of the pittsburgh massacre, the rabbi held hostage last night wrote a facebook post in which he says, too many times in jewish history, we faced tragedy without love or support.
week s gotcha before we take a break, my colleague richard louie with the top news stories. some of the stories watching for this hour, more tonight on the gunman who held four people against their will in a texas synagog for some 11 hours saturday. fbi identified the suspect as 44-year-old malafaizel echram a british citizen, no one else was involved, law enforcement freed the hostages last night unharmed during the standoff. achram reportedly demanded the release of a federal prisoner. winter storm warnings in effect for much of the east coast now, powerful system combining snow and ice knocked out power for thousands of customers from florida to carolinas, now heading north, expected to bring heavy snow and