Free Republic

The apparent Highland Park mass murderer who shot up the city’s Independence Day parade yesterday was on the prowl at the local Chabad center earlier this year. The center is located on Central a few blocks from the site of the shooting and sheltered escapees of the attack. Rabbi Yosef Schanowitz recognized the photo released by police following the shooting and realized he had encountered the suspect a few months earlier. “During the last Passover holiday, that person entered the Chabad synagogue. We have an armed security guard sitting in front… I approached him and sternly asked him to leave...

The defendant in a Jan. 6. 2021 Capitol Hill protests-related case denied a claim by federal prosecutors that a boyfriend was jailed for plotting to shoot up a synagogue. Riley Williams’ filing Thursday came in response to one last week by federal prosecutors objecting to her request to loosen restrictions pending her trial. She is wearing an ankle monitor and is under house arrest at her mother’s home in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Prosecutors in that filing noted that Williams had lied last August about meeting a boyfriend; Williams was required to report all her meetings, and she had told people, including...

Portland reporter Mike Bivins was arrested on Saturday over alleged attacks of vandalism and arson at houses of worship, according to the Portland Police Bureau. Michael E. Bivins, 34, of Portland, Oregon was booked into the Multnomah County Detention Center early Saturday. Bivins was charged with multiple counts of criminal mischief in the first degree, criminal mischief in the third degree, and arson in the first degree. On April 30, Bivins allegedly broke windows to Congregation Shir Tikvah, a Jewish Synagogue, located at 2420 NE Sandy Blvd in Portland. On May 2, Bivins allegedly graffitied the Jewish Synagogue Congregation Beth...

JERUSALEM—Religious experts have begun voicing concerns that a local carpenter’s disinformation is spreading among Israelites most susceptible to unapproved ideas. “Visit your nearest synagogue for the latest information on how to obey God. Listen to the experts!” A contingent of authorities in Jewish law spoke out against the carpenter’s simple teaching about loving God and your neighbor. “Follow the data—we need tithes, loopholes, and ever-changing rules, not repentant hearts!” The usually divided Pharisees, Sadducees, and Scribes showed solidarity in fact-checking Jesus’s teaching. “We rate Jesus’s teaching as ‘Needs Context,’" said a spokesman for the group. Eyewitnesses have confirmed that a...

All around Ukraine, non-Jews are seeking shelter from the war in Jewish communities' synagogues, out of a belief that the Russian army will not harm them. According to Yediot Aharonot, since the start of the fighting in Ukraine, thousands of non-Jews have arrived at synagogues requesting shelter. Rabbi Nachum Ehrentrau, rabbi of the city of Zaporizhia in southeastern Ukraine, said that anyone who asks to shelter in the synagogue is warmly welcomed. "We are in an area where there is fighting," he said. "In the synagogue there are 350-400 people concentrated together, most of them Jews and also non-Jews who...

<p>"I'm opening the doors for every youngster to enter America and f**k with them," said Malik Faisal Akram, the terrorist who held four people hostage in a Colleyville synagogue earlier this week, in a recording of a call with his brother, Gulbar, published by the Jewish Chronicle on Wednesday.</p>

"Rebecca covered this story last night. A madman held people hostage at a synagogue in Colleyville, Texas. For 12 hours, a gunman held four people including a rabbi hostage for over 10 hours at Congregation Beth Israel. It was a happy ending. The gunman is dead, and all the hostages were released unharmed (via NBC News): ... Now, here’s where the funny business begins—the FBI can’t say what the motive was regarding this attack. Seriously. ..."

It has been two days since the hostage crisis in Texas where a gunman took four hostages at a synagogue. He had demanded the release of convicted terrorist Aafia Siddiqui from a nearby federal prison. The FBI has identified the terrorist as Malik Faisal Akram. Akram, 44, a British subject who hails from Blackburn in the United Kingdom. Akram was shot dead by the FBI's elite Hostage Rescue Team after the last of the hostages was evacuated from the Congregation Beth Israel Synagogue. Federal law enforcement source told CNN that Akram had entered the US on a tourist VISA in...

Democratic Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel suggested Saturday that "White supremacy" could be to blame for the attack on a Texas synagogue by a British national seeking the release of a convicted terrorist dubbed "Lady Al-Qaeda."

The family of Malik Faisal Akram, the Islamic jihadi from Britain who took hostages in Congregation Beth Israel synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, Saturday, has “demanded to know how he was allowed into America despite a long criminal record,” says the UK’s Daily Mail. More than just his family should be asking this question. How was this man able to storm a synagogue in Texas and take people hostage at gunpoint when he shouldn’t have been allowed into the United States in the first place? If anything shows how broken our immigration system is under the regime of Biden’s handlers, it...

President Joe Biden took questions on Saturday’s Texas synagogue attack and suggested more gun control would not have stopped the attacker. Reuters reports the attacker, 44-year-old Malik Faisal Akram, was a citizen of the United Kingdom

President Joe Biden complained about the number of guns sold in the United States after an armed terrorist suspect took four hostages at a Texas synagogue on Sunday. “There’s so many guns that have been sold of late; it’s just ridiculous,” Biden said when asked by reporters on Sunday about gun control after the incident.

President Biden on Sunday called the hostage situation at a Texas synagogue on Saturday an "act of terror." "This was an act of terror," Biden told reporters. "This was an act of terror [that was not only related to someone who had been arrested I might add 15 years ago and had been in jail for 10 years."

The family of the British terrorist who was shot dead after taking four people hostage inside a Texas synagogue have tonight condemned his actions as they admitted to 'liasing' with the shooter during his 10-hour stand-off with police. Malik Faisal Akram, 44, was shot dead by the FBI after holding four hostages for more than 10 hours at Congregation Beth Israel synagogue in Colleyville, Texas on Saturday. His 'devastated' brother Gulbar Akram shared a message on social media in which he revealed he had been working with the FBI and 'liasing' with his sibling throughout the stand-off. He also apologised...

Father God, I ask in The Name of Your Beloved Son, Yeshua, Jesus our Lord and Savior, that the monster holding Your People, Jewish families as they went to honor You Father God at Shabbat services in their synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, that You Almighty God set them free from him. Lord Jesus please station Your guardian angels roundabout each person and family within that synagogue, and also around all First Responders and Texas law enforcement, as well as any other entities. Let this filthy attempt by the evil one come to naught, and in The Name of Jesus I...

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said, "POTUS has been briefed about the developing hostage situation in the Dallas area. He will continue to receive updates from his senior team as the situation develops. Senior members of the national security team are also in touch with federal law enforcement...

The suspect in an apparent hostage situation at a Texas synagogue is identified as Muhammad Siddiqui by ABC News, which reports that he’s holding the rabbi of the congregation and three others hostage. Siddiqui claimed during the livestream to be the brother of Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani national who was convicted in 2010 by a New York City Federal Court of attempting to kill US military personnel. She is currently serving an 86-year sentence at Federal Medical Center, Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas. ABC, citing a source at the scene, says Siddiqui is demanding his sister’s release.

Colleyville police are conducting SWAT operations in the 6100 block of Pleasant Run Road this afternoon around a synagogue, police said on social media. All residents in the immediate area are being evacuated, and people are asked to avoid the area.

A patriotic Upper West Side synagogue whose leaders fought with George Washington has been celebrating Thanksgiving since the first president proclaimed it a national holiday in 1789. As a modern and secular holiday, Thanksgiving celebrations are rare in Jewish houses of worship — but that is not the case at Shearith Israel, America’s first Jewish congregation. On Thanksgiving day, the temple will feature a special holiday-themed liturgy, followed by an address by Rabbi Meir Soloveichik and readings from a Torah adorned with Liberty Bells. An English prayer wishing good health and fortune on the president, vice president, governor, and other...

Churches in New South Wales will be required to use a vaccination certificate system once 70 percent of the population have received at least two injections of the COVID vaccine. From mid-October, churches will be permitted to return to in-person worship on the provision that they only host vaccinated-only services. Once the target is reached, places of worship must deny entry to any member of the congregation who is not fully vaccinated. Chris O’Keefe of 9News said the state government has not yet signed off on the roadmap, however, “this is the plan that is being worked on, and it’s...