The chair a Texas rabbi threw at his captor is headed to the American Jewish museum
The chair and the teacup from the Colleyville, Texas, synagogue hostage crisis will be entering the American Jewish history museum in Philadelphia. (Images courtesy of Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History and Emil Lippe/Getty Images. Photo illustration by Mollie Suss)
(JTA) – When the rabbi at the center of January’s synagogue hostage standoff first encountered the stranger who would soon hold him at gunpoint, he served him a cup of tea. Eleven hours later, as part of a daring escape, the rabbi threw a chair at him.
The teacup and the chair, items that together depict the terrifying arc of the synagogue hostage crisis at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas, are now becoming literal artifacts of the American Jewish experience.
Congregation Beth Israel has donated the items to the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia for a new exhibit on modern-day antisemitism in America, which will open to the public this spring. The exhibit will be accompanied by a video interview with Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker and the three congregants who were held hostage inside his synagogue by a British-Pakistani national.
“‘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,’” Misha Galperin, the Weitzman museum’s president and CEO, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency via 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 items will be placed on the museum’s ground floor, with high visibility to the public. The Weitzman’s chief curator and director of exhibitions and interpretation, Josh Perelman, said the intent is “to serve as a reminder of our collective responsibility for protecting and expanding the ideals enshrined at Independence Hall.”
The synagogue had not revealed the names of two of the hostages, congregants Lawrence Schwartz and Shane Woodward, prior to the announcement of the museum exhibit, though Woodward had previously been identified as a hostage by a Jewish gun-rights YouTube channel.
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