Objects central to the hostage situation at the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue in Texas in January will be on display at a museum in Philadelphia.
The cup used by Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker to serve tea to the armed hostage-taker, identified as 44-year-old British citizen Malik Faisal Akram, and the chair that Cytron-Walker later threw at Akram as part of a successful escape have been donated to the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History and will appear as part of an exhibit called “The Cup and The Chair,” according to the Times of Israel.
The pair of objects not only represent a “historic event” but Jewish values such as “welcoming strangers and redeeming captives,” said Weitzman Museum President and CEO Misha Galperin in a statement.
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“They also represent the basic American ideals of embracing newcomers and bravery in the face of danger,” Galperin said. “This is what Jewish Americans aspire to be and what the Weitzman Museum aspires to represent.”
After two years of being closed during the coronavirus pandemic, the museum is set to reopen to the public later this spring. Its new exhibit centers around antisemitism in the present day and will feature a video of Rabbi Cytron-Walker and the three congregants who were held hostage.
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Cytron-Walker and the three congregants were taken hostage during a Sabbath prayer service at the synagogue in Colleyville in mid-January after Akram showed up and the rabbi served him tea. Akram, who had a gun, was killed by law enforcement after the hostages escaped 11 hours into a standoff in which Cytron-Walker saw an opportunity and threw a chair at Akram.
During the ordeal, Akram demanded the freedom of Aafia Siddiqui, a convicted terrorist held in a federal prison in nearby Fort Worth. The FBI initially contended that the hostage-taking “was not specifically related to the Jewish community” before acknowledging it was a terrorist attack and that Jews were targeted.
