FEBRUARY 3 • 2022 | 11

Twitter erupted, asking how 
an attack on a synagogue 
on a Shabbat morning 
could be anything other 
than “specifically related to 
the Jewish community.”
That conversation, at 
least, was rooted in the 
facts and an important 
communal debate. The 
British national who 
carried out the attack was 
said to be demanding the 
release of Aaifa Siddiqui, a 
Muslim woman suspected 
of plotting attacks in New 
York who is now serving 
an 86-year sentence in the 
Fort Worth area. How was 
it possible, commentators 
like Rabbi Jeffrey Salkin 
of Religion News Service 
asked, to separate Islamist 
terrorism from the 
antisemitism and anti-
Zionism of its ideologues?
It’s conceivable that 
Desarno wasn’t deeply 
versed in what is and 
isn’t a “Jewish” issue — 
perhaps mistakenly viewing 
antisemitism as an attack 
on Judaism as a religion 
and not an attack on a 
people inextricably tied 
up, intentionally or not, 
in geopolitics. (It’s also 
conceivable that he was 
just tired.) If he wasn’t 
before, he probably is now. 
In thanking the FBI and 
law enforcement, the Anti-
Defamation League said 
pointedly in a statement: 
“There is no doubt, given 

what we know so far, that 
the hostage-taker chose 
his target carefully. We 
urge law enforcement and 
prosecutors to investigate 
the role antisemitism may 
have played in motivating 
the suspect.”
The debate won’t end 
there. Some Jews will 
insist that targeting Jews 
in the name of an Islamist 
terrorist confirms their 
worst fears about “the new 
antisemitism.” Others will 
point out the central place 
Israel holds in American 
synagogue life and 
conclude that vulnerability 
to haters is the price Jews 
pay for their commitments.
Twitter isn’t real life, but 
it is a close simulacrum 
of how Jews talk to and 
about one another. On Jan. 
15, as it does so often, the 
conversation devolved into 
anger and invective even 
before the crisis was resolved 
and before the facts were in. 
Twitter is a machine 
for amplifying fast takes, 
misinformation and 
invective. It is also a tool 
for community-organizing, 
mutual support and 
enlightening opinions. 
During the Colleyville 
hostage crisis, it was both. 

Andrew Silow-Carroll is the editor 

in chief of The New York Jewish 

Week and senior editor of the 

Jewish Telegraphic Agency (@

SilowCarroll).

CORRECTIONS

In “
A Place to Mourn,” (Jan. 20, page 12), the architect should 
have been named as David Lubin. 
In “Planning a Trip?” (Jan. 20, page 18), the photo of Dr. 
Jeffrey Soffa was incorrect.

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