(Jewish Group) Colleyville synagogue: Jews turned to prayers designed for moments of danger

Jews who pray according to traditional liturgy each morning recite a line that is usually symbolic: “Blessed are you, God, who frees the captive.”

On Saturday that line became painfully meaningful as a number of Jewish worshippers were taken hostage during Shabbat services at their Texas synagogue. And as the afternoon stretched into evening, Jews and Jewish communities across the country came together online to pray for the release of the captives, including the rabbi, of Congregation Beth Israel of Colleyville.

A dance professor at Texas Christian University, located in Fort Worth, organized an online vigil attended by hundreds of people from across the country. More than 900 people joined an online vigil organized by a Jewish federation in New Jersey. And a synagogue in Toronto brought its community together to recite psalms, a traditional practice for Jews facing crises.

“Shavua tov. It seems strange to say those words, ‘shavua tov,’ a good week, because as we come together this evening we don’t do so for good reasons, for happy reasons,” Rabbi Steve Wernick of Beth Tzedec Congregation in Toronto said during his synagogue’s online event. “We do so because yet again the Jewish people are targeted for hate.”

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