Line of support to Texas synagogue ‘changed’ after deadlock – Orange County Register

By JAMIE STENGLE

DALLAS (AP) – Tight congregation at a Texas synagogue where four people were taken hostage by an armed captor during a 10-hour standoff over the weekend, which originated in… a gathering held more than 20 years ago by several families who were new to the area.

“It’s a Jewish holiday and we just feel isolated and not sure if anyone else living here is Jewish,” said Anna Salton Eisen, founder and former president of Beth Israel Congregation , said Sunday.

Since its beginnings in 1998, the congregation in the Fort Worth suburb of Colleyville has grown to about 140 families, building its own synagogue and hiring a rabbi known throughout the area to build it. with other faiths.

Eisen said she was overwhelmed by the intensity of support the congregations received during the hostage trial, but she also received a “painful awakening” that “our history will now changed.”

Eisen, who noted that security at their synagogue has been taken “very seriously, very seriously” for a long time, said a message of support from a member of the Tree of Life in Pittsburgh, where 11 worshipers were killed in a 2018 attack, made she realizes “this is part of who we are and how we move forward and react to it.” This is something we have to think about.”

Tree of Life rabbi Jeffrey Myers, who survived the massacre there, America’s only anti-poison attack, said in a statement that with relief the Texas hostages were safe. , “my heart is very heavy.”

“While people are physically safe, they are also forever changed,” says Myers. “My community knows all too well the pain, trauma and insecurity that comes when violence invades, especially into our sacred spaces.”

The Texas standoff ended around 9 p.m. Saturday when the last three hostages, including Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker, escaped from the gunman and an FBI SWAT team rushed in. His captor, Malik Faisal Akram, 44, was killed. The fourth hostage was released earlier.

Cytron-Walker told “CBS Mornings” that he threw a chair at his captor and they rushed out. He credits past security training for getting them out safely.

Cytron-Walker said going back to the synagogue “isn’t necessarily an easy thing but it’s a really important thing.”

At a service held Monday night at a nearby Methodist church, Cytron-Walker said the amount of “best wishes and kindness and compassion” had been overwhelming.

“Even though very few of us are doing well right now, we will get through this,” he said.

Andrew Marc Paley, a rabbi in Dallas who was called to the scene to help the families and hostages after their release, said that by all accounts, the Cytron-Walker was a phenomenon. appear calm and comforting during the ordeal.

“He did his best to keep the people around him calm and, you know, to de-escalate the situation to the best of his ability,” he said.

Jawaid Alam, president of the Southlake Islamic Center, told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that Cytron-Walker was a personal friend who promoted peace and cooperation between faiths.

“He was a pacifist, rabbi and Jewish leader, but a true friend of the Muslim community,” Alam said.

The rabbi at Shaarey Zedek Synagogue, the synagogue in East Lansing, Michigan, which Cytron-Walker attended while growing up, said in a message to congregations there that she was with his mother on Saturday when the challenge takes place.

Rabbi Amy Bigman wrote in the message that while it was difficult to see another case of anti-Semitism, they felt comfortable pouring out “prayers and well wishes.” She wrote that while she knew the events in Texas “raised our sense of alertness,” she hoped her councils would not stay away, and noted that security had been” increased a lot” over the years.

Halie Soifer, CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, also grew up attending Shaarey Zedek Congregation and remembers Cytron-Walker’s leadership as a student in the youth group.

“From all I can tell, the man he is today is very much like what he was then, a man driven by a sense of Jewish activism and values. deeply rooted in the belief that we are all equal and strives to build relationships and take care of others,” Soifer said.

Cytron-Walker is the Texas synagogue’s first full-time rabbi since 2006. The synagogue’s website says the married father of two lovingly welcomes everyone from the “affiliated family.” outreach to LGBT individuals and families for those seeking a spiritual home in Judaism, among all others.”

“We have newcomers, we have people who have been here for a long time and have seen each other’s children grow up and go through all the ups and downs together – the joys and the hardships of life. ,” said Eisen. “We’re very tight-knit, we’re not a very big union.”

Eisen said she knew they were welcome in the community, but didn’t fully realize how much until the landing came when the ordeal unfolded.

“Now I really feel welcome here. It was a life-changing thing,” she said.

Eisen, who has been cautious about going out during the pandemic to protect her mother, a Holocaust survivor who turned 100 on Saturday, said she started watching the Facebook live stream about hostage incident during service when alerted by another member.

“I felt like I couldn’t watch and couldn’t help watching,” she said.

It was hard to tell her mother what happened, she said. “It was difficult for me, because she thought this couldn’t happen here,” Eisen said.

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Associated Press writers Paul J. Weber in Austin, Texas, Peter Smith in Pittsburgh and David Eggert in Lansing, Michigan, contributed to this report.