When Will We All Wake Up And Stop The Madness?

As rabbi was held hostage, interfaith colleagues gathered to help end the standoff

The congregation’s rabbi is particularly well connected to the larger interfaith community and on good terms with many Muslim leaders.

(RNS) — If there’s a word that comes up repeatedly when friends discuss Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker, the rabbi who was taken hostage with three others at his Reform synagogue Saturday (Jan. 15), it’s “kind.”

“Kind doesn’t begin to cover it,” said Lindsey Weiss, who attended Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas, since she was 11. “He’s the nicest guy.”

But it wasn’t kindness alone that may have helped Cytron-Walker defuse a tense 11-hour standoff with a gunman who said he brought explosives to the synagogue. The rabbi, who has led the Reform synagogue of about 125 families since 2006, is also an interfaith champion with deep-rooted friendships not only among Christians but Muslims, too.

Those friendships were evident in the command center set up at Good Shepherd Catholic Community nearby, where a group of rabbis, imams and pastors helped FBI teams negotiate with the hostage-taker.

The team included Bob Roberts Jr., pastor of Northwood Church in nearby Keller and co-founder of the Multi-Faith Neighbors Network; Imam Omar Suleiman, president of Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research and a columnist at Religion News Service; Azhar Azeez, a former president of the Islamic Society of North America; and Rabbi Andrew Marc Paley of Temple Shalom in Dallas.

“There’s probably no one who can handle it better than (Cytron-Walker) because he gets a bigger picture than just his own tribe,” said Roberts, who has known Cytron-Walker for 15 years. “That’s how he lived his life in the public square — committed to his own faith but respectful of other people’s faiths.”

Late Saturday, an FBI SWAT team breached the synagogue, killing the hostage-taker and freeing three of the people inside — a fourth person, an elderly man, had been released around 5 p.m.

It’s unclear why the hostage-taker chose Congregation Beth Israel, a suburb located between Dallas and Fort Worth. He apparently entered the synagogue as members were livestreaming Shabbat services.

What should stand out and be commended is that the media did not put out an unsubstantiated narrative regarding this issue that would foster hate against any specific group. Also, it should be noted (although not publicly documented) that Muslims in that local area stood up and rallied around the Jewish community immediately.

Dallas-area Muslim community leaders took pains to dispel any notion that the synagogue was targeted because of any antipathy toward Islam.

“None of us are going to fall for the more nefarious narrative spun as a result of this,” said Suleiman, referring to those who viewed the incident as portending hatred between Muslims and Jews.

The rabbi and his family and the congregation understood right away that it wasn’t the Muslim community that was attacking them. It was the Muslim community that was supporting them.

With this share, InterfaithLibrary.com will always support and stand on the side of truth, justice and Godliness. We will not stand by and not speak out against hated, bigotry and ignorance. We close with the opening question, “When will we all wake up and stop the madness?”