A Personal Connection To Synagogue Where Hostages Were Taken, Plus 5 Key Storylines
Weekend Plug-in 🔌
Editor’s note: Every Friday, “Weekend Plug-in” features analysis, fact checking and top headlines from the world of faith. Subscribe now to get this newsletter delivered straight to your inbox. Got feedback or ideas? Email Bobby Ross Jr. at therossnews@gmail.com.
(ANALYSIS) When I first saw news on social media of a ranting man taking hostages at a Texas synagogue Saturday, I immediately clicked the link to an Associated Press report.
To my shock, I discovered that the standoff involved Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas.
I first wrote about that suburban congregation nearly two decades ago when I covered religion for AP in Dallas.
In 2004, I did a national feature on “frequent-flier rabbis” filling a need at then-fledgling Congregation Beth Israel and other small Jewish congregations across the nation. That same year, I wrote about Anna Salton Eisen, one of the congregation’s founders, and her Holocaust survivor father, George Lucius Salton.
Just this past October — 17 years later — Eisen trusted me to tell her family’s story again. I wrote a follow-up piece for AP on a surprising “reunion” between Eisen and the children of several Holocaust survivors who were in concentration camps together.
“I started this synagogue with two other families and am heartbroken and fearful,” Eisen wrote on Facebook on Saturday. “What has become of the world?”
I shared her status on my page and asked my friends to pray for a peaceful end. I was so relieved when Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker and two other hostages escaped unharmed Saturday night. A fourth hostage was released earlier. The FBI hostage rescue team shot the gunman.
For ReligionUnplugged.com, Cheryl Mann Bacon covers a healing service where Cytron-Walker spoke and Christians, Muslims and Jews gathered to pray after the hostage event.
The Washington Post’s Michelle Boorstein and Religion News Service’s Yonat Shimron offer more insight on the interfaith progress revealed by the standoff.
Power Up: The Week’s Best Reads
Concerning the week’s top religion story, here are five key angles that have emerged:
1. The timeline: “For 11 hours, the hostages talked to the ranting gunman, hoping that he would see them as human. They whispered about strategies. And they surreptitiously edged toward the nearest exit,” the New York Times’ Ruth Graham, Jacey Fortin and Troy Closson report.
“But when the gunman ordered the men to kneel, they decided they had to take action. The rabbi grabbed a chair and heaved it at the gunman. The hostages ran for the door.”
See related coverage by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s Kaley Johnson.
2. The rabbi: “The Texas rabbi who survived a hostage-taking at his synagogue last Shabbat said Thursday he wears a yarmulke everywhere he goes in his North Texas community, but that others should choose for themselves whether to make their Jewishness visibly obvious,” The Forward’s Lauren Markoe reports.
“People need to do what they’re good with,” Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker tells Markoe. “I get a lot of positivity. That’s not necessarily the case everywhere in the country. And it really depends on who you are and what your comfort level is.”
See related coverage by The Christian Chronicle’s Cheryl Mann Bacon.
3. The captor: “About 10 days before taking four hostages at the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue in north Texas, Malik Faisal Akram had a heated exchange with officials at the Islamic Center of Irving and was eventually escorted from the property, according to the organization's chief legal counsel,” CNN’s Josh Campbell and Dan Przygoda team report.
“Khalid Hamideh of the Islamic Center told CNN on Tuesday that Akram, 44, arrived at the mosque to pray, but became belligerent after asking mosque employees if he could sleep inside the building and they refused, citing city ordinances prohibiting overnight guests.”
See related coverage by The Jewish Chronicle and the Dallas Morning News’ Maggie Prosser.
4. The antisemitism: “The gunman’s words were all too familiar to Jewish leaders and terror experts, who saw the attack on Congregation Beth Israel as yet another in the rising number of antisemitic hate crimes, a sign of the continued need of vigilance and interfaith solidarity,” AP’s Peter Smith reports.
See related coverage by the Washington Times’ Mark A. Kellner.
5. The security question: “The rabbi offered the man at the synagogue door a warm place to stay and a cup of tea,” Religion News Service’s Yonat Shimron reports. “But the gesture, seen by most Jews as a commandment to welcome the stranger and offer hospitality, is now under severe strain.”
See related coverage by The Forward’s Arno Rosenfeld and Louis Keene, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s Kaley Johnson and the Washington Times’ Mark A. Kellner.
More Top Reads
• More former Ramsey Solutions employees are speaking out. Here's why (by Liam Adams, The Tennessean)
• At many churches, pandemic hits collection plates, budgets (by Holly Meyer And Haleluya Hadero, Associated Press)
• The Rev. Anthony Thompson’s message of forgiveness shaped by tragedy, MLK) (by Rickey Ciapha Dennis Jr., Post and Courier)
• As March for Life returns to D.C., antiabortion activists wonder: Is this the last march under Roe? (by Casey Parks, Washington Post)
• Faulting of retired Pope Benedict's handling of abuse cases sparks sharp reactions (by Christopher White, National Catholic Reporter)
• Supreme Court to debate football coach’s prayers (by Daniel Silliman, Christianity Today)
• Will the pandemic bring about the end of small churches? (by Daniel Cox, American Storylines)
• Supreme Court leans against Boston decision to stop Christian flag flying over City Hall (by John Fritze, USA Today)
• This new group says people of faith are under attack. Here’s how it plans to help them (by Kelsey Dallas, Deseret News)
• Christians are going back to church—but maybe not the same one (by Melissa Morgan Kelley, Christianity Today)
• Tennessee-based adoption agency refuses to help couple because they're Jewish (by Tyler Whetstone, Knoxville News Sentinel)
• Amid omicron surge, churches experience struggle and hope (by Calvin Cockrell, Christian Chronicle)
• Afghanistan tops roster of global Christian persecutors after Taliban takeover, crackdown (by Mark A. Kellner, Washington Times)
• Think Piece: Antisemitism and double standards (by Dominic Green, Wall Street Journal)
• Think Piece: Why so many people still don’t understand antisemitism (by Yair Rosenberg, The Atlantic)
• Think Piece: ‘They’ is not a pronoun for God (by Christy Thornton, Christianity Today)
Inside The Godbeat: Behind The Bylines
Inspired by Plug-in’s recent question on religion stories to watch in 2022, ReligionUnplugged.com executive editor Paul Glader lists six big international stories to follow this year.
Glader hopes his Religion News Association colleagues will take note.
“As we prognosticate about big stories in 2022, here is my plea to think more global and less U.S.-centric about religion,” he says.
Charging Station: In Case You Missed It
Here is where you can catch up on recent news and opinions from ReligionUnplugged.com.
• Pastor left jobless after mishandled sexual abuse investigation has no recourse (by Anne Stych)
• Protestants are now Cuba's most repressed religious group, tally finds (by Yoé Suárez)
• Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) have moved toward equality in marriage — but not church (by Caroline Kline)
• In ‘Don’t Look Up,’ God leaves Armageddon to humans (by Jillian Cheney)
• A religion reporter’s guide to interviewing (by Richard Ostling)
• The Great Resignation is not so great for health care workers, teachers, pastors (by Michael Metzger)
• Urgently needed food and medical supplies blocked from entering Tigray (by Ewelina U. Ochab)
• Houston megachurch pastor resigns over affair in latest ARC-planted church scandal (by Julie Roys)
The Final Plug
My Christian Chronicle colleague Audrey Jackson and I traveled to Mayfield, Ky., to report on that small town’s recovery from a devastating Dec. 10 tornado.
Here’s a shameless plug for you to check out my story on a Christian couple’s unlikely relief effort in that western Kentucky community.
Happy Friday, everyone! Enjoy the weekend.
Bobby Ross Jr. is a columnist for ReligionUnplugged.com and editor-in-chief of The Christian Chronicle. A former religion writer for The Associated Press and The Oklahoman, Ross has reported from all 50 states and 15 nations. He has covered religion since 1999.