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.
CONTINUE READING: “A Personal Connection To Synagogue Where Hostages Were Taken, Plus 5 Key Storylines,” by Bobby Ross, Jr., at Religion Unplugged.