OUR COMMUNITY
Congregation Beth Israel Synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, Jan. 15, 2022
Examining the courage required to be a rabbi, community support, antisemitism and security.
HOWARD LUPOVITCH
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JANUARY 27 • 2022
CONGREGATION SHAAREY ZEDEK
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s far back as Abraham and Sarah, Jews have been taught to be a welcoming people. Congregations and those who lead them have long championed the message, opening their doors, literally and figuratively, to their members and the broader community. “These are open spaces; there’s a strong, deeply rooted notion in Judaism about kindness to strangers and welcoming strangers,” says Howard Lupovitch, associate professor of history and director of the Cohn-Haddow Center for Judaic Studies at Wayne Howard State University in Lupovitch Detroit. “So, a synagogue and rabbi, as part of their training, they’ve been taught to imbue and to
teach and to live this value.” The Jan. 15 hostage situation at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas, comes as a reminder that abiding by this value is not without risks. Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker had graciously invited a man in from the cold and offered him a cup of tea, unaware the visitor would soon take him and three congregants hostage at gunpoint. In 1966, Rabbi Morris Adler was fatally shot by a 23-year-old congregant while Adler was conducting Shabbat services and a bar mitzvah at Congregation Shaarey Zedek (CSZ) in Southfield. “Because of that tragedy that took place on the Shaarey Zedek bimah, there’s not a Shabbat that goes by that I’m not mindful of the fact Rabbi Aaron Starr that we are at risk,”
says CSZ’s Rabbi Aaron Starr. Security, he says, has been on members’ minds for more than 50 years now. Starr is a longtime friend of Cytron-Walker, who grew up in Lansing. They lived in the same dorm at University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and both participated in NFTY Michigan, a Reform Jewish youth group. Starr also is a friend of Rabbi Angela Buchdahl, a New York-based rabbi who ended up becoming part of the story. The hostage-taker demanded Cytron-Walker contact her that Saturday to try and secure the release of Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist serving 86 years in jail for attacking American troops in Afghanistan. “I happen to know both of these [rabbis], but it’s not about me, it’s about them and their true heroism and commitment
DEVORAH TITUNIK
KAREN SCHWARTZ CONTRIBUTING WRITER
to saving Jewish lives,” Starr says. “And I think all of us are trying to do that, whether it’s compassion for our friends and family, or standing up for what’s right, or literally saving someone’s life, if that’s what we’re called upon to do.” He pointed to the courage of rabbis all over the world in speaking truth to power, bringing to light issues of ethics and morality, and trying to address questions of justice in a world rife with injustice. “A rabbi, by his or her nature, has to be courageous in ways large and small,” Starr says. “Please God, we won’t have to be put in the situation of defending our community physically the way Rabbi Cytron-Walker did, but it takes a lot of courage to be a rabbi.” Devorah Titunik, a longtime member of Congregation Beth Israel who grew up in Ann Devorah Arbor, was Titunik watching the livestreamed Jan. 15 Shabbat
ANDY JACOBSOHN/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES VIA JTA
Hostage Aftermath
Ra Cy co Co Is Te
