Gunman asked to speak with Rabbi Angela Buchdahl

TEXAS SYNAGOGUE HOSTAGES

Following the Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh in 2018, Cytron-Walker delivered a sermon to his congregation in which he thanked the local community for standing by their side and offering support. Eleven Jews were killed during Shabbat morning services in Pittsburgh.

“Too many times in Jewish history we faced tragedy without love or support,” he said, in remarks he later posted to Facebook. “Too many times to count, we were left to pick up the pieces of tragedy and destruction. Believe me. The love and suppormatters….

“Thank you for helping us through these dark times,” he concluded. “Thank you for standing together.”

Cytron-Walker’s mother, Judy Walker, is still a member of Congregation Shaarey Zedek in East Lansing, and the congregation’s rabbi, Amy Bigman, was with her as news of the hostage situation emerged. Through Bigman, Walker declined to comment to JTA but said she appreciated prayers.

“I’ve known Charlie since he was in high school,” Bigman says. “He is quite simply a mensch.”

Smith, who was one of the first people to post on Twitter about the situation at the synagogue where she grew up, said during a live spoken vigil on the platform that she had traveled with Cytron-Walker to Washington, D.C., as a high school student several years ago for a social justice seminar organized by the Reform movement. She described the experience as pivotal in her own attitudes about effecting political change.

She also offered perhaps the only unflattering insight shared about CytronWalker all day—as part of a prayer for his safe release.

“He’s the worst singer in the world. He cannot hold a tune to save his life,” Smith said. “I hope that he’ll get a chance to pray off-tune very loudly at another Shabbat service.”

Shortly before 10 pm, more than 11 hours after Congregation Beth Israel’s Shabbat services began, Smith and the rest of the world learned that that would in fact be the case. Cytron-Walker was free, unharmed, along with the three people he had been praying with that morning. After meeting with FBI agents, officials said, he was reunited with his family.

Texas synagogue gunman spoke twice to Rabbi Angela Buchdahl in New York City

Philissa Cramer

(JTA)—Among the details that trickled out of Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas, on Saturday, January 15 while the rabbi and three congregants were being held hostage was the fact that a New York rabbi had been conscripted into negotiations.

That rabbi was Angela Buchdahl, senior rabbi at Central Synagogue and a leading figure in Reform Judaism. Buchdahl confirmed her involvement to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency saying she spoke twice to the attacker.

“I can confirm that the gunman reached out to me twice yesterday by phone,” Buchdahl wrote in an email. “We are about to share a note with the congregation just confirming that. Other than that for security reasons I cannot share more.”

It is unclear why Buchdahl wound up on the phone during the 11-hour standoff, which began during Congregation Beth Israel’s Shabbat morning services. But Buchdahl is widely known—even appearing as a clue recently on Jeopardy!—and her synagogue’s name, which refers to its location in New York City, may lend itself to the impression that it is an official hub of power in Jewish communities.

Central Synagogue’s executive director and president said in the email to congregants that Buchdahl had no prior relationship with the gunman and that she “immediately contacted law enforcement and followed their directions” after receiving the call.

A law enforcement source told the New York Post that the gunman called Central Synagogue directly and demanded to speak to Buchdahl. The gunman told Buchdahl that he had a bomb and wanted her to use her influence to secure the release of Aafia Siddiqui, a convicted terrorist who is in a federal prison in Texas.

An FBI source said on CNN that the New York rabbi who had been contacted had been interviewed by FBI investigators.

Congregation Beth Israel’s Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker was ordained by Hebrew Union College, the Reform movement’s rabbinical school, in 2006, five years after Buchdahl.

“It was a surreal and scary day,” Buchdahl told JTA. “I am so grateful for the outcome.”

Mayorkas, Garland and other US officials meet with Jewish groups to discuss synagogue security post-Colleyville

Andrew Lapin

(JTA)—Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said the United States considers the hostage-taking at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas, “an act of terror” and “an antisemitic attack targeting the Jewish community,” according to a Jewish leader who joined a phone call with top U.S. officials Tuesday, January 18.

Majorkas, Attorney General Merrick Garland, FBI Director Chris Wray and other national security officials held a call with major Jewish groups to discuss synagogue security concerns in the wake of the week’s hostage crisis in Texas.

The executive director for the Orthodox Union Advocacy Center, Nathan Diament, described the discussion to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency as a meeting of around 1,200 synagogue leaders, including representatives from the OU as well as the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. Diament also said that representatives at the Union for Reform Judaism and United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism had been alerted.

Garland and Mayorkas, both of whom are Jewish, spoke about the personal resonance the attack has had for them, according to a report in the Forward. Mayorkas said he did not get to plant his annual tree for Tu B’Shvat as he normally does.

Garland described seeing police cars in front of his own synagogue. Garland and his family are longtime members of Temple Sinai in Bethesda, Maryland.

“This is not the way it should have to be in America, but unfortunately it is the way,” he said.

During the call, which lasted for more than an hour, federal officials reiterated security measures already in place, such as Nonprofit Security Grant Program funds available to synagogues, email information systems available for local congregations to sign up for, and online resources for synagogue security training.

“The purpose of convening this Zoom in the wake of the terrible events in Texas was twofold,” Diament said. “One, we thought was important for the synagogue community to directly hear from these national leaders a message of reassurance and solidarity and commitment to combating antisemitism. And secondly, to also hear from them about the current threat environment and any top-line additional, practical steps that they ought to be taking in the coming days or weeks.”

Also on the call were Melissa Rogers, White House executive director of faithbased and neighborhood partnerships, and other federal undersecretaries.