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Charlie Cytron-Walker,
Rabbi From 2022 Texas Hostage
Situation, Visits Philadelphia
Stephen Silver
M From left: Jane Eisner, the director of academic aff airs at the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University,
Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker and Reverend Mark Kelly Tyler, pastor of Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal
Church in Philadelphia
to the gunman — were donated to
the Weitzman National Museum of
American Jewish History. And on April
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6 MAY 4, 2023 | JEWISH EXPONENT
27, Cytron-Walker visited Philadelphia
and was reunited with those items for
the fi rst time.

“If this exhibit, if its presence here can
help raise awareness, and bring atten-
tion, and call attention to the antisem-
itism that exists with our world, it’s
very much a positive and hopefully,
we’re going to start to see reductions
of hate,” Cytron-Walker told the Jewish
Exponent in an interview.

The museum
approached Congregation Beth Israel shortly after
the hostage situation about the items,
and Josh Perelman, the museum’s chief
curator, revealed that the FBI had to
clear the chair before it was approved
for donation to the museum.

Cytron-Walker has since switched
pulpits, taking over last summer at
Temple Emanuel in Winston-Salem,
North Carolina. He explained how the
experience has changed how he views
his work.

“It hasn’t really changed my approach
to how I am a rabbi and who I am as
a rabbi. It’s given me an opportunity
to raise awareness about issues of
security, raise awareness about issues
of antisemitism … but in terms of my
approach to the congregation, and the
community, the importance of relation-
ships, the importance of supporting
one another, in every moment of life,
the importance of being welcoming to
all members of my community — that
incident hasn’t impacted me in that
respect.” The incident has caused the rabbi to
think about the balance between the
Jewish commandment to welcome the
stranger and concerns about security.

“It’s just affi rmed the importance of No.

1, making sure that security protocols,
emergency procedures, that these are
things that a congregation or a commu-
nity has thought about in advance- and
that’s not just a Jewish thing, that’s an
everybody thing,” he said. “We need to
know what the emergency procedures
... what happens in a community when
everything doesn’t go right … and if
you know that, and you’re prepared for
those moments, then the welcome that
you can give and the hospitality that
can be off ered, should come naturally,
and should come wholeheartedly.”
The rabbi, who has family in the
area, was in Philadelphia to see the
artifacts, to meet with the local board
of the Anti-Defamation League, and to
participate in an event that evening at
the Weitzman called “Faith in the Face
of Hate.” Cytron-Walker and Reverend
Mark Kelly Tyler, pastor of Mother Bethel
African Methodist Episcopal Church
See Cytron-Walker, page 22
Photos by Stephen SIlver
ost Jews in Philadelphia, and the
United States, remember where
they were on Jan. 15, 2022, when a
gunman held four people hostage at
Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville,
Texas. After the 11-hour ordeal, the
synagogue’s rabbi, Charlie Cytron-
Walker, threw a chair at the gunman,
leading himself and the other hostages
out the door before the FBI Hostage
Rescue Team entered the synagogue
and shot the gunman.

Just over a year ago, two artifacts
from that day — the chair the rabbi
threw, and the cup of tea he off ered