January 16, 2022
60-40 NATION:
Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker, the 'mensch' liked even by the man who took him hostage: Friends and acquaintances describe a Jewish leader in Texas whose wholehearted dedication to community life and interfaith work earned him friends everywhere (ANDREW LAPIN,k 1/16/22, Times of Israel)
Congregation Beth Israel was founded in 1998 as an informal community in a rapidly growing suburb of Fort Worth, located just miles from the Dallas-Fort Worth airport. Cytron-Walker, who joined the Reform congregation in 2006 after graduating from rabbinical school, has been its only full-time rabbi.In that role, he has tackled the everyday challenges of synagogue leadership -- seeking out a virtual program when COVID-19 forced Beth Israel's Hebrew school to go online, for example -- while also becoming well known in the area for his interfaith and social justice work.He has made friends everywhere he has gone, locally and across the extended network of Reform and Conservative rabbis who poured out their recollections of studying and working with him over the years. Colleyville's police chief called Cytron-Walker a close personal friend. Even the man who attacked the synagogue praised him, saying on the live-streamed audio that the rabbi had welcomed him into the building when he knocked on the door asking whether the synagogue was a shelter. "I bonded with him," the man said. "I really like him."
Posted by Orrin Judd at January 16, 2022 11:24 AM