Colleyville resident Lisa Grossman hasn’t had a Saturday morning as stressful, worrisome, disruptive, and difficult since the one last January a year ago this week.
Enjoying coffee and her cats, Grossman’s calm morning was disrupted that cold day by a police officer banging at the door of her family home. That home of seven years sits adjacent to Congregation Beth Israel.
“It was hard for me because I was evacuated without information,” she remembers. “I was told to get out now, but not told why.”
She saw numerous police cars as she worried about her neighbors, the worshipers at the Colleyville synagogue she knew would be holding a Shabbat service at that time.
What she and the world soon knew was that Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker and three Jewish followers were being held hostage.
Dramatic, Tragic Day
The gun-carrying Malik Faisal Akram, a 44-year-old British national, interrupted the synagogue’s morning service, which was being live-streamed. He took the men hostage at gunpoint in the synagogue, while law enforcement encircled the building. After an excruciating and tense day of negotiations, the hostages ultimately made a dramatic escape while police fatally shot Akram.
During the past year, things have both changed and stayed the same at Congregation Beth Israel. Normal rituals continued. Programs were presented. Rites of passage took place.
The physical building has been repaired — the walls painted and the floors replaced. As on that January day of 2022, when a handful of people were worshiping in person and more online, the congregation still offers services in a hybrid model now adopted by many houses of worship since the pandemic.
Welcoming a New Rabbi
Rabbi Cytron-Walker, who had announced a career move prior to the January tragedy, left Colleyville where he came in 2006 to the new synagogue in northeast Tarrant County. He is now rabbi at Temple Emanuel in Winston-Salem, NC., where his installation is scheduled for Jan. 27 and 28. He also spoke during Hannukah at the White House.
Congregation Beth Israel welcomed a new, interim rabbi, Scott Sperling, July 1. Sperling has served congregations in several states, has been an educator and has consulted. He’s in Texas now, helping the synagogue’s members to heal, until the next permanent rabbi is hired. “We’re working our way back to whatever is going to pass for normalcy,” Sperling said, just days after marking the first anniversary of the hostage situation. “I found exactly what I expected. This has been a great experience and they’re wonderful people here. I am happy to have been of service to the people here who have, as we say, gone through a rough patch.”
Traditions Continue, Re-Opening Celebrated
Church activities continued, even before the doors re-opened in April after renovations. Laura Mydlarz, a Congregational Beth Israel member of 10 years, had been shepherding her daughter Lilia through her bat mitzvah studies. They were there, too, the day the synagogue celebrated its return to the building, carrying the Torahs back into the sanctuary.
“It was really great,” Mydlarz remembered. “We were singing and chanting and dancing.”
But there had been some difficult times. The hostage situation disrupted Lilia’s studies. Going near the synagogue was stressful, but Dec. 3, 2022, Lilia proudly read from the Torah in the sanctuary with Rabbi Sperling and her mother nearby.
“It was amazing, proud, triumphant, I suppose, because we were still there,” Mydlarz said. “I wrote in my blessing to her that I didn’t realize how much you need that physical building to feel safe. I felt like we’re still here and we value and feel safe in that space.”
Community Supports Congregation’s Future
At its regular service this week, Congregational Beth Israel marked the one-year anniversary of a tragic day that is now part of its history. Sperling said in addition to members, the congregation invited community members, including first responders to the service in a gesture of gratitude.
Members of two neighboring churches brought their Jewish neighbors flowers to mark the date.
“With the level of support we have had from our faith neighbors who literally stood with us we feel embraced, protected and cared for,” the rabbi said. “Our community has been there in the way we would have hoped. There are good and loving people.
Now police are present during synagogue activities, and a new gate remains locked when the synagogue is idle. The congregation has dealt with reality, but the outlook is positive.
“We are stronger now,” Mydlarz said. “It definitely feels different. The gate was never there, but we’re definitely stronger. We’re going to persist. The community is strong, and we’ve come together. We’re determined to pick up the pieces and heal.”
Rabbi Sperling agrees.
“I am convinced that the future of Congregation Beth Israel is very bright,” the rabbi said. “They will continue to bounce back and make a good choice for their next rabbi and their community to rally around them.”
