Texas Rabbi Warns Against Fear: 'I Continue To Wear My Yarmulke Proudly'

Dallas TX

21 January, 2022

7:07 PM

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By Lauren Markoe, Arno Rosenfeld, Louis Keene and Asaf Shalev, The Forward January 21, 2022 The Texas rabbi who survived a hostage-taking at his synagogue on Saturday said Thursday he wears a yarmulke everywhere he goes in his North Texas community, but that others should choose for themselves whether to wear Jewish symbols in public. "People need to do what they're good with," said Charlie Cytron-Walker. "I get a lot of positivity. That's not necessarily the case everywhere in the country. And it really depends on who you are and what your comfort level is." Rabbi Cytron-Walker, who escaped from the hostage-taker along with three congregants, made his remarks on an hourlong Zoom call sponsored by the Anti-Defamation League on which FBI Director Christopher Wray also spoke. The rabbi said that Beth Israel, in Colleyville, a Fort Worth suburb, would be hosting services this week on both Friday and Saturday, and that its religious school would be open on Sunday. "I don't believe, in spite of the increase in antisemitism, this is necessarily a time of danger," he added. "I continue to wear my yarmulke proudly. It's really up to you. And I would hope and I would pray that we're able to get past the sense of fear." Wray assured the Jewish community that the FBI has its back, but also acknowledged that combating antisemitic threats has become more challenging in recent years. He had worked on the investigation that followed 9/11, he said, a plot which involved many people planning over a long length of time, and raising significant amounts of money. "There's a lot of dots to connect," he said, describing complicated other terror plans like that behind 9/11. But in recent years, he said, more antisemitic attacks have been carried out by lone wolves, and have tended to be fairly simple. "There are a lot fewer dots," he said. "And a lot less time in which to connect them." That is why, he said, it's so important for the Jewish community to continue to work with the FBI and other law enforcement agencies, and to come forward with any information that might help prevent an incident. "The eyes and ears part is huge," he said. Wray, Cytron-Walker and the ADL leaders on the call urged listeners to take courses in security training, which all said were critical to ending the 11-hour standoff with all the hostages safe. Cytron-Walker, who has gone through a security-training course, threw a chair at the gunman, Malik Faisal Akram, distracting Akram so he and the other remaining hostages — one older hostage who had been freed a few hours before — could flee to safety. Law enforcement then killed the gunman, who throughout the ordeal had expressed a belief in conspiracy theories about Jews controlling the world. Cytron-Walker said he didn't detect anything threatening about Akram when he first came to the synagogue and asked the rabbi if it was a shelter, saying that he had had little to eat. "I did an initial look at him. He looked like he was telling the truth. There were no initial red flags. So we opened the door." The Forward, founded in 1897, is an independent, nonprofit digital newsroom hosting and driving the American Jewish conversation. Sign up for our free daily newsletter of Jewish news, culture and opinion; follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram; and click here to support Jewish journalism with a donation.