Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker, spiritual leader of Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas, spoke of love and gratitude at a Jan. 17 healing service showing a familiar quality to Ohio rabbis who knew him in his youth, as a rabbinical student and today.

In Texas, Rabbi Daniel Utley told the Cleveland Jewish News Jan. 17 that he and Dallas-area clergy hope to reach out to Cytron-Walker, whom he said is well-respected and has helped build Congregation Beth Israel.

It was really special to see how Rabbi Cytron-Walkers efforts saved lives and defused the situation as best as possible, said Utley, the associate rabbi of Temple Emanu-El in Dallas, and who grew up in Beachwood. Weve all been very proud to see that. We know what a wonderful man he is and what a wonderful rabbi he is. ... I can imagine his ability as a pastoral caregiver were put to work and his training was put to work throughout the day.

On Jan. 15, Cytron-Walker allowed a man into Congregation Beth Israel prior to the beginning of Shabbat services because it had been a particularly cold day in North Texas and he served him a cup of tea, according to media reports. Services were being livestreamed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The man, Malik Faisal Akram, ended up holding the rabbi and three congregants hostage for more than 10 hours.

One hostage was freed in late afternoon and the others escaped after the hostage-taker told the men to kneel, according to The New York Times. Thats when Cytron-Walker threw a chair at him and the three remaining hostages ran outside to safety.

Cytron-Walker received his rabbinical ordination in 2006 and a masters in Hebrew letters in 2005 from Hebrew Union CollegeJewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati. As a student, he served congregations in Ishpeming, Mich., Fort Walton Beach, Fla., and Cincinnati. During his time at HUC-JIR, he received multiple awards for his service to the community, along with an award for leadership from QESHET: A Network of LGBT Reform rabbis, according to his bio on his synagogues website.

On Jan. 17, Cytron-Walker spoke at the healing service at Whites Chapel United Methodist Church in Southlake, Texas.

There, he thanked all who had reached out to him and to the congregation since the ordeal.

Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker speaks of love and gratitude at a healing service Jan. 17 at Whites Chapel United Methodist Church in Southlake, Texas. There were 32,000 views on Facebook as of Jan. 18.

I have led or helped to lead too many of these services; I have mourned at too many vigils for Jews, for Muslims, for Christians and more, so many more, people, he said. And I am so grateful, so unbelievably grateful, that we are tonight unlike every other service like this that I have done tonight we will not be saying our traditional prayer for mourning, that no one will be saying Kaddish Yatom for me or for any of us, the Mourners Kaddish, this evening.

Thank G-d. Thank G-d. It could have been so much worse and I am overflowing, truly overflowing, with gratitude, he said.

Cytron-Walker thanked those in the sanctuary, a sanctuary far larger than the one at his synagogue, he said, and he thanked those who watched online, which numbered 32,000 as of the following day.

Cytron-Walker grew up in Lansing, Mich. Rabbi Robert N. Nosanchuk at Anshe Chesed Fairmount Temple in Beachwood met Cytron-Walker when Cytron-Walker was a fifth grader. Nosanchuk was his youth group adviser while in college in East Lansing, Mich., and knows Cytron-Walker and his mother, Nosanchuk told his congregation in a Jan. 15 email, in which he expressed prayers for the safety of the hostages. Cytron-Walker graduated from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

At the healing service, Cytron-Walker quoted the Talmud that a person who saves one life, saves a world.

When terrible things happen to me and you feel it, thats empathy, he said. Thats compassion. And thats what enables us to see each other in spite of all our differences. It enables us to see each other as human beings, as infinitely valuable because every person, every world is infinitely valuable.

He also spoke of the importance of reaching across divides to make friends.

Because heres the thing, if we live that value we might have a lot more friends that we disagree with, a lot more friends that we dont see eye to eye with, but well have a lot fewer enemies.

Quoting Martin Luther King Jr. on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, he said, Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.

He also said viewing each person as of infinite value, Thats on each and every one of us to work on.

Hazan Jeffrey S. Weber leads Olam Chesed Yebaneh at a healing service Jan. 17.

Rabbi Rick Kellner, spiritual leader of Congregation Beth Tikvah in Worthington, a Columbus suburb, said he met Cytron-Walker when both were first-year rabbinical students at HUC-JIRs Jerusalem campus. Kellner then attended the Los Angeles campus and Cytron-Walker headed to the Cincinnati campus.

Kellner told the CJN Jan. 18 that Cytron-Walker is loving, kind and calm. He said he has seen Cytron-Walker at Central Conference of American Rabbis conventions and that he looks forward to his conversations with him.

He leads with his heart, Kellner said. He leads with his soul.

Kellner said Cytron-Walker is giving and heartfelt and deeply intuitive about the world around us.

At the healing service, Cytron-Walker spoke to his congregation.

To my CBI (Congregation Beth Israel) family, I wish I had a magic wand, he said. I wish I could take away all of our pain and struggle. I know that this violation of our spiritual home was traumatic for each and every one of us, and not just us. And the road ahead, this is going to be a process.

However, he said, Like any journey, we will take the next step.

We will comfort each other, and we will lean on each other, and we will understand that each of us will respond in our own way and we will have patience with each other even when we get on each others nerves I can hope, he said. It will take time, but we will heal together. Together, all of us, we will heal together.

The healing service included readings by past presidents of Congregation Beth Israel and songs led by cantors. It closed with the song, Olam Chesed Yibaneh, written by Rabbi Menachem Creditor. It includes the lyrics, If we build this world from love, then G-d will build this world from love.

Rabbi Josh Brown of Temple Israel in Bath Township, who attended HUC-JIR, said he met Cytron-Walker in Cincinnati because Cytron-Walker had been assigned to help lead orientation for incoming rabbinical students.

I have always known Charlie to be deeply committed to learning, to justice and to smiling a lot, Brown wrote his congregants in a Jan. 16 email. He is best described as a pure mensch. Thank G-d the world will continue to benefit from his shining light and the lives of the other hostages who survived yesterdays attack.

Brown told the CJN Jan. 18, I remember him, I think, much like he presented himself at the vigil last night. ... I remember him as being a very smart, justice-oriented, happy, menschy guy.

He said Cytron-Walker presented himself authentically.

I think what we saw from the leadership at the pulpit these last few days and on the interviews has been very much what I remember of him, Brown said.

Utley said his congregation has a healing service Jan. 21 and that prayers for Congregation Beth Israel and Cytron-Walker will be included in that previously scheduled service.

Were trying to encourage people that the response to these situations is to be prepared, make sure our physical security is upright and ... ready to respond, but also that our spiritual path is strong, he said. If we step out and step forward in the Jewish community and continue building vibrant Jewish lives together, thats our best response to antisemitism, to hatred of all kinds.

Cytron-Walkers first post on Facebook following the situation was one of gratitude: I am thankful and filled with appreciation for / All of the vigils and prayers and love and support, / All of the law enforcement and first responders who cared for us, / All of the security training that helped save us. / I am grateful for my family. / I am grateful for the CBI Community, the Jewish Community, the Human Community. / I am grateful that we made it out. / I am grateful to be alive.

More here:

Rabbi Cytron-Walker described as 'menschy guy' by area rabbis - Cleveland Jewish News