Emotions have been everywhere over what happened in Colleyville Saturday night — relief, gratitude, anger, fear, frustration, exhaustion.
The attack on Congregation Beth Israel ended without the bloodshed of the innocent, an answer to many prayers being sent up from every faith community in this region. We are all thankful for that.
Moments like this give all of us so much to think about as the emotions settle, as we catch our breath and consider what was and what could have been, and as we think about why these sorts of terrible things ever happen.
We are so quick today to make enemies of those with whom we differ politically. We should stop. We should take a moment like this to calculate the difference between something with which we strongly disagree and that which is truly horrible and terrible and deserves the name evil because it would steal innocent lives for its own ends.
That a Jewish synagogue was targeted is a reminder that an entire people have been scapegoated and demonized throughout history. It can happen again, and we must not let it.
Even as we think about these things, there is also an opportunity to reflect on what is good.
Inside that synagogue, where Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker and three others were held for 11 hours, great courage and the deepest human decency were on display.
According to reports from the livestream of what were to be services, but that turned into terror, the hostage-taker was welcomed with kindness.
“They let me in. I said ‘Is this a night shelter?’ and they let me in and they gave me a cup of tea so I do feel bad,” he said, according to The Times of Israel. He went on: “I like the rabbi, he’s a good guy, I bonded with him, I really like him. … I’ve only been here for a couple hours but I can see he’s a good guy.”
Imam Omar Suleiman, long a leader in interfaith dialogue that has brought him great personal risk, was among those to speak up for his “Jewish neighbors” and Cytron-Walker, a friend he knows as Rabbi Charlie. The Council on American-Islamic Relations also quickly condemned the attack.
It matters that we speak up for one another and for those most at risk. We know that we are becoming an increasingly intolerant people — intolerant of one another’s differences and perspectives. Jewish people understand that comes at a terrible price when it turns from disagreement to prejudice to violence.
We should use this moment — thankfully without the spilling of innocent blood — to reflect on all of these things.
There were two kinds of people at Congregation Beth Israel. One was angry, ranting and threatening violence. The others had opened their arms and their hearts and called the stranger in from the cold.
