January 23, 2025
By Stephen Silver as published in Philadelphia Jewish Exponent
Back in April 2023, Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker, the rabbi who survived the Colleyville hostage situation in January 2022, visited Philadelphia, not long after the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History received two artifacts from that day: the chair that the rabbi threw at the gunman to enable the hostages’ rescue and the teacup that he had served him earlier in the day.
On Jan. 16 — three years and a day after the hostage ordeal at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas — Rabbi Cytron-Walker returned to the Weitzman. This time, the occasion was a showing of “Colleyville,” a new documentary about the hostage situation.
After the screening, the rabbi appeared on stage for a talk with the film’s director, the prolific Israeli filmmaker Dani Menkin, that was moderated by Rabbi Jill Maderer of Congregation Rodeph Shalom, a longtime friend of Rabbi Cytron-Walker.
The event drew a respectable showing to the museum, despite taking place on a snowy winter night.
“There’s a lot of gratitude that I bring,” Rabbi Cytron-Walker said during the Q&A. “Because while it was a challenging day on every level, there’s so many things that went right. Among those, we didn’t see someone get killed in front of us. None of us were physically injured. There were so many that could have made that situation worse, but all of us survived.”
The rabbi added that, while he saw three therapists after the incident and has had some difficult moments, he has not suffered any posttraumatic stress from the event.
Menkin, the filmmaker, said he was taken with the rabbi continuing to hold up his values, including welcoming the stranger, even after the hostage situation.
“Keeping your values, after those extremists tried to hurt you … I think that is the greatest victory,” Menkin said, adding that this is what brought him to the film.
Rabbi Maderer said in the Q&A that, while she realizes Cytron-Walker, whom she has known since before either of them was ordained, is “slow to be called a hero, I think what I’d like to do is call Judaism and Torah and Jewish values the hero here.”
Rabbi Cytron-Walker, who noted that “Judaism is not a pacifistic tradition and we’re commanded to defend ourselves,” has been quick to point at the FBI-hosted multifaith training he had taken for knowing what to do and having the courage to throw the chair that day.
The incident took place during a Shabbat morning service at the Texas Reform synagogue on Jan. 15, 2022, during a stage of the COVID pandemic when only a handful of worshippers showed up in person, with others watching on Zoom.
The gunman first entered the synagogue asking for shelter before eventually pulling a gun. His demands were for the release of Aafia Siddiqui, the convicted terrorist known as “Lady al-Qaida.” Steeped in antisemitic conspiracy theories about Jews being all-powerful, he asked the rabbi to call Rabbi Angela Buchdahl of New York’s Central Synagogue, believing she had the power to compel Siddiqui’s release.
“This is what happens when people believe the lies of antisemitism,” Rabbi Cytron-Walker said on the panel. “This is what happens when extremism, and misinformation, and disinformation is allowed to persist unabated. There are some people who will actually believe it.”
The 11-hour ordeal, which was covered extensively by news outlets and followed closely by Jewish communities around the world, ended when the rabbi threw a chair at the gunman and directed the rest of the hostages out the door safely. Law enforcement soon entered the synagogue and shot and killed the gunman.
Menkin’s film “Picture of His Life” was the opening film of the 2019 Fall Fest, put on by what’s now called Philadelphia Jewish Film and Media, which co-presented the “Colleyville” event.
This documentary takes a granular approach to the Colleyville incident. It depicts the entire day, using footage from the livestream of the synagogue services online and later and security camera footage from different parts of the synagogue. There are also interviews with the survivors, their loved ones, FBI agents and other law enforcement personnel who were present that day, then-Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Buchdahl, who hosted a screening of the film at Central Synagogue on the actual anniversary, the night before the Weitzman event.
It plays a lot like a tense thriller, even though everyone watching the film will know exactly what happened and how it ended.
Menkin said in the Q&A that he had worked on the film for a year, mostly telling the story with talking heads, before a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request — a first for his career — landed him access to the security camera footage, which changed the plan.
The cameras didn’t catch every moment of the day, but they captured most of the important ones. Others are rendered with animation.
There’s also some absurdity and unexpected dark humor. Rabbi Buchdahl speculates that the gunman may have known to involve her because her name had been a question on “Jeopardy” not long before. Shane Woodward, a hostage who at the time was still in the process of converting to Judaism, tells the rabbi near the end of the ordeal that despite it all, he still wants to convert, leading to an unexpected laugh. The hostages are shown receiving a pizza delivery and eating it.
Rabbi Cytron-Walker spoke extensively about how the interfaith community in Colleyville provided strength for him and his family during and after the ordeal, including the three Muslim community leaders who welcomed the rabbi’s wife, Adena, while the hostage situation was ongoing.
“Colleyville” has not yet landed official distribution, but Menkin is doing one-off screenings in different cities and hopes to play the film at Jewish film festivals.
Stephen Silver is a Broomall-based freelance writer.