Their synagogue taught them to build peace. Then an antisemitic attack hit

CNN

4 days ago

Fifteen minutes outside of downtown Boulder, Colorado, sandwiched between a golf course and a marsh, is Congregation Bonai Shalom.
In Hebrew, bonai shalom means 'builders of peace,' and the congregation welcomes both Jews and non-Jews to participate in all aspects of the community.
But that peace was shattered when an antisemitic attack at an event in support of hostages in Gaza left six members of the congregation injured, including one woman who was a Holocaust survivor.
The attack, the latest in a wave of antisemitic violence that has stretched from coast to coast, has further horrified the Jewish community.
'The fact that in 2025 someone can just literally try to burn Jews to death on the streets of Boulder, Colorado, is shocking,' Congregation Bonai Shalom Rabbi Marc Soloway said.
'We're grieving.'
Six others were injured in the firebombing attack. Some suffered severe burns.
The suspected attacker, Mohamed Soliman, has been charged with hate crime and attempted murder.
The emotional trauma is 'immense,' Soloway said.
'I still feel ripples,' he said, telling CNN's Erica Hill the whole Jewish community is 'traumatized.' One congregant is 'touch-and-go' with horrific burns all over her body, Soloway said. The attack, he added, brought back 'horrendous memories' of our own Jewish history.
Barbara Steinmetz, who escaped the Holocaust as a child, was one of the congregants injured in Sunday's attack. Steinmetz said her family fled Europe in the 1940s, according to the CU Independent, the student news website for the University of Colorado Boulder.
Her father, she said, applied for asylum to countless countries before the Dominican Republic accepted them. The family immigrated to the United States years later, and she moved to Boulder in 2006. Steinmetz was honored by the Boulder Jewish Community Center in 2020 for creating positive change throughout Boulder County.
Jonathan Lev, executive director at the Boulder Jewish Community Center, said the victims were pillars who helped build the community.
'They bring to life what Jewish life can be,' he said.
After what happened on Sunday, he said, 'how could you not be scared?'
The shock traveled to Pittsburgh, where Michael Bernstein, chair of the board for the Tree of Life, said it felt all too familiar — and brought back recent memories.
In 2018, a gunman killed 11 worshippers and wounded six others at the Tree of Life Synagogue. It was the deadliest-ever attack on Jewish people in the United States.
'The hearts of our community, I know, are aching right now,' Bernstein told CNN's Bianna Golodryga. 'We know what happens when an attack like this shatters a community.'
The Boulder Jewish Community Center, just down the road from Congregation Bonai Shalom, is hosting a community vigil Wednesday night.
'Healing begins with coming together in community,' a joint statement from leaders in the Boulder Jewish community said.
'We're resilient,' Soloway added. 'We're here for each other, and we'll get through it.'
He said peaceful walks for the Israeli hostages in Gaza, like the one his congregants were participating in on Sunday, should continue.
Congregation Bonai Shalom's calendar is packed with summer events. There are shabbat services and bar mitzvahs. On Thursday, there's a conversation about immigration scheduled. A poetry and reflection meeting is planned for the end of the month.
A Boulder Jewish Festival will still take place on Sunday despite the attack.
We are 'taking steps to reimagine the event in a way that helps our community heal and feels grounded in the reality' of the attack, the Boulder Jewish community's statement said.
Continuing to celebrate the Jewish community and traditions is part of the healing process, said Maggie Feinstein, the director of a healing partnership founded in Pittsburgh after the Tree of Life shooting.
She encouraged those affected by the attacks to lean into Jewish joy and ritual.
'Don't shy away from that, even though that was what somebody tries to tear apart,' Feinstein said. 'If we stop the ritual of joy, then it's hard to be resilient.'
Lev, the Boulder Jewish Community Center executive director, said the community is choosing to respond to the grief and threat with 'love, connection and community.'
Soloway said he and his congregation have received 'outpourings of love from other faith partners.'
'They're here for us, we're here for each other,' he said.
His congregation already had an event planned for Friday before Sunday's attack. The session, planned before the attack, is timely.
Reverend Pedro Senhorinha Silva, Soloway's friend, is scheduled to lead a reflection called 'Joy Comes in the Morning.'
The session, the congregation said, will explore how to hold grief in one hand and joy in the other.
CNN's Alisha Ebrahimji and Shimon Prokupecz contributed to this report.