Latest news with #HolocaustSurvivor
CNN
5 hours ago
- CNN
Their synagogue taught them to build peace. Then an antisemitic attack hit
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 at least six members of the congregation injured, including one woman who is 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.' Authorities said Wednesday there were at least 15 victims of the firebombing attack, including some who suffered severe burns. A dog was also injured, the FBI Denver office said. 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 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 is timely. The Rev. 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.
Arab News
14 hours ago
- Arab News
What we know about the Colorado attack on demonstrators for the release of Israeli hostages
BOULDER, Colorado: The man charged with injuring more than a dozen people in Boulder, Colorado, who were demonstrating for the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza, went disguised as a gardener and told police his initial plan was to kill them all. Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, faces hate crime charges in federal court and multiple state charges, including attempted murder. Soliman — whose first name also was spelled Mohammed in some court documents — yelled 'Free Palestine' and threw two of 18 Molotov cocktails he was carrying Sunday, injuring more than half of the estimated 20 people demonstrating, police said. Authorities said Soliman shied away from his plan to kill the entire group but expressed no regrets about the attack. Boulder County officials said Wednesday the number of victims climbed from 12 to 15, plus a dog. The Associated Press left an email message with prosecutors seeking more details on the newly identified victims and the dog. Among those injured was a Holocaust survivor who did not want her name shared publicly, said Ginger Delgado of the Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office, who is acting as a spokesperson for the family. What's next for the suspect? Soliman was being held on a $10 million, cash-only bond. He is due back in a Boulder County courtroom Thursday. More charges are possible in federal court. Public defender Kathryn Herold is representing Soliman. She declined to comment after Monday's hearing, where he initially was charged, as is common with Colorado public defenders. Soliman was living in the US illegally after entering the country in August 2022 on a visa that expired in February 2023, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said. Soliman filed for asylum and was granted a work authorization in March 2023, but that also expired. He was born in Egypt, spent 17 years living in Kuwait, and lived in Colorado Springs with his wife and five children, according to state court documents. Soliman's wife and children were taken into custody Tuesday by immigration authorities and were being processed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said a DHS official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. Federal officials are investigating whether Soliman's family knew about his plan, US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said. Soliman told authorities that no one, including his family, knew about his plan, according to court documents. Noem said Wednesday that federal authorities will be cracking down on people who overstay their visas. What was the motive behind the attack? Soliman told police he was driven by a desire 'to kill all Zionist people,' referring to the movement to establish and sustain a Jewish state in Israel. Sunday's attack at the popular Pearl Street pedestrian mall in downtown Boulder, 30 miles (48 kilometers) from Denver, had been planned for more than a year and targeted what Soliman described as a 'Zionist group,' authorities said in court papers charging him with a federal hate crime. That charge carries a sentence of life in prison when it includes attempted murder. Colorado state charges include 16 counts of attempted first-degree murder, two counts of using an incendiary device and 16 counts of attempted use of an incendiary device. The attack came at the beginning of the Jewish holiday Shavuot, and as the Israel-Hamas war has contributed to a spike in antisemitism in the US. A week before the Boulder attack, a man who also yelled 'Free Palestine' was charged with fatally shooting two Israeli embassy staffers outside a Jewish museum in Washington. Who are the demonstrators? The people hurt in the attack are demonstrators with Run for Their Lives, a global grassroots initiative that started in October 2023 after Hamas militants in Gaza stormed into Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 250 others hostage. Israel responded with military attacks on the Gaza Strip, killing more than 52,000 Palestinians, the majority women and children, and arresting hundreds. Through weekly walks, the Run for Their Lives group's 230 chapters seek to raise awareness of the 58 people believed to still be in captivity in Gaza, said Shira Weiss, the organization's global coordinator. Police liaisons assigned to the victims said none were ready to speak with reporters. They include eight women and seven men, range in age from 25 to 88, and their injuries range from serious to minor. No new details were released Wednesday about three victims receiving treatment at the UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital. After the attack, FBI director Kash Patel said the agency was investigating a 'targeted terror attack' in Boulder. Boulder Police Chief Stephen Redfearn said Tuesday he initially suspected terrorism. 'There was no intent to hide what happened,' Redfearn said. 'There was no intent to minimize or lessen what we later, within a couple of hours at the press conference, confirmed was terrorism.'
Daily Mail
18 hours ago
- General
- Daily Mail
Holocaust survivor who was burned in the Colorado terror attack breaks her silence
An 88-year-old Holocaust survivor who was burned in the shocking terror attack in Boulder, Colorado broke her silence with a message of unity. Barbara Steinmetz spoke out to condemn the attack on Sunday, where at least 12 people were injured when suspect Mohamed Soliman allegedly threw Molotov cocktails at a pro-Israel protest, but said the community would recover. 'We are better than this,' she told NBC News. The 88-year-old said she and other members of the Run for their Lives event were 'peacefully' demonstrating when the attack unfolded. 'It's about what the hell is going on in our country,' Steinmetz continued. 'What the hell is going on?' Steinmetz's family fled Italy and Hungary to escape the Nazis decades ago, but said the attack on Sunday had 'nothing to do with the Holocaust, it has to do with a human being that wants to burn other people.' The outlet said Steinmetz appeared to still be rattled by the shock attack, but said she just wanted 'people to be nice and decent to each other, kind, respectful, encompassing.' 'We're Americans,' she said. 'We are better than this. That's what I want them to know. That they be kind and decent human beings.' Police said Soliman screamed 'Free Palestine' as he threw the Molotov cocktails at the protestors, and he is now facing 16 counts of attempted murder as well as federal hate crime charges. Rabbi Marc Soloway, the leader of Congregation Bonai Shalom in Boulder, where Steinmetz is a member, said the elderly woman suffered minor burns but is 'going to be okay.' Soloway added that although Steinmetz will recover, he wondered how someone who survived the Holocaust would process the anti-Israel attack. 'Can you imagine the trauma that that reactivates?' the rabbi said. 'It's just horrendous.' Steinmetz, an active and visible member of Boulder's Jewish community since she and her late husband moved from Michigan 20 years ago, was born in 1936 in her parents' native Hungary. Shortly after her birth, they returned to Italy, where they'd run an island hotel since the 1920s – but as Steinmetz progressed through her toddler years, it was becoming more and more dangerous for Jews in Europe. Steinmetz fled with her parents and sister in 1940 to Hungary, but her father saw the dangers there, too, and quickly planned to get out of the country. 'My dad encouraged the rest of my family to leave,' Steinmetz told CU Boulder students at a 2019 talk. 'They were scared — they simply couldn't envision what was to come…or that their friends [and] customers would turn on them.' As their family and Jews suffered increasingly under Hitler's regime, her 'cousin stole a Nazi uniform and brought food into the ghetto and caused plenty of mischief to the Nazis,' Steinmetz wrote in 2014 in a Holocaust film review. Her father eventually fled with his wife and children to France, then Portugal, then the Dominican Republic, stopping at Ellis Island on the way just for processing. The island nation's dictator, Rafael Trujillo, had agreed to accept Jewish refugees, and a Jewish resettlement organization established a community at Sosua. 'Sosua was an abandoned banana plantation … and these bedraggled refugees, doctors and lawyers and professors, came to this piece of land where there was one building we all slept,' Steinmetz said in an interview posted to Instagram in April. 'And there was water, and the women did the cooking, and the men tried to do the agriculture.' After four years of attending a Dominican Catholic school, telling no one she was Jewish or European, Steinmetz and her family were granted visas to the US. She and her sister immediately began attending Jewish summer camps, where they 'knew no one and didn't speak any English,' Boulder Jewish News reported five years ago, as Boulder JCC prepared to honor Steinmetz at its annual gala. The camps 'offered the opportunity to excel in sports and exposed them to what it means to be a Jew,' it continued. The family eventually settled in Detroit, where her mother ran the lunchroom at the Jewish Community Center (JCC), which became Steinmetz's 'home in America,' the outlet reported. 'Barb met and married Howard while still a teenager and college student. They moved to Saginaw, Michigan when she was a young mom,' it continued. 'They built a life there around Jewish community.' The Steinmetz had three daughters – Ivy, Julie and Monica – and lived in Saginaw for decades before moving to Boulder two decades ago. They left Michigan after filing suit against Dow Chemical over alleged dioxin poisoning on their property. Both Ivy and Howard Steinmetz died of cancer, ten months apart, in 2011. Steinmetz has been a frequent featured speaker in Colorado, sharing her experience as a Holocaust survivor for students and local groups as recently as March. She has been a vocal Jewish presence in Boulder for decades. Steinmetz's son-in-law, Bruce Shaffer, is a co-lead of Run for Their Lives, which orchestrated the event attacked on Sunday. The Shaffers split their time between Boulder and Jerusalem. Steinmetz had previously expressed fears about anti-Semitism and hate finding her in Boulder, writing to city authorities in 2016 to oppose the establishment of Nablus, in Palestine, as a sister city – which ultimately went ahead. 'I AM NEAR 80 YEARS I ONCE AGAIN HAVE TO DEAL WITH ANTI - JEWISH SENTIMENT IN MY OWN TOWN?' she wrote to Boulder's council in a letter publicly available online. 'HAVE I NOT COME TO AMERICA WHERE I CAN FIND DON'T TAKE THAT AWAY FROM ME AND MY COMMUNITY OF VERY ACTIVE CIVIC CITIZENS.'
Daily Mail
21 hours ago
- General
- Daily Mail
BREAKING NEWS Holocaust survivor who survived Colorado terror attack breaks her silence
An 88-year-old Holocaust survivor who was burned in the shocking terror attack in Boulder, Colorado broke her silence with a message of unity. Barbara Steinmetz condemned the attack on Sunday, where at least 12 people were injured when suspect Mohamed Soliman allegedly threw Molotov cocktails at a pro-Israel protest, as a horror event. 'We are better than this,' she told NBC News. She said the attack 'has nothing to do with the Holocaust, it has to do with a human being that wants to burn other people.' The 88-year-old said she and other members of the Run for their Lives event were 'peacefully' demonstrating when the attack unfolded. 'It's about what the hell is going on in our country,' Steinmetz continued. 'What the hell is going on?' The outlet said Steinmetz appeared to still be rattled by the shock attack, but said she just wanted 'people to be nice and decent to each other, kind, respectful, encompassing.' 'We're Americans,' she said. 'We are better than this. That's what I want them to know. That they be kind and decent human beings.'
The Independent
a day ago
- General
- The Independent
Official White House X account targets Boulder attack suspect's family with deportation threat
The White House 's official X account posted a tweet threatening to deport the family of Mohamed Sabry Soliman, the man accused of carrying out a terror attack in Boulder, Colorado, on Sunday. 'Wife and Kids of Illegal Alien Behind Antisemitic Firebombing Could Be Deported as Soon as Tonight,' the account posted on Tuesday, alongside two images of Soliman. It was accompanied by a caption, complete with an airplane emoji, that read: 'Six One-Way Tickets for Mohamed's Wife and Five Kids. Final Boarding Call Coming Soon.' Soliman, 45, was charged with a federal hate crime and 16 counts of attempted murder after being detained at the scene of the attack on a 'Run For Their Lives' event, which was attended by peaceful demonstrators calling for the release of Israeli hostages being held by Hamas since October 7, 2023. Twelve people were wounded when an attacker bearing Molotov cocktails and what the FBI described as a 'makeshift flamethrower' attacked the activists at the weekly demonstration, shouting 'Free Palestine!' as he did so, according to eyewitnesses. The victims were aged between 52 and 88 and were taken to hospitals in the Denver metro area for treatment. One of their number was a Holocaust survivor. It subsequently emerged that Soliman, an Egyptian national who investigators said was planning the assault for over a year, had been in the United States illegally, his visa having expired two years earlier, and a subsequent work authorization expiring this March. On Tuesday, Fox News reported that Soliman's wife and five children had been arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and entered into proceedings for 'expedited removal.' Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem said that her agency was investigating the 'extent' to which Soliman's family had known about his intentions in advance of Sunday's atrocity. 'This terrorist will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,' Noem said in a video posted on X. 'We are investigating to what extent his family knew about this heinous attack, if they had knowledge of it, or if they provided support to it.' Among those criticizing the White House's post on X for being in poor taste was Grok, Elon Musk 's own artificial intelligence tool. Asked if it was 'fascist' for Donald Trump 's administration to 'round up the families of criminals and punish them also,' it replied simply: 'Yes.' Pressed to elaborate, it answered more fully: 'Deporting illegal aliens who committed terrorism in the USA is legally permissible under laws like the Antiterrorism Act of 1996, but deporting their families, if also undocumented, is controversial. 'It's not explicitly mandated and raises ethical issues, like collective punishment and family separation, impacting children most. Some label it fascist for resembling authoritarian tactics, while others see it as lawful security enforcement. 'The term 'fascist' depends on intent and execution – mass deportation without due process leans authoritarian, but targeted, legal deportation doesn't inherently fit. Evidence shows both security needs and human rights concerns, leaving the debate unresolved.'
