Latest news with #LisaTurnquist
USA Today
2 days ago
- Politics
- USA Today
Amid ongoing attacks, Jewish people are afraid. Is anyone listening?
Amid ongoing attacks, Jewish people are afraid. Is anyone listening? | Opinion Show Caption Hide Caption Jewish Boulder resident recounts attack at pro-Israel protest Lisa Turnquist, a Jewish Boulder resident, used her a towel she had to smother flames on an elderly woman after an attack at a pro-Israel protest. This week, in Colorado, a Molotov cocktail was thrown at a group of Jews marching peacefully on behalf of hostages held by Hamas. The attacker shouted, 'How many children have you killed?' and 'We need to end Zionists' as he hurled fire at Holocaust survivors and Jewish children. In Washington, D.C., two Israeli embassy staff members were gunned down in cold blood. In Paris, the Holocaust museum was defaced. In London, a Jewish business was vandalized with red paint and smashed windows. Each attack happened in a different country. The perpetrators didn't know each other. And yet, every Jew I know understands how deeply they're connected. This is what Jewish anxiety looks like in 2025. Not just fear of a lone extremist – but fear of a global pattern no one wants to name. A time when violence against Jews isn't just ignored, but politically inconvenient to acknowledge. The attacker in Colorado wasn't reacting to silence. He was reacting to noise. To slogans. To lies. To the viral fabrication that 14,000 Palestinian babies would be starved in 48 hours – a claim with no evidence, pushed by some of the most trusted news outlets in the world. By the time fact-checkers caught up, the lie had triggered an already radicalized man, preparing firebombs in America. That's where the anxiety begins. Not with the fire – but with the match. Because we've seen this before. Words become slogans. Slogans become an ideology. And ideology, left unchecked, becomes violence. Not long ago, we were told to 'believe all victims.' But today, Jewish victims are asked to justify their pain. Were you wearing an Israeli flag? Were you near a protest? Are you a Zionist? Are you a European colonizer? As if our humanity is conditional. As if the firebomb wasn't about us – we just happened to be standing in the way. I come from the political left. My parents were Iraqi and North African Jewish refugees. My relatives were murdered, raped and tortured. From that pain, I learned not to hate, but to seek peace. I've stood for coexistence. I've criticized Israeli leaders when they fail our Jewish values. But today, that's not enough. Because if you are Jewish and visible, you are a target. And if you're attacked, you're met with silence – or worse, moral gymnastics. In case you missed it: Ye's antisemitic rant, that $20 swastika shirt and why we need to talk about it Mainstream media repeated Hamas' invented casualty statistics with barely a pause. Days later, the numbers were quietly revised. But those burned by the flamethrower will attest: It was a blood libel. Moreover, words matter. 'Globalize the intifada.' 'End Zionists.' 'By any means necessary.' These are not abstract ideas. They are instructions. They are adrenaline for the unstable. They justify horrific violence. What's most painful isn't just the attacks – it's the shrug. The way the Colorado firebomb wasn't covered until hours later. The way Jewish blood doesn't trend. The way those who claim to fight hate won't name this one. We're told: this isn't antisemitism; it's anti-Zionism. And yet, somehow, the flames always find the flesh of Jews. Why is it never OK to target people for a government's actions unless the people are Jewish? Does the 88-year-old Holocaust survivor lying in agony in a hospital bed deserve it? Does anyone? What world are we in where I have to explain that setting people on fire is evil and does no good? Deep dive: How a father of 5 morphed into a terror suspect with Boulder's Jews in his crosshairs The truth is, we are afraid. Not in a viral-post kind of way, but in the quiet way you hesitate before entering a synagogue. The way you scan a crowd before speaking Hebrew. The way you wonder if your accent or your name might be the thing that puts you in someone's crosshairs. And what we're asking is simple: to be seen. Fully. Not as a proxy. Not as a debate. But as human beings – hurting, vulnerable and real. The shooting in D.C., the firebomb in Colorado – these weren't the beginning. They were the result. And if we still can't name what led us here, we'll be even less prepared for what's coming next. Hen Mazzig is an Israeli-born writer, speaker, and digital influencer known for his powerful advocacy for Jewish identity and his fight against antisemitism. He is the co-founder of the Tel Aviv Institute, a nonprofit that launched in 2019 to counter online antisemitism through strategic, data-driven social media campaigns. In 2022, he published his debut book, The Wrong Kind of Jew. Hen Mazzig continues to inspire a new generation to embrace advocacy. Most recently he created his series "And They're Jewish" which celebrates Jewish diversity and builds bridges rooted in tolerance and peace.
USA Today
2 days ago
- General
- USA Today
Shootings in DC and firebombs in Boulder: Attacks mark dangerous surge in antisemitism
Shootings in DC and firebombs in Boulder: Attacks mark dangerous surge in antisemitism Show Caption Hide Caption Jewish Boulder resident recounts attack at pro-Israel protest Lisa Turnquist, a Jewish Boulder resident, used her a towel she had to smother flames on an elderly woman after an attack at a pro-Israel protest. A man firebombed the home of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro in April, hours after the governor and his family hosted more than two dozen people to celebrate the first night of Passover. The suspected arsonist targeted the governor because of "what he wants to do to the Palestinian people," according to police records. Two weeks ago, a man shot and killed a young couple outside the Lillian & Albert Small Capital Jewish Museum. "Free Palestine," the man shouted. "I did it for Gaza," he later told investigators. Then, on June 1, a man hurled Molotov cocktails at a peaceful gathering of pro-Israel demonstrators in Boulder, CO. Hurling abuse at the crowd, the attacker shouted "Free Palestine" as he set fire to several people, including an 88-year-old Holocaust survivor. These violent attacks come after years of escalating rhetoric, protests and demonstrations against the ongoing war in Gaza. A report released last month found that antisemitic incidents across America hit a record high for the fourth year running last year, and the same researchers worry that trend will continue throughout 2025. The recent wave of attacks has Jewish communities across the country on high alert. And it has experts and analysts who study extremist movements concerned the antisemitism that has already flooded online spaces and infested some protests on college campuses and elsewhere could now be entering a more deadly phase. 'The Jewish community is used to having bulletproof glass and metal detectors at their institutions, but this was a public gathering,' The ADL's Senior Vice President of Counter-Extremism and Intelligence Oren Segal told USA TODAY of the Boulder attack. 'The Jewish community is now concerned about being publicly Jewish.' Antisemitic violence is, of course, not new in America. The deadliest anti-Jewish attack in U.S. history occurred just seven years ago, in 2018, at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, where 11 people were shot and killed and six more were injured. The country also saw periods of antisemitic violence in the 1980s and 90s, including bombing attacks and targeted assassinations by a white supremacist group. While the new wave of violence certainly appears to have been inspired by the war in Gaza, there are notable differences between the attacks in Washington, D.C. and the one in Boulder, said Javed Ali, senior director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council in 2017 and 2018. The suspect in the Washington D.C. shooting had recently been involved in leftist politics and protesting, but the suspect in the Colorado attack had spent more than a year planning his assault, and doesn't appear to have been involved in the protest movement, Ali said. 'We've seen these waves of antisemitic violence throughout modern U.S. history,' Ali said. 'Is this now presenting another one of these kinds of waves? Hopefully it doesn't get bigger than these two attacks.' '600-plus days of rhetoric' In both the Washington attack and the assault in Boulder, the perpetrators shouted about the war in Gaza. Mohamed Sabry Soliman, the suspect in the Boulder attack, said he specifically targeted the group because of its pro-Israel stance and stated he 'would do it again,' according to a court filing from the FBI. Ali said it stands to reason that the more people who are angry about the war, the more likely it is that some will become radicalized and, in turn, that some will take violent action. That's typically how social movements spawn violent domestic extremists, Ali said. It's essentially a numbers game. 'If there's a bigger pool of people who are radicalized, then potentially that increases the probability that there will be a smaller number of people who funnel from that larger pool of radicalization into the violent action, and maybe, maybe that's what we're seeing now,' he said. The ADL's Segal put it differently. He said the protest movement has consistently and unfairly blurred the lines between the actions of the Israeli government and the Jewish people at large. Violence like the recent attacks is the inevitable result of that bias, he said. 'When you have 600-plus days of rhetoric that is not just about opposition to Israeli government policy, but that often features language that dehumanizes Israelis, Zionists and Jews, it creates an atmosphere in which these plots and attacks are much more likely,' Segal said. Widening the security cordon The events in Colorado and Washington and the arson fire at the Pennsylvania governor's mansion in April are part of a pattern in which anti-Israel sentiment is used as a justification for antisemitic violence, said Halie Soifer, chief executive officer of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, a Washington-based group that calls itself the voice for Jewish Democrats. 'We see a deeply troubling pattern, and it has shattered a sense of security that we should have as American Jews,' Soifer said. Synagogues and other Jewish establishments increased their security after the Tree of Life shooting. Ever since that attack, people entering synagogues typically go through security measures similar to TSA airport checkpoints, Soifer said. 'You go through a mag, and there is a device to check bags,' she said. But the recent attacks have been largely outdoors, which requires another layer of security that wasn't necessarily needed before. Groups are now considering how to create larger perimeters around Jewish institutions and gatherings, she said. 'This has created a crisis in terms of every Jewish American rethinking their security,' Soifer said. 'It's devastating to think we're at a point where that's needed. But we are.' Students at the University of Denver were already concerned about the rise of antisemitic violence across the country, said Adam Rovner, director of the university's Center for Judaic Studies. The attack on the marchers in Boulder heightens their fears, he said. 'Some people feel frightened. Some people feel angry,' Rovner said. 'Some people feel resolute and a sense of solidarity.' Rovner said when he went to synagogue on Sunday, members of the congregation were warned not to mill around outside the building because it was the Jewish holiday of Shavuot and there were fears of an attack. Since the attack on the marchers in Colorado, 'there is just a real awareness that Jewish events are requiring extremely high levels of security all the time, and there is a very strong awareness that Jews are targets,' said Rachel Harris, director of Jewish Studies at Florida Atlantic University. There is also a growing concern that the public tends to normalize terrorism against Jews by attributing it to political protest, Harris said. 'Any other group that is targeted by acts of terrorism, we call them acts of terrorism,' she said. 'We don't try and normalize that. This continued refrain that says, well, they shouted 'free Palestine,' so it was really a political gesture, is really disturbing.' Everyone has the right to protest and peacefully voice their opinion, Rovner said. 'There are certainly horrors that the Palestinians are suffering,' he said. 'There are certainly horrors that Israelis and Jews are suffering. They don't cancel each other out. They both exist. The people who can't seem to contain two conflicting opinions in their mind at the same time are the ones who lash out violently. They are simple minded, idealized.' 'We have to push back' Twenty-four hours after the attack in Boulder, Lisa Turnquist returned to Pearl Street to lay flowers and a small Israeli flag at a small memorial. Police say Mohamed Sabry Soliman, an Egyptian immigrant who overstayed his visa, threw Molotov cocktails at the marchers while yelling 'Free Palestine.' Twelve people, ages 52 to 88, suffered burn injuries ranging from serious to minor. Turnquist, 66, said she'd been a regular attendee at the Sunday marches, rain snow or shine, in which participants call for Hamas to release the Israeli hostages it is holding in Gaza. She was just arriving on June 1 when she saw flames on a woman's legs. Turnquist, who is Jewish, said she grabbed a towel from her dog Jake's stroller and used it to smother the flames on the elderly woman's legs. Turnquist said she started participating a few weeks after the marches began following the October 2023 attack by Hamas on Israel. Her voice alternately tearful and angry, she recounted how week after week the walkers have been confronted with allegations that they are complicit in genocide for demanding Hamas release its hostages. "We just want them home, and that's why we do this," she said. The morning after the attack, she woke up and didn't want to get out of bed. But she did. 'This is when we have to get up and stand up,' she said, 'and we have to push back.' Contributing: Trevor Hughes
USA Today
3 days ago
- General
- USA Today
Boulder terror suspect told cops he planned his antisemitic attack for a year
Boulder terror suspect told cops he planned his antisemitic attack for a year Unrepentant suspect 'stated he would do it again,' FBI said. The father of five specifically targeted the pro-Israel group. Show Caption Hide Caption Jewish Boulder resident recounts attack at pro-Israel protest Lisa Turnquist, a Jewish Boulder resident, used her a towel she had to smother flames on an elderly woman after an attack at a pro-Israel protest. BOULDER ‒ A Muslim immigrant armed with Molotov cocktails camouflaged his murderous intent with flowers and clothes that made him look like a landscaper. An elderly Jewish woman pushed her dog in a stroller, peacefully asking for Israeli hostages to be released 7,000 miles away. Long-running concerns about rising antisemitism in the United States erupted into a shocking act of violence June 1 that injured 12 in this famously liberal city, drawing immediate and fierce condemnation from President Donald Trump and others. Now, court records and interviews paint a chilling picture of the suspect's yearlong plot to firebomb a pro-Israel protest walk on a sunny Sunday afternoon. Suspect Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, faces federal hate crime and attempted murder charges, as well as state charges of attempted murder, use of incendiary devices, and other offenses. Soliman, a father of five who worked as an Uber driver, remains jailed. "Soliman stated he would do it again. He specifically targeted the 'Zionist Group' that had gathered in Boulder having learned about the group from an online search," FBI said in court documents. The afternoon attack on the protest walk stunned Boulder, prompting many businesses along its red-brick pedestrian Pearl Street Mall to remain closed June 2. Jewish community organizations struggled to carry on with day camps and the Shavuot holiday, a harvest festival that also commemorates God's gift of the law to the Jewish people. Under heavy security, passing tourists snapped photos of the scene, where workers scrubbed clean the scorch marks from the pavement out front of the historic Boulder County Courthouse. "Yesterday's horrific attack in Boulder, Colorado, WILL NOT BE TOLERATED in the United States of America," Trump said in a social media post. "Acts of Terrorism will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law." Soliman planned his attack for a year As court proceedings against Soliman advanced, investigators have released new details about his alleged motivations. According to federal officials, Soliman entered the United States in late 2022 on a tourist visa, later requesting asylum. He, his wife and their children lived in Colorado Springs, a more conservative city about 100 miles south of Boulder, and Soliman worked as an Uber driver, the company confirmed. Soliman is a native Egyptian who lived in Kuwait with his family for more than 10 years. He told investigators he deliberately waited a year to attack the "Run for their Lives" protest, until after his daughter graduated high school. A profile of her published in the Colorado Springs Gazette said the family arrived in the United States not speaking English, but that Habiba Soliman learned English, and founded an Arabic club at her high school. According to school records, she graduated May 29. Her dad drove to Boulder to attack the protest three days later, according to investigators. "Throughout the interview, Soliman stated that he hated the Zionist group and did this because he hated this group and needed to stop them from taking over 'our land,' which he explained to be Palestine," FBI agent Jessica Krueger said in an affidavit. Investigators said Soliman told them that as part of his planning he took a concealed-weapons class to learn how to fire a gun, but discovered that his immigration status prevented him from buying one. Without a gun, Soliman told investigators, he turned to gasoline and glass bottles, along with a backpack sprayer often used by landscapers to dispense pesticide or fertilizer. "Mohamed expressed his hatred for the 'Zionist Organization' as they support and fund the bombings that are taking place in Palestine," Boulder Police Det. John Sailer wrote in an arrest warrant. "Mohamed drove from Castle Rock where he purchased most of the materials needed to carry out his attack." Soliman told investigators he stopped several times on his drive from Colorado Springs, to buy the bottles for the Molotov cocktails, the 87-octane gas to fill them and to Home Depot to buy flowers as camouflage, dressing like a gardener "in order to get as close as possible to the group." Protesters were used to harsh accusations The disguise didn't work on Lisa Turnquist, 66. A longtime attendee at the protest walks, Turnquist has gotten a sense of how they usually go, and who is around on Sunday afternoons in Boulder. The man dressed as landscaper, she said, immediately stood out as she walked past the courthouse with her dog Jake in a stroller. About 20 people were walking June 1, and while she saw familiar faces, Turnquist said she didn't know many by name. Although they share the desire to see the Israeli hostages freed, she said, people don't necessarily exchange names. Over the months of protest walks ‒ they began shortly after Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023 ‒ Turnquist has heard the threats and epithets. Attendees ignore the people calling them supporters of genocide, she said, and just keep up their silent presence. Turnquist is Jewish, and her partner's family lives in Israel. "We don't confront anybody when we're walking, we do it quietly," Turnquist told USA TODAY, her voice alternately tearful and angry. "We ignore the people who are against us. Week after week after week, people are yelling at us all the time, they say we're causing genocide. We are not causing genocide." Extremism and antisemitism experts have been warning for several years that attacks directed at Jews are on the rise. Across Boulder, Jewish facilities were being protected by police and armed guards following the attack. The Mountain States Anti-Defamation League in a statement noted the ongoing concern. "We must use this moment as a wake-up call: the rising tide of antisemitism in America demands urgent action from all of us, and we must stand in solidarity together," the group said. Although she was aware of such concerns, Turnquist said she never thought anyone would physically attack the protest marches in Boulder. A violent encounter As Turnquist drew near to the courthouse to begin that day's walk, Soliman was leaving behind his parked Toyota Prius, investigators said. Inside was a Quran and strips of cloth from which he had torn wicks for his Molotov cocktails. Soliman arrived in Boulder nearly an hour before the march, then made his way to the courthouse carrying flowers and the box of gas-filled glass jars, the sprayer on his back. Turnquist thought Soliman looked out of place on a Sunday afternoon. The courthouse grounds are usually maintained by county workers, and they don't work Sundays. "Something said keep on walking by him," she said. She kept walking. Others weren't so lucky. Turnquist said she grabbed a towel from her dog Jake's stroller to help smother the flames on one elderly woman's legs. "It took eight of us to get the fire out on her." Turnquist said she saw Soliman just standing around as bystanders smothered the flames, and he didn't resist when police confronted him. Turnquist said she gave a statement to investigators after the incident. "I think he either wanted to be killed as a martyr or he wanted to be caught," she said after attaching a bouquet of flowers and an Israeli flag to a small memorial outside the courthouse, a day after the incident. "What was he planning on doing? Was he planning on getting away and hitting other people?" 'We have to push back' Soliman was injured in the incendiary attack, and later told investigators that he had planned to die. The FBI said investigators found 14 unused Molotov cocktails in a plastic bin near where police detained Soliman, along with the weed sprayer loaded with gas. Investigators said Soliman disclosed he had left at home an iPhone containing messages to his family, along with a journal. Investigators did not immediately release any details of those messages or the contents of the journal. "He said he did not spray the gas on anyone but himself because he had planned on dying. Mohamed mentioned several times he wanted to be dead," Boulder police wrote in an arrest affidavit. "Mohamed said he only threw two (Molotov cocktails) at the group because he got scared and had never hurt anyone before. He said he had to do it, he should do it, and he would not forgive himself if he did not do it." Two of the dozen people injured remained hospitalized the day after his attack. Turnquist said she's struggling to understand why someone would so violently attack peaceful protesters. She had considered attending Soliman's June 2 court hearing, but worried she might not be able to restrain herself from a courtroom outburst. She said she can't understand how someone would think that a request for hostages to be returned would be seen as grounds for a terror attack. "We just want them home, and that's why we do this," she said. "I woke up this morning and didn't want to get out of bed. I didn't want to get out of bed and didn't want to talk to my friends who were calling me. But this is when we have to get up and stand up and we have to push back." Soliman remains jailed on a $10 million cash bond.
