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CBS News
a day ago
- Politics
- CBS News
Vigil held in Boulder for Colorado terror attack victims, number of those injured is now at 15
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis and community leaders gathered in Boulder for a vigil Wednesday for the victims of a terror attack against a Jewish group marching to bring awareness to Israelis held captive in Gaza. Authorities said Mohamed Soliman attacked the group with Molotov cocktails on Sunday on the Pearl Street Mall, leaving what authorities now say are 15 people and one dog injured. He was heard yelling "Free Palestine" and "End Zionist" during the attack. Soliman is facing 16 counts of attempted murder as well as federal hate crime charges. Numerous government officials and leaders of multiple faiths called on the community to take a stand against antisemitism and express support for the victims and their loved ones. Rabbi Soloway embraces Ed Victor at a vigil for the survivors of the Boulder attack on the Run For Their Lives walk. CBS Ed Victor, who was participating in the Run For Their Lives walk during the attack, shared that they were gathered to remember the remaining hostages when suddenly he felt intense heat and a woman near him caught fire. "I'll tell you, when someone is on fire, it takes too long to put them out. Whether it took one minute or two minutes, I don't remember. But I know it took too long," he shared. Victor said the marchers used flags, banners and their own bodies trying to extinguish the flames. He said he's felt an outpouring of support from Jewish and non-Jewish community members alike, but asserted that the community must do more. Polis, who is Jewish, said the attack was "targeted, directed and antisemitic violence in a reprehensible act of terrorism." "Today, we return here, to the site where this occurred, to show by deeds and words that terrorism does not win. We are united as Coloradans, of all faiths, of all backgrounds, to make it clear that antisemitism, that violence and hate have no home in Colorado. Not today, and not ever," Polis said. He thanked the first responders and community members who jumped in to help save the victims and arrest Soliman, and expressed his commitment to providing resources to the injured. Rabbi Marc Soloway of Congregation Bonai Shalom expressed shock and dismay, stating that demonization and hate speech led to the attack, including in the city council. "Let's be clear, this is not the time for pedantic analysis about the difference between anti-Zionism and antisemitism. Nor to talk about the horrors of a war thousands of miles away. This was a brutal, hateful, antisemitic terrorist attack against peaceful Jews in Boulder, Colorado, in 2025," said Soloway. He said, "The whole Jewish community is reeling, shocked that this hideous hate crime could happen right here in downtown beautiful Boulder, Colorado. And yet, we have seen this coming. We have seen this coming." Several of the marchers injured are members of Soloway's congregation. The victims of the attack ranged in age from 25 to 88 years old, including an 88-year-old holocaust refugee. Imam Nader Elmarhoum speaks at a vigil for victims of Boulder attack on the Run For Their Lives walk. CBS Reverand of St. Aidan's Episcopal Church, Mary Kate Rejouis, and Imam Nader Elmarhoumi of the Islamic Center of Boulder both shared support for the Jewish community and denounced antisemitism, calling for all faiths to stand together in support of one another. Elmarhoumi said the Prophet Mohamed lived alongside several Jewish tribes and married a Jewish woman, and that his faith also calls him to live peacefully alongside his neighbors. He asserted that if Soliman had joined the walk and spoken with the marchers, made an effort to understand them, then maybe things could have ended differently. Boulder Mayor Aarom Brockett denounced the attack and asserted the city will remain resilient, stating the city will not be defined by the attack, but by how it responds. "We are the city that rebuilt after the devastating floods in 2013. We are the community that came together after a shooter took the lives of 10 community members at King Soopers in 2021," said Brockett. "And again, this week, Boulder has proven that our spirit cannot be shattered by those who choose violence." Brockett told Jewish community members, "You are not alone. All of Boulder stands with you, not just today, but every day." He said that the city "will increase security when needed, but will not sacrifice the openness and accessibility that makes Boulder special." Johnathan Lev, Executive Director of the Boulder Jewish Community Center, stressed the importance of supporting the Jewish community. He asserted that "silence is not neutral, it is permission," and hate will not be tolerated. He said the community refuses to be silenced, and he hopes that each person "will accept the responsibility of ending hate and helping us heal." Lev encouraged the community to check on their neighbors and invited the public to join in the Boulder Jewish Festival on Pearl Street on Sunday, saying that presence is a form of protection. "Healing is not passive; we build it together," he said. Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said the rise in violence against Jewish people is angering. The Boulder attack comes just two weeks after two staff members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., were fatally shot. Videos of the suspect, Elias Rodriguez, show him shouting "Free Palestine!" In April, a man allegedly threw Molotov cocktails inside the home of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who is Jewish. Greenblatt said the number of anti-Jewish incidents has surged almost 350% in the past five years, and nearly 900% over the past decade. He warned that words have meaning, and they have consequences. Run For Their Lives Organizer Rachel Amaru speaks at vigil for victims of Boulder attack against local walk. CBS "Look at the protesters on campuses, or in our streets. When they chant 'globalize the intifada,' or 'glory to the martyrs,' this is what it means. When some groups shout 'intifada is the only solution,' or they insist that they want to bring the war home, this is what it means. And when someone calls into a city council meeting and says Israelis have no place in Boulder, and no one speaks out, this is what it means," said Greenblatt. He encouraged people to speak up against antisemitism. "We've got to battle this bigotry with everything we have. This is the fight of our lives, and we can't afford to lose." Run For Their Lives Organizer Rachel Amaru said the group has walked to bring awareness to the refugees every week, and they never expected something like this would happen. She hopes that everyone will come out again on Sunday to walk and remember the hostages in Gaza.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Their synagogue taught them to build peace. An antisemitic attack is testing their resilience
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.
CNN
2 days ago
- General
- CNN
Their synagogue taught them to build peace. Then an antisemitic attack hit
Race & ethnicityFacebookTweetLink Follow 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.
CNN
2 days ago
- General
- 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 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.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Holocaust survivor who was burned in Boulder: 'We are better than this'
BOULDER, Colo. — The 88-year-old Holocaust survivor who was burned during an attack by a man armed with a "makeshift flamethrower" had a message on Tuesday for the rest of America: "We are better than this." In her first words spoken publicly since Sunday's gruesome attack on a group of demonstrators advocating for the return of Israeli hostages in Gaza, Barbara Steinmetz told NBC News that what happened "has nothing to do with the Holocaust, it has to do with a human being that wants to burn other people." Steinmetz said she and other members of the group Run for Their Lives were "peacefully" demonstrating when they were suddenly attacked. During a brief interview, Steinmetz still appeared to be rattled by the ordeal. "It's about what the hell is going on in our country," Steinmetz said when pressed. "What the hell is going on?" Asked if there was anything more she wanted Americans to know after the attack, Steinmetz said she "wants 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." Steinmetz, who was born in Hungary, was among a dozen people who were injured in the attack allegedly carried out by a 45-year-old Egyptian national named Mohamed Sabry Soliman. Police said Soliman also hurled Molotov cocktails at the demonstrators. The attack occurred 11 days after two Israeli Embassy workers were gunned down and killed outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington. In both Boulder and Washington, authorities said, the alleged attackers yelled, 'Free Palestine.' Rabbi Marc Soloway, the leader of Congregation Bonai Shalom in Boulder, where Steinmetz is a member, said the woman suffered minor burns but is "going to be OK" physically. Soloway said he was less sure about how someone who escaped the Holocaust could process what happened on Pearl Street. "Can you imagine the trauma that that reactivates?" Soloway said. "It's just horrendous." Soloway said Steinmetz was injured while taking part in a weekly walk "purely to raise awareness of the fact that there are still 58 hostages in tunnels in Gaza." In addition to Steinmetz, five other members of his congregation were injured and two remain hospitalized, Soloway said. The rabbi said Soliman, who has been charged with attempted murder and a hate crime, among other offenses, is "deluded and misguided." "If he thinks that an act of unspeakable brutality and violence is going to help the condition of the suffering of the Palestinian people in Gaza, he is so deluded and so misguided," the rabbi said. As for Steinmetz, much of her childhood was spent on an island off the coast of Croatia, which was then part of Italy and where her parents operated a hotel, according to the CU Independent, the student newspaper at the University of Colorado, Boulder, which published an article about her in 2019 for Holocaust remembrance week. 'I lived an idyllic childhood on the banks of the Adriatic,' Steinmetz recalled in the article. But after Italian dictator Benito Mussolini stripped the Italian Jews of their citizenship in 1938, Steinmetz's father took the family to Hungary and from there they fled to France two years later. When the Germans entered France, Steinmetz and her family were forced to flee again, this time to Portugal, where thousands of other refugees were looking for a way to escape from Europe. Steinmetz said her father applied for asylum to a dozen countries, including the United States. But only one would take them — the Dominican Republic. They departed for the DR on a Portuguese cargo ship in 1941 and during a brief stop in New York City she got to see the city's famous skyline, she told the Independent. Steinmetz said they were resettled in the coastal town of Sosúa, and while her parents toiled at menial jobs, she and her sister were sent to a Catholic boarding school where only the Mother Superior knew that they were Jews. 'For four years, the convent was our home,' Steinmetz recalled in the article. 'Although formidable, the sisters were kind.' Once the war was over, the Steinmetz family was able to move to the United States, where her parents went back into the hotel business in New Hampshire. Steinmetz moved to Boulder in "the mid-2000s," according to the article. This article was originally published on
