6 days ago
Boulder attack was devastating — but unsurprising for some Jewish leaders
Stefanie Clarke was sitting in her Boulder, Colorado, home texting her best friend early Sunday afternoon. The two Jewish women, who met on a trip to Israel in 1990, were discussing how the actions of the Israeli government have created an unsafe environment for Jews around the world.
But as Clarke was about to send another message, she received a terrifying notification: someone had just attacked a group of demonstrators on Pearl Street. The demonstrators, who gathered every week, were raising awareness for hostages held in Gaza.
'I felt like I had this out-of-body experience. I couldn't believe that this was the conversation I was having, and here it was in my own backyard on Pearl Street at a place I have been hundreds of times,' Clarke, co-founder of Stop Antisemitism Colorado, told POLITICO.
Sunday's attack, which left at least 12 people wounded, came just two weeks after a gunman, identified asElias Rodriguez,killed two Israeli Embassy staffers in Washington, D.C., and about two months after a man, Cody Balmer, allegedly set fire to the official residence of Pennsylvania Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, who is Jewish. In all three cases, the suspects expressed support for Palestinian rights. Already on high alert, Jewish Americans are now demanding leaders address misconceptions they say have affected those who have fallen prey to misinformation.
'There's a tremendous amount of disinformation,' said Daniel Rosen, president of the American Jewish Congress. 'What we are seeing now is a tragic war translating into rhetoric which then leads to violence on American soil where Jews are being attacked for being Jews, having no role in a war on the other side of the globe.'
The D.C. gunman allegedly shouted, 'Free, free Palestine!' as he opened fire. On Sunday, the suspect allegedly yelled out to demonstrators, 'Free Palestine!' Authorities said the suspect in the arson on Shapiro's mansion also expressed anger overthe war in Gaza.
The cries for Palestinian freedom, Clarke said, indicate a lack of understanding of who does and doesn't have power. Israel has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians in response to the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel that killed 1,200. Hamas took hundreds of hostages in that attack.
'Burning Jews alive on the streets of Boulder is not going to save anybody in Gaza,' she said. 'I don't have enough control to stop what is happening in my own country, how do I have any bearing on what is happening from the Israeli government?'
She continued, 'The majority of Jews identify as Zionists. That doesn't mean that we support what the government of Israel is doing. I have never had a conversation with another Jew who has condoned what is happening in Gaza. It breaks our hearts. It rips out our hearts to see any innocent person suffer.'
Still, with the increase in antisemitic attacks, synagogues and Jewish community gatherings have increased their security following the Oct. 7 attack.
Since 2020, Temple Emanuel in Denver has had to hire armed guards. Before each service, leaders now point out all exits and remind congregants that if there's any need to evacuate quickly, follow leaders.
'I hate the fact that we have to spend that money [on security guards], but we have no choice,' Senior Rabbi Joseph Black said.
But even with added security, Black said multiple congregants have reached out since Sunday, concerned about their safety at upcoming services and events.
Anger toward Israel's actions, he added, has extended 'beyond the State of Israel to the Jewish people, and it is mining a vein of antisemitism that, unfortunately, has been around for centuries.'
Even though Black believes officials must strongly condemn Sunday's attack, he said he doesn't hold elected leaders responsible for the attack. Colorado leaders, he said, have been supportive of providing security for Jewish communities.
For Rosen, leaders both elected and within the Jewish community must find better ways of monitoring social media to try to prevent attacks like Sunday's. Authorities saidthe suspect had planned Sunday's attack for over a year and had charged him with multiple offenses, including a federal hate crime and state attempted murder charges. On Tuesday, authorities detainedthe family of the suspect, Mohamed Sabry Soliman.
And though President Donald Trump on Monday called the attack 'horrific,' he also used the incident to lay blame on Joe Biden, arguing the former president's border policy allowed the suspect to remain in the U.S. with an expired visa.
'There's this sense of oblivion, perhaps, that the Jewish community is traumatized,' Black said.
But he doesn't expect that fear to dissipate anytime soon, either.
'Antisemitism has been around for thousands of years. It's not going away. What we're seeing is what was always there beneath the surface. We saw it in Charlottesville, we saw it in Pittsburgh, we saw it in Washington, D.C. We saw it in Colleyville, and now we see it here and Boulder. I'm sure it's going to happen again,' he said.
