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I’m a Boulder Community Leader; Here’s How We Must Respond to the Terror Attack in Colorado
A Boulder police officer patrols with a bomb smelling dog beside a makeshift memorial outside the Boulder Courthouse, days after an attack that injured multiple people in Boulder, Colorado, US, June 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mark Makela
I was helping my son move into his new apartment when my phone started buzzing. I received a dozen text messages. Then a dozen more.
“Do you know what happened?”
“Was anyone hurt?”
I was worried and confused, but the news soon became clear: A man with makeshift firebombs attacked a group of Jewish community members — some elderly, one a Holocaust survivor, and some I know very personally — who had gathered peacefully to call for the release of Israeli hostages held by terrorists.
The attacker’s intent was clear — to inflict suffering, fear, and terror.
In recent months, we’ve watched a surge of antisemitic violence unfold across the country, from the arson attack at Gov. Josh Shapiro’s home in Pennsylvania, to the fatal shootings of a young couple outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. Those attacks came on the heels of record levels of antisemitic incidents across the United States.
For a time, these incidents felt like distant horror to me. But last week, that hate reached my home in Boulder.
I’ve spent a decade helping to build the Boulder Jewish Community Center, as a professional and a lay leader, and I know what our community represents. The Boulder JCC itself is more than just a building. It’s an anchor for the Jewish community and a vibrant part of the Colorado landscape.
Last week, a domestic terrorist tried to destroy it all. This was the culmination of months of increasingly heated rhetoric.
In recent months, the Boulder City Council was forced to move meetings fully online because of the intensity of anti-Israel protests and the inability to guarantee personal safety.
Teachers in K-12 schools have sought to teach offensive, false, and one-sided portrayals of “genocide” in Gaza, ignoring essential context while further isolating Jewish students and demonizing the Jewish State.
Protesters have stood on street corners and attended city council meetings spouting hateful messages like “Globalize the Intifada,” and “Israelis Don’t Belong in Boulder.”
This is the backdrop to last Sunday’s attack. It was not about policy differences or strong opinions. It was antisemitism.
The perpetrator’s goal was to intimidate and terrorize Jews — to send a message that we are not safe here.
But here’s the thing: He failed.
When I arrived at the Boulder JCC the morning after the attack, everything that should happen in a community center was happening. The place was full of life — friends embraced, music drifted through the halls, laughter sparkled in the air, and sunlight poured across the lobby.
Even after an antisemitic firebombing in their own backyard, our children are learning how to live proudly as Jews — despite a world currently twisted by anti-Jewish hate.
Seeing that resilience in our future — that’s where I find my hope.
We cannot allow this to become the new normal. We need leaders — elected officials, media platforms, faith communities, and school boards — to stop rationalizing antisemitic hate as a form of political discourse. They must stop equivocating when Jews are attacked, and stop amplifying voices that dehumanize Jews.
We need moral clarity. We need action. We need solidarity from our allies.
That starts with something simple: showing up.
Show up for your Jewish neighbors. Reach out. Speak out — not just when it’s convenient, but when it counts.
And right now, the Jewish community in Boulder needs everyone to say, “Enough!” out loud. Without caveats. Without modifiers. Without conditions.
We cannot keep living like this — lurching from one attack to the next, normalizing fear, waiting for the next headline. Enough.
Now is the time for leaders across all political lines and levels of government and society to speak clearly and act decisively. We need more than statements. We need protection, justice, and prevention.
That is how we respond. And that is how we will move forward together, undeterred, and more committed than ever.
Susan Rona is Regional Director of the ADL (Anti-Defamation League) Mountain States Region.
The post I’m a Boulder Community Leader; Here’s How We Must Respond to the Terror Attack in Colorado first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.