"Our community is really suffering and scared," Brandon Rattiner, senior director of the Jewish Community Relations Council, told CBS in a live interview after the Molotov cocktail attack on demonstrators at a rally for the release of hostages on Shavuot.
"I'm hearing that [the community] feels isolated and vulnerable," he continued.
Twelve people were burned after Mohamed Sabry Soliman – an Egyptian citizen – threw the incendiary devices at participants of the Run for Their Lives event: one of 230 weekly events that take place around the world, designed to honor the 58 hostages kidnapped by Hamas and held in captivity for more than 600 days.
The victims' injuries range "from very serious to more minor," Boulder Police Chief Stephen Redfearn said.
The organization JEWISHcolorado announced it has partnered with the Jewish Community Relations Council, Jco’s Secure Community Network, the ADL, IAC, RMRC, StandWithUs, Stop Antisemitism Colorado, to support of the Boulder Jewish community, details of which will be shared later this week.
JEWISHcolorado also said it will expedite safety and security funding to Jewish preschools in another round of grants in cooperation with the Tepper Foundation.
The JCRC and its 40 member organizations released a statement stressing the importance of viewing the attack within its context: "It comes shortly after a Coloradan was arrested for plotting to firebomb a US embassy office in Israel, and after two young adults were murdered outside a Jewish event in Washington, DC."
"We must look in the mirror and ask ourselves how our society allowed this to happen and keep happening."
JCRC added it was not being "alarmist" by consistently warning of the repercussions of hateful rhetoric for Jews and Israelis.
"Violence against Jews is immoral and must end. Colorado must be a place where every Jew feels safe, supported, and free to live their authentic Jewish lives."
Jewish Federations of North America President & CEO Eric D. Fingerhut said, “The attack in Boulder is another example of a wave of domestic terror attacks aimed at the Jewish community." He asked the Trump administration to make this its highest priority and asked for the following steps to be taken.
First, he asked that Congress increase Nonprofit Security Grant (NSGP) funding to $1 billion to "meet the urgent and growing need and demand." Second, he urged the government to dedicate funding to meet the urgent need for additional security personnel at Jewish institutions, such as day schools and yeshivas, synagogues, Jewish early childhood centers, JCCs, and summer camps.
Fingerhut also asked for an increase in funding for local police and law enforcement, and "aggressive" prosecution for antisemitic hate crimes and extreme violence to the full extent of the law.
He finally urged the US government to hold social media, gaming, messaging, and other online platforms accountable for "amplification of antisemitic hate, glorification of terrorism, extremism, disinformation, and incitement.”
Stefanie Clarke, the co-executive director of Stop Antisemitism Colorado, said “We have been trying to sound the alarm for months and months, since Oct 7, (2023), and it’s time to put an end to this dangerous rhetoric, and it’s time for the Boulder community to come together with the Jewish people."
One of the victims of the attack was a Holocaust survivor. Her friend Chany Scheiner, the wife of the rabbi at the Boulder County Center for Judaism, told 9NEWS that "The Boulder Jewish community has felt safe in Boulder."
"Boulder is a beautiful place," Scheiner said. "People are friendly, they're kind, and this was out of left field. This is not something that we ever dreamed would be in our neighborhood or in our backyard. And it's horrific. And we can't wrap our heads around it because this is not Boulder."
Nevertheless, on February 20, Rabbi Marc Soloway of Boulder wrote an open letter to the City Council saying, "It is just a plain fact that many of us in Boulder’s Jewish community simply do not feel safe or supported."
He added that he could "no longer be silent as a leader in Boulder’s Jewish community for 20 years in light of the continuing developments."
Rabbi Soloway reported being "physically and verbally threatened by people screaming anti-Israel slogans in [his] face" during a Boulder city council meeting.
"There is an inability or an unwillingness to see any nuance from so many, including Council Member Taishya Adams, and there is no question that anti Zionism has become a pernicious form of antisemitism."
American Jewish groups
Umbrella Jewish groups have also vehemently condemned the attack. Jewish Agency chairman Maj. Gen. (res.) Doron Almog, Chair of the Board of Governors, Mark Wilf, and CEO and Director General Yehuda Setton said, "The Jewish Agency remains fully committed to strengthening our partners at JFNA, the Colorado Jewish community, and communities around the world."
"Please know that The Jewish Agency stands firmly with you, ready to support you in any way needed throughout the coming period, including through our dedicated Shlichim (emissaries) on the ground."
Camera lambasted the media coverage of the attack, with CAMERA CEO Kurt Schwartz, a former Massachusetts Undersecretary for Homeland Security and Undersecretary of Law Enforcement, saying, “That some media outlets have downplayed or distorted the story makes the situation even more alarming.”
“When the media buries or sanitizes attacks like this, it contributes to the normalization of antisemitism,” Schwartz said. “This is a journalistic failure and, more troublingly, a moral one.”
He cited the omission of the identities of the victims in much media reporting, for example CBS's title "attack at Boulder's Pearl Street Mallin Colorado burns several people," and NPR "multiple people burned in attack on Boulder's Pearl Street."
CAMERA urged editors and reporters to "clearly state the facts, name antisemitism when it occurs, and treat these attacks with the urgency and gravity they demand."
