I’m a Boulder Community Leader; Here’s How We Must Respond to the Terror Attack in Colorado

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.

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