Boulder firebombing, 'epidemic' of antisemitic attacks condemned by Long Island Jewish leaders

Long Island Jewish leaders on Monday denounced what one called the “extraordinary cancer of antisemitism that has spread” as two more attacks over the last week including the killing of two Israeli embassy workers rattled the community in the United States.

“It's horrifying. It's now become an epidemic,” said Rabbi Michael White, head of Temple Sinai of Roslyn. “There's a tremendous amount of fear.”

Despite the latest wave of violence, rabbis on Long Island said there is little need to increase security at their synagogues because they are already heavily fortified.

And they said that rather than intimidating Jews, they expect the attacks will increase attendance at services as people seek support and refuge.

On Sunday in Boulder, Colorado, a man with a makeshift flamethrower threw Molotov cocktails into a group of people who had gathered to bring attention to Israeli hostages in Gaza. Twelve people were injured, some with burns, authorities said.

Mohamad Sabry Soliman, 45, who yelled “Free Palestine” as he allegedly waged the attack, told police he would do it again, according to officials and an FBI affidavit. He told authorities he'd been planning the attack for a year. He was charged with a hate crime Monday.

Soliman is an Egyptian citizen who had overstayed his visa, authorities said. The attack he is accused of launching is the latest escalation of crimes against the Jewish community across the country.

Last Wednesday, two staff members of Israel’s embassy in Washington, D.C., who were about to get engaged, were fatally gunned down outside a Jewish museum in the nation’s capital. The suspect in that attack, Elias Rodriguez, 31, shouted “Free Palestine” as he was led away after his arrest late Wednesday night, according to charging documents.

In April, a man set fire to the mansion of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who is Jewish, protesting what he viewed as Shapiro's anti-Palestinian stance on the war in Gaza.

Susie Moskowitz, rabbi of Temple Beth Torah in Melville, said she was “devastated” by the latest attacks. But “it's shored up my resolve to keep going and be proudly Jewish,” she said. “They want us to stop, and they want us to stop existing,” but she and other Jews, she said, will “not give in to terrorism.”

Harvey Finkelstein, president of Dix Hills Jewish Center, said that as Jews, “our whole philosophy is to seek light, pursue life and justice. Whoever is perpetrating these acts in the name of whatever God they choose is the exact opposite. They have negated the whole Judeo-Christian ethic that our country was built on.”

The attacks unfolded against a backdrop of ongoing strife in Gaza, where Israel continues a counteroffensive following the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack by Hamas that left 1,200 people in Israel dead.

Israel has killed more than 50,000 people in Gaza since, with much of the population in danger of famine due to Israeli restrictions on food deliveries, according to the Gaza Health Ministry and international relief organizations. Talks to reach a cease-fire have foundered.

Sunday’s attack happened as Jews marked the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, a major festival that commemorates the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai.

Local police have said they are "monitoring" security at places of worship on Long Island and are sharing information with "law enforcement partners."

“It's an attack on all of America and all that is decent,” said Jay Rosenbaum, rabbi emeritus at Temple Israel of Lawrence. “It must stop now.”

White called the attacks “this extraordinary cancer of antisemitism that has spread.” He said his synagogue spends $280,000 a year on security and has made the building bulletproof.

“Our synagogue is a fortress,” he said. “It has to be because on any given day, we may have 250 children in the building.”

“This is a reality that we've put into place after the Tree of Life shooting in Pittsburgh” in 2018 in which 11 worshippers were fatally shot in a synagogue, he said. Security has been amped up even more since October 2023, he added.

Moskowitz said “we are really lucky that we have a security firm that takes very good care of us. I trust that if we need an extra person, they'll put an extra person on.”

“We're no longer reacting to emergency situations,” she said. “We are on a constant level of alert. That's a change in the last two or three years.”

Jewish leaders said their houses of worship are places of community solace for Jews.

The Dix Hills Jewish Center “has become a haven and we are flourishing,” Finkelstein said. “It's the only place Jews can go where we know we're safe” from attacks verbal and otherwise. It’s “a place of security and peace, of trying to just all be together as Jews.”