'We will not desist’: Boulder Jewish Festival takes place despite last week's attack

A week to the day since a man attacked a group of pro-Israel protesters with Molotov cocktails in Boulder, Colorado, and the same community is celebrating its 30th Boulder Jewish Festival. The Festival is one of the longest-running Jewish cultural festivals in the country.

On Sunday, 1 June, members of the Run for Their Lives weekly event in Boulder, which advocates for the release of the hostages, were set on fire by a man who yelled Free Palestine. The attacker, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, was charged on Thursday with 118 counts, including attempted murder, assault, illegal use of explosives, and animal cruelty. 

Today's rally marked the first Run for Their Lives walk since the antisemitic attack, and was centred on "resilience, culture, and community solidarity." 

Organized by Boulder Jewish Community Center, the rally and the festival took place in the same location as last Sunday's attack. 

Jonathan Lev, Executive Director of the Boulder JCC, said "In the wake of last Sunday’s terror attack, I didn’t know how—or if—holding the Boulder Jewish Festival would be possible from a security perspective, or whether our community would even want this event, which is traditionally a celebration of Jewish culture, to go on as planned."

The Festival featured speakers, live music, and reflections from those directly impacted by the ongoing hostage crisis in Israel.

The community added that while Run for Their Lives was always part of the planned program, this year their presence was centered and featured from the main stage.

“This will be the first time we walk since the attack—and we are expecting thousands to fill the streets in solidarity,” said Rachel Amaru, founder of Run for Their Lives Boulder.

“This walk has always been about peace and awareness. Now, it’s also about resilience. We will show the world that we are still here, still walking, and still standing for life, human dignity, and the return of the hostages. Sunday will be a moment for our community to begin healing.”

The event had heightened security, with organizers working closely with Boulder Police Department, JEWISH Colorado’s Secure Community Network, and State officials to ensure safety.

'Shock in the community'

"It's massive, it's a terrorist attack in our neighbourhood, in a big pedestrian area."

She added that the "shock factor was significantly delayed," but that despite the shock, the incident was not exactly a surprise among a lot of Jewish and pro-Israel people.

Nevertheless, she stressed to the Post that Run for Their Lives is a "peaceful, not political, way for people to support each other while standing up for the hostages."

"[The rally] is dedicated to raising awareness for victims who are ignored," she continued, "and to see them targeted by the same kind of hate, it's really, really sad."

While Goldberg said she never attended the Boulder branch of the rally, she has attended the Denver version. There, she said, there have been a few "really minor negative interactions, they have encountered some antagonism," but nothing of this scale.

"It's fine to disagree, it's fine to have a counter-protest," she told the Post.

This, however, was an "attack on an entire city, it turned the central meeting place into a target."

The area where the attack took place is an outdoor, touristy area, filled with cafes, bars, and playgrounds. Goldberg said that this is why it potentially had "such a strong reaction from the secular community as well, which often doesn't always happen."

Nevertheless, she said she had a feeling that the weekly protests would continue, at least in Denver. "They will not desist when they say until the last hostage, they mean it," she said.