Open Letter to the City Council and Mayoral and Council Candidates

Dear editor:

[Author’s note: On September 3, two recognizable Jewish survivors of the June 1, 2025 firebombing of the Run For Their Lives group were the targets of a vicious, psychologically abusive verbal assault while leaving the Boulder Municipal building. They had attended the City Council meeting to speak about the potential closing of Spruce Pool. Screamed at in obscene and graphic language – much of it captured on video by Aaron Brooks of Jewish Alliance of Colorado who kindly escorted them to their cars – they were accused of complicity in the litany of alleged Israeli war crimes, and worse. The next day, Rabbi Charna Rosenholtz eloquently wrote to all City Council members and concluded by “asking the City to make clear that no political cause gives anyone permission to intimidate fellow citizens. Jews should not have to accept behavior that Boulder would recognize as unacceptable if it were directed toward another community.” I followed with my letter, below, which added as recipients nearly all Mayoral and City Council candidates and some others who have voices that reach the Jewish community and general public.]

Dear All:

Further to Rabbi Charna Rosenholtz’ letter, here’s an example of the less dramatic, more pervasive offense that Boulder Jews encounter – not only in “Jewish life” – but in public spaces. At the September 4 First Friday art event, the North of Ordinary Collective was raising funds for “humanitarian and protective presence” in the West Bank. Among the available items for sale were:

• Shirts featuring the inverted red triangle used in HAMAS propaganda to identify targeted individuals.
• Merchandise celebrating Leila Khaled, a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine who participated in the 1969 hijacking of TWA Flight 840 en route to Israel and the attempted hijacking of Israeli El Al Flight 219 in 1970.

It’s legally protected speech. It’s enabled by Boulder taxpayer dollars. And Jews know what the meaning is to us, personally. 

What would be the response to David Duke t-shirt sales at the Boulder Creek Festival to benefit Proud Boys? Or to an outspokenly homophobic rapper at Band on the Bricks? Those things, of course, wouldn’t happen here. Though legal, there’s a values consensus putting those things out of bounds. Not so, when it comes to Jew-offensive content.

What Jews suffer from is the failure by platformed voices in Boulder’s governmental, religious, civic, business and educational sectors to publicly and consistently condemn the insidious hostility that Jews are experiencing.  First Amendment rights do not preclude voices of communal leadership and moral authority from rising against those who deal in contempt and disdain for Jews [and I would add, neither should false equivalencies and ‘what-aboutism’]. Those voices aren’t heard here unless they are petitioned – as in the case of an egregious Taishya Adams’ social media post (from among over 1,000 misleading posts bearing on the one Jewish state in the world) – or unless deadly violence against Jews erupts.

And there is a steep learning curve required of all. Contemporary anti-Jewish bigotry is sophisticated. It’s at the core of “antizionism,” the de-legitimization of Jewish peoplehood, and the inter-sectionalists’ suppression of Jews’ right to call out antisemitism, all as were seen in the response to the Adams’ post. While POC are the arbiters of what is racist and women are the arbiters of what is misogynist, Jews were not to be the arbiter of what is antisemitic.

Municipal elections are nearing. Yet, after three years of rancor about Israel and Gaza, the colonizing of City Council (and next, BVSD) meetings, a firebombing, Jew-bullying and more, there’s not a peep of any of it in the election campaigns. Even Adams has toned down Israel, Palestine and Gaza at campaign appearances. It’s all coded, now.  Values aligned investing = BDS. Displacement = the ethnic cleansing lie. But the normalized Israel libels – colonizer, apartheid, genocide – remain promoted through her social media accounts. This situation cannot be ignored by City Council and candidates nor met with silence from public figures. 

• Should Jews in Boulder be able to enter and exit public facilities without being subjected to verbal violence?
• Should Jewish facilities receive the same BPD protection that POC, Muslims, GLBTQ+ and others’ facilities would receive under similarly threatening circumstances? 
• Should Jews have to pay a hundreds-of-thousands of dollars private tax for their collective security? 
• Should Boulder be using taxpayer dollars to support First Friday art walks selling Jew-offensive merchandise? Or KGNU’s incessant ‘antizionist’/antiIsrael and unbalanced programming? 
• Should Boulder demand that its approved Boulder Nablus Sister City Project remove a Board member who screams “Zionist scum” at a Jew and posts about “the fat little rabbi and his fat little wife”? 
• Should Boulder’s investment portfolio be exploited for discriminatory political virtue signaling? 

These are real social issues in Boulder that must be addressed by lawmakers. And those with voices that can reach the many have the moral obligation to call out anti-Jewish bigotry and demand that it not be tolerated. 

Bruce Shaffer
Boulder CO