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Dear Letter to the Editor:
On January 1st, 2026, the Boulder Daily Camera published a front page article describing the June 1st, 2025 firebombing of the Run for Their Lives hostage advocacy group in downtown Boulder, as the most important event of the year in Boulder.
Lamentably, the Boulder Daily Camera repeated the inaccuracy that Karen Diamond, of blessed memory, who was murdered in the June 1st, 2025 anti-Semitic Molotov Cocktail attack, was a Holocaust survivor. While there was indeed an elderly female Holocaust survivor present, who was also severely burned, she survived her physical injuries. It is distressing to me that the DC can’t get these details correct, despite this being a local story, and being admonished in the past.
Furthermore, the article by-line also plays into the ongoing artificial attempt to separate Zionism from Judaism. Let me be clear: the overwhelming majority of self-identifying Jews are also Zionists.
Zionism is the national liberation movement of the Jews. It is rooted in our ancient traditions and is an integral part of Jewish history, Jewish tradition, Jewish religion, Jewish culture, and the Jewish identity.
It is not up to the Palestinians, to the U.S. progressive liberals, to Council Member Taishya Adams, or to the Daily Camera to define what Zionism is to us as proud Jews. Zionism is an integral part of our Jewish identity. Any attempt to cleave Judaism from Zionism is in itself, a form of anti-Semitism. The widespread anti-Israel, anti-Zionist movement in the US, as we see manifested locally in the weekly Boulder protests of the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center, are simply a new iteration of anti-Semitism. Their calls to liberate Palestine from the “river to the sea” are no less than a call to genocide/ethnically cleanse the 7,200,000 Jews living in Israel. Jews have the right for self-determination in our ancestral homeland of Israel.
To clarify, I do not condemn anyone who opposes certain policies of the current Israeli government, or objects to individual politicians or political parties in Israel. As in any liberal democracy, there are hundreds of thousands of Israeli citizens who also oppose the current Israeli coalition government. This is no different from Americans opposing the policies of President Donald Trump. However, even if one is anti-Trump, that doesn’t justify being anti-American. One can oppose Trump’s policies and still be a proud American. Most importantly, even the most far left progressive liberals don’t question the legitimacy of Americans to live in their own country. And yet, they constantly attempt to delegitimize the ties of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel, despite historic, archaeologic, and religious evidence that roots us in our homeland.
John Herzenberg
Boulder, CO
