Boulder has a relatively tight-knit Jewish community. Everyone knows everyone.
And everyone knows where everyone stands on any particular issue of municipal importance, especially in wake of the June 1 anti-Semitic terrorist attack at the Pearl Street Mall.
“Most of the community has been very positive,” says City Council member Mark Wallach.
“There was an event last Wednesday at the JCC that had well over a thousand people there.
“We’ve gotten an overwhelmingly positive response to things we had written and said.”
Since the June 1 terrorist attack on Boulder’s Run For Their Lives at the Mall, the Jewish members of the Boulder City Council have been on overdrive, with a constant flow of pro-Israel events on Pearl Street and at other locales.
“I have a lot of friends who were victims and I have a huge amount of friends and allies in Boulder that are Jewish, and from every walk of life,” says council member Tara Winer.
“When this happened, people came to my side. They came to my defense and texted, ‘I’m sorry this happened to you. Let me know what I can do for you.’”
In the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas on Israel, some members of the council received hate messages from anti-Israel factions. This was not the case after the flamethrowing on June 1.
“None,” says Winer. “No harassment, no pushback.
“None.”
As for overall relations in the wake of the Oct. 7 attack, Winer says: “It’s the outside agitators who are making it very difficult. Not just here, but they actually, for the last year-and-a-half, have been going from Front Range city council meetings to other front range city council meetings.”
“We don’t see a lot of overt anti-Semitism,” says Wallach, “but what we do see is promulgated by a small group of representing Gaza supporting leftists, most of whom don’t even live here.
“They come religiously to the meetings and attempt browbeat us into rescinding our earlier decisions (over the war with Hamas) and we’re not having any of it.”
However, there is strife between factions on the Boulder City Council. Council member Taishya Adams refused to condemn the Boulder attack and wore colors of the Palestinian flag at the June 5 council meeting, four days after the Pearl Street incident.
“I had some very direct words for my colleague, Taishya Adams,” says Wallach. “There’s always a little pushback when you do something like that, although the general response has been extremely favorable.
“But no, I have not experienced any attempts to intimidate.”
“Most of the City Council members have been with us a hundred percent,” says Winer.
“I hope that if Adams runs for re-election, that she doesn’t win.
“I feel stabbed in the back,” Winer says. “It’s very hard to listen to her talk right now, but I have to be professional and go on and get back to the work of the city.”
Winer has concerns over the tenor of public comment input during Council meetings.
“We have to figure out how to reign in open comment, and whether or not we should change the rules of that type of thing.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re Jewish or not Jewish. If you come to speak at open comment, the atmosphere is so toxic. People screaming in your face, it’s not right. A child should be able to go there and feel safe.
“And, by the way, there are also some Jewish people who are screaming at these meetings.”
Matt Benjamin, whose current term on the City Council ends on Nov. 18, did not respond to attempts to reach him for comment. Taishya Adams did not respond to attempts by IJN Assistant Publisher Shana Goldberg to reach her for comment.
