Colorado State Rep. Ron Weinberg (R-Dist. 51 Loveland) first captured the attention of Colorado’s Jewish community when he delivered an impassioned speech to the legislature on Holocaust Remembrance Day in 2023.
Later that year, he was vocal in expressing his horror at the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks and subsequent rise in anti-Semitism, most notably from his colleagues in the Colorado State House, former Reps. Elisabeth Epps and Tim Hernandez.
Once again, Weinberg, a Jewish immigrant from South Africa and the grandson of Holocaust survivors, finds himself speaking out against another assault on the Jewish people — Sunday’s firebombing of peaceful pro-Israel demonstrators on the Pearl Street Mall in Boulder.
“My initial reaction was shock and surprise,” Weinberg tells the Intermountain Jewish News.
“But with everything I’ve gone through down at the State House, with Rep. [Elisabeth] Epps and Rep. [Tim] Hernández, after I digested it, it’s like, ‘oh, here comes another incident. ‘They’re normalizing anti-Semitism.’”
Weinberg doesn’t necessarily think there is a political component to Sunday’s attack, but he notes, “I found it was odd that it happened at the same time as Ilhan Omar, that anti-Jew from Congress, was doing a fundraiser in Colorado.
Weinberg said that it is “truly frustrating” that Gov. Jared Polis signed Bill 276, “which literally gives the guy who committed this heinous atrocity constitutional rights under Colorado law.”
It has been reported that Mohamed Soliman, the man arrested for throwing Molotov cocktails at the Run for the Their Lives event, injuring 12 people, was living in the US illegally, having overstayed a tourist visa, and that raises a question for Weinberg:
“He attempted to buy a gun. How did the Colorado Bureau of Investigation not immediately flag this guy when he was denied as somebody who overstayed his visa? It’s ridiculous.
Weinberg has received a few expressions of support from his legislative colleagues since Sunday’s attack. “They’re thinking about me. They know it’s a sensitive topic and they’re asking me if I need anything, and they’re being really nice.
“But the best response I’ve gotten is from my community here in Loveland. I’ve had pastors reach out from the Christian community. The Judeo-Christian alliance here is very strong, and I’m so grateful for that.”
Despite his hesitancy to react politically to the Boulder terror attack, he says ever since Oct. 7 he’s been more aware of anti-Semitism and anti-Israel sentiments lurking in the halls of Colorado State Capitol.
“Coming into office, I was blinded and ignorant to the fact of how many people hated the Jewish people until Oct. 7 happened. “
Weinberg says the attack this week has reinforced his commitment to “never hide from my heritage. I want to make my family round. I couldn’t imagine if my Savta were to see me back down from being a strong voice for the Jewish community.”
Weinberg joined five others of the Colorado Legislative Jewish Caucus — State Senators. Dafna Michaelson Jenet, Matt Ball and Mike Weissman, and Reps. Emily Sirota and Steven Woodrow, in signing a joint statement in condemning the attack in Boulder.
In their statement, the Jewish legislators put the attack into context with other recent anti-Semitic attacks, specifically the Passover attack at the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion in April and the murder last month of the young couple at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC.
“We should all be outraged to live in a country where this is happening — and determined to change it,” the statement concluded.
© IJN 2025
