Killing Jews Was Good Sport During the Holocaust—2025, Burn Them Alive?

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I wish I could say it’s unbelievable. True, the horror is, but at this rate of antisemitic attacks against Jews, can anyone be surprised?

Barbara Bandler Steinmetz was born in Hungary in 1936, but her family later moved to Italy, where they owned the Hotel Alhambra on the island of Lussinpiccolo. In 1939, her family fled Mussolini’s alliance with Hitler and the implementation of Italy’s 1938 Race Laws, which denied foreign Jews their rights, leading to the Italian government taking over Jewish businesses and forced deportations. They then fled across multiple countries to Hungary, France, and Portugal and temporarily found refuge from the Holocaust in the Dominican Republic in 1941. Ultimately, in 1945, they were able to make their way to New York and, finally, Boston.

As a child, she escaped the ashes of the Holocaust during the 1940s, only for this Holocaust survivor and lecturer to be set on fire in Boulder, Colorado, on June 1, 2025. She’s an 88-year-old woman who Hashem (God) has blessed twice with saving her life.

Why did the assailant do this heinous act? Mohamed Sabry Soliman, the perpetrator, believed she and her fellow protesters, reminding the world that October 7^th hostages remain captive in Gaza, were Zionists.

What is a Zionist? If you are Jewish, it means a supporter of Israel and the right of Jews to come back to what they feel is their homeland—Israel.

However, in today’s parlance among many Pro-Palestinian supporters, the word has been contorted into infinitely more new meanings—murderers, genocide, evil, apartheid, and numerous attributions arbitrarily attached at the discretion of the accuser.

I could easily have posted his picture for this blog, but no, I refuse; I’m sure he looked forward to this being his legacy. F him.

Reading about and seeing videos of the terror attack brought tears to my eyes that came without warning. Listening to one of the heroes who tried to put the flames out that were burning her skin alive, Ed Victor said, “My focus got extremely narrow at that time. I didn’t notice anything else,” he said at a news conference. “I was worried about that woman,” …” and I’ll tell you, when someone is on fire, it takes too long to put them out.”

Why had the victims been targeted? They had been participating in Boulder’s chapter of Run for Their Lives. Since November 2023, they have been holding Peaceful weekly walks to raise awareness about the hostages in Gaza. Run for Their Lives is a national organization with chapters in 35 states that hosts weekly runs and walking events aimed at bringing attention to the Israeli hostages taken in Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack. In Colorado, the group has chapters in Boulder and Denver.

“We are a local chapter of the global initiative Run for Their Lives,” the group wrote on Facebook. “We do an 18-minute weekly walk to show international solidarity with the hostages taken from Israel during the 10/7 massacre and still being held in Gaza. We will walk until they are all released.”

There is some good news associated with this disturbing story. On the day of the attack, there were 30 participants, and a week later, another 3,000 showed up in solidarity for them to participate in Boulder’s Run for Their Lives weekly walk.

According to the Jerusalem Post, 55 hostages remain in Gaza. Among them, 22 are presumed to be alive, it’s uncertain if two are alive or dead, while 35 are confirmed deceased, but still held by Hamas. It’s been one year and eight months since they were kidnapped.

The bottom line for this illegal Egyptian miscreant with an expired visa is that he is a proud Jew hater who intended to kill all present, as he stated in the FBI affidavit. He had brought more incendiary devices, but he had stopped mid-attack. He had thrown two while shouting, “Free Palestine,” but had brought with him eighteen and a makeshift flamethrower—a backpack sprayer filled with gasoline that he used initially. “He stated that he wanted to kill all Zionist people and wished they were all dead,” the affidavit says, adding that Soliman vowed to “do it again.” Authorities said he expressed no remorse about the attack. The FBI stated that the incident was being investigated as an act of terrorism, and Soliman faces multiple felony charges, including attempted murder and federal hate crime charges.

He was unable to do more harm because he discovered during his planning phase that since he was not a legal citizen, he was prevented from purchasing a gun in the US, although he tried. He planned the attack for a year and learned how to create Molotov cocktails and firebombs online. He said he had waited until his daughter graduated high school. Was this his idea of a celebration?

There were fifteen victims, plus a dog, ranging in age from 23-88. Boulder County officials announced in a news release that the victims included eight women and seven men ranging in age from 25 to 88.

Then there’s the case of Tarek Bazrouk, 20, a New York man charged with federal hate crimes after repeatedly assaulting Jewish counter-protesters at anti-Israel protests in New York City  2024-2025. You read that right—the case is of a man repeatedly assaulting Jewish victims on three different occasions while he wore his Hamas-colored green kaffiyeh. His phone, of course, reflected his beliefs, which were laden with support for Hamas and other terrorist groups. He pleaded guilty to one count as part of an agreement during a court hearing, June 11, 2025. He calls himself a self-proclaimed “Jew Hater ” and, in other text messages, called Jewish people “worthless” and said “Allah” wanted “us [to] rid of [Jews],” among other disgusting statements. Now, if you live in New York, aren’t you feeling warm and fuzzy about the deal he made with the prosecutors? Yes, he’s pleading guilty and apologized. Feel better? Sincerity is not what I believe his apology is dripping with.

Of course, antisemitism is a worldwide phenomenon far out of hand. But where does this start? In their homes, of course. In a current trial in France, French teens gang-raped a 12- year-old girl. There were three assailants. She was first raped by her boyfriend, who was twelve. It’s hard for me to wrap my brain around this pre-teen atrocity. It is reported that he is accused of threatening her and orchestrating and recording the attack, which was motivated by antisemitism. Then the 13–14-year-olds took their turns sexually ravaging her as they shouted taunts of “Dirty Jew!”

The attack was discovered when this vile youngster sent the girl’s current date a video of the attack, as reported by the police, stating, “at least one perpetrator allegedly demanded 200 euros from the girl to withhold the footage, which was eventually circulated.”

“The ex-boyfriend sent footage of the assault to a boy the girl had gone out with that afternoon, with the message “Look at your chick,” according to law enforcement. After receiving such a message, the boy informed the girl’s family, who found her an hour after the attack.”

There just don’t seem to be words to describe this situation. Post-Holocaust, we know adults can be evil, but children? The older teens are being charged with gang rape, physical violence, death threats, and antisemitic hate crimes.

But what about the parents? Where would these kids get these ideas from? But since the ex-boyfriend was twelve at the time of the attack, he will not face prison but will instead receive “educative measures” if found guilty. Can these lessons have any chance of rehabilitation?

It’s a question that I have no answer for, do you? Will their parents be charged with legal action? I found no indication of that in my research. What do you think?

The Jews in France are outraged and fearful. After the United States, France has the largest diaspora Jewish population, 500K-600K. France, like it seems everywhere else, has had disturbing surges of antisemitism since October 7, 2023.

So where do we go from here? I believe this is urgent, do you? We need to stop this train from moving farther down the track.

As shabbat approaches, let us pray for a more Peace-filled reality. Better yet, do something constructive like notify your government representatives that antisemitism is unacceptable and steps must be taken to protect the Jewish community.

I feel the need to acknowledge; this is also not a time to turn to Islamophobia. I can hear my mom in my memory’s ear, “Two wrongs don’t make a right!” You can’t paint a group as a monolith and there are bad actors in every segment of society. I believe most people are responsible, ethical people. Both antisemitism and Islamophobia are a sickness in our society, and we all need to join together and insure that all members of society are protected from violence and abuse. Amen.

May You Live in Peace, שלום and سلام