How are people at the Chabad of Colorado Springs Jewish Community feeling after Sunday’s anti-Semitic terrorist attack at an outdoor mall in Boulder?

Rabbi Boaz Vituk, who heads the synagogue, nudges aside his jacket before entering the holy building on Monday to lead a service for Shavuot. The high holiday marks God giving the Ten Commandments and other parts of the first five books of the Old Testament, known as the Torah, to Moses and Israelites on Mount Sinai around 1312 BCE.

Vituk’s motion reveals a concealed handgun. He gestures to a fellow congregant standing nearby, who also uncovers a hidden firearm.

“That’s our No. 1 comment,” Vituk says. “We’re all U.S. Army or Air Force. There are wicked people out there that want to annihilate us — and we have to prepare ourselves physically and spiritually.”

Colorado Springs neighbor of Boulder attack suspect never saw ‘any aggression’

A 45-year-old Egyptian native living illegally on an expired visa in Colorado Springs with his wife and five children is suspected of throwing incendiary devices that injured 12 people, some severely.

Labeled a hate crime and act of terrorism by law enforcement, the incident happened during a peaceful weekly walk calling for remaining Israeli hostages to be released from Hamas captivity.

The militant group Hamas unexpectedly attacked Israel near the Gaza Strip on Oct, 7, 2023, killing nearly 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages. Some of the latter have been released, others have died or been killed. Between 23 and 58 hostages could still be alive.

Violence has spilled over into America as the war continues, with anti-Semitic acts rising by 350% across the country in the past five years, according to The Anti-Defamation League’s 2024 report.

Colorado had about one anti-Semitic incident reported to the organization every day last year.

“People in the community are horrified. People in the community are scared,” said Rabbi Jay Sherwood, leader of Temple Shalom, which practices under both Reform and Conservative traditions.

“When something like this happens close to home, we really feel it. It very much feels like an attack on the entire Jewish community of Colorado,” he said.

The suspect, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, was heard yelling “Free Palestine,” investigators said, and he also told authorities that he wanted to kill all Zionist people.

“Killing Jews doesn’t help Palestinians in Gaza,” Sherwood said.

The only message of the walks that are held regularly in cities across the United States, such as the one in Boulder, is “bring the hostages home,” Sherwood said.

“There is no difference between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism,” he said. “Attacking Jews who are hoping the hostages would be free doesn’t do anything to help any Palestinian in the world.”

In another recent high-profile attack, two Israeli employees of the U.S. Embassy were murdered on May 22 outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C.

Vituk, an Orthodox Jew, said he could not use electronics or phones, have his photo taken or do a proper interview on the holiday of Shavuot, but spoke briefly outside his synagogue.

On Monday’s holiday, he was encouraging his congregants to pay attention and follow the “common-sense rules of the Ten Commandments.”

“When we’re doing what God wants and not what we want, we’ll never be wrong,” Vituk said. “We’re not afraid of being Godly.”

Jewish people won’t be intimidated by hate, rabbis say.

People sometimes throw objects at the 10,300-square-foot building where the Chabad of Colorado Springs Jewish Community is located, or yell sacrilegious comments or sometimes vandalize the property, Vituk said. But in general, he said, people of southern Colorado tend to be more loving than hating.

Sherwood believes the U.S. has allowed anti-Semitism to “flourish,” as pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel protests and aggressive acts such as blocking Jewish students’ from walking on their intended paths, have been allowed at many college campuses across the nation under the label of “free speech” rather than “hate speech.”

“Many of their calls are to terrorize Jews to leave Israel,” he said.

Sherwood told his congregants on Monday to “stand up for Judaism and the lessons in the Torah,” which he said instructs Jews on how to be good human beings and to repair damage.

“The way to repair the world is to bring everybody to the center, to have people work together and not against each other,” Sherwood said. “I believe the Torah teaches us the lessons on how to do that.”

Both rabbis hope that federal aid for stepped-up safety and security measures at synagogues comes through.

“There’s a cadence in the Army — ‘Here we go again’ — it’s the same old stuff again,” Vituk said.