Palm Springs Jewish community leans into resilience after Boulder attack
Shay Lawson
PALM SPRINGS, Calif. (KESQ) – Following a violent antisemitic attack in Boulder, Colorado, Jewish communities across the country are processing the pain.
In Palm Springs, leaders said they are choosing to respond with resilience.
Rabbi David Lazar of Congregation Or Hamidbar in Palm Springs said he personally knows victims injured in the attack.
“They’re going to be all right, but they’re suffering right now,” Lazar said. “Those people are the same Jews that are urging the Israeli government to stop the slaughter in Gaza. That’s the irony here — the bitter irony of it.”
He said the Boulder demonstration was not a pro-Israel rally, but a weekly gathering to raise awareness for the remaining hostages in Gaza.
He emphasized that political slogans like “From the river to the sea” are sometimes interpreted as “permission granted for murder,” especially by emotionally unstable individuals.
“All they need is a little push and a feeling that it’s legitimate for them to show their hatred in actions,” Lazar said.
He said the rise in politically motivated violence is disturbing — but his congregation refuses to live in fear.
“We’re not afraid to do good,” Lazar said. “We won’t succumb to the fear.”
This latest attack comes just weeks after two Israeli embassy staff members were fatally shot outside the Lillian & Albert Small Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C.—and a little more than two weeks since the targeted attack on a Palm Springs fertility clinic in Palm Springs.
Carolina Vasquez, executive director and clinical therapist at Desert Insight, said emotional awareness is the first step to understanding how to move forward from traumatic events.
“The first thing is to notice it,” Vasquez said. “Sometimes we’re on autopilot.”
Stay with News Channel 3 at 10 and 11 p.m. to learn how some members of the Jewish community are reacting after the attack in Boulder.