Rally for Israel gathers on front steps of Colorado Springs City Hall
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- Hundreds of people gathered on the front steps of the Colorado Springs City Hall to show support for Israel following the events of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
"I hope that this was a great encouragement to everybody. I'd love to see it be a lot bigger and that we should move forward. Because while Israel is a big issue, the bigger issue here is anti-Semitism in our city in our state, and our country," Chaim Goldman, Israeli-American citizen said.
Goldman spoke of his experiences while living in Israel. He narrowly survived a homicide bombing while there and struggled for years to heal from that situation. While he says that now he's come to a place of forgiveness for that homicide bomber, he's still committed to fighting for the safety of his people.
Rabbi Jay Sherwood took the time to relay experiences he's had with anti-semitism while here in the United States.
"I'll tell you, the first thing a protester said to me as I walked into the conference, they said, go back home to Auschwitz," Sherwood said.
The speakers at the rally identified Hamas as the problem in the conflict. Sherwood specifically, noting the fact that the Hamas attacks began on the day his Temple celebrated the Torah.
"On that very holiday that we celebrate these words that are the heart of the Jewish people, thousands of Hamas terrorists came through the fence, attacked, raped and pillaged and murdered," Sherwood said.
Grappling to find hope amid the bitter conflict that triggers trauma, holding deep and complicated historical tensions, they're seeking to find light during the season of Hannukah.
"You forget and you fall into this sort of easy, comfortable, seemingly safe life," Goldman said. "But once this happened in Israel, it all came back. And so that stress of it all, the wonderings of it all, and you start to think is it going to start happening here in the United States?"
