Holocaust survivor Barbra Steinmertz, 88, who was wounded in the hate crime in Boulder on Sunday, is pushing for unity and reminded Americans that they are “better than this,” she told NBC on Tuesday.Â
“We’re Americans. We are better than this. That’s what I want them to know. That they be kind and decent human beings.”
Steinmertz was one of 12 people injured in the attack in Boulder, where an Egyptian national used an improvised flamethrower to target people gathering in observance of the remaining hostages in Gaza.Â
Police reports of the incident said that the suspect, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, screamed “free Palestine” as he attacked the group. He also threw Molotov cocktails at the group and was later charged with a federal hate crime.Â
She suffered minor burns in the attack, but local Jewish community members said that the trauma that the attack reignited was significant.Â
“Can you imagine the trauma that that reactivates? It’s just horrendous,” said Rabbi Marc Soloway of Boulder’s Congregation Bonai Shalom, of which Steinmertz is a member.Â
He added that Steinmertz is “going to be OK” physically.Â
Elderly Holocaust survivor wounded in Boulder attackÂ
Soloway told NBC that the suspect was seriously misguided in his actions to supposedly support the Palestinian cause.Â
“If he thinks that an act of unspeakable brutality and violence is going to help the condition of the suffering of the Palestinian people in Gaza, he is so deluded and so misguided,” the rabbi said.Â
He added that five other members of his congregation were injured. Two remain hospitalized for their wounds.Â
Soliman is an Egyptian citizen who previously applied for asylum in the US. He was denied a visa to enter the country in 2005. US authorities announced that they took his wife and children into custody on Tuesday, and that they will likely be deported in the coming days.Â
Steinmertz was born in Hungary in 1936, but her parents moved to Italy shortly thereafter. They ran a hotel in Italy until Mussolini stripped Italian Jews of their citizenship. They moved around the European continent for years until her family was able to seek asylum in the Dominican Republic.Â
Her family moved to the United States after the end of the war, and she moved to Boulder in the early 2000s.Â
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