Last week, we celebrated our son’s high school graduation in Israel. We gathered together with families of students — from diverse religious and ethnic backgrounds from all over the world — who earned their IB (International Baccalaureate) diploma at Younited, the boarding school on the shared-society campus of Givat Haviva, founded in 1949 to promote peace between Jews and Arabs in Israel.

Graduations are filled with emotion, regardless of the setting, but in the wake of the violent antisemitic attack in our hometown of Boulder, Colorado, I felt a mixture of anger, sadness and confusion. People who are very dear to me in Boulder suffered second- and third-degree burns at the hands of a man who felt that terrorism would somehow “free Palestine.”

I spoke to one of the victims, a close friend of ours, just hours before attending the graduation, and felt deeply troubled and helpless from afar. In my current role as interim co-executive director at Congregation Bonai Shalom, where many of the victims and witnesses to the attack are members, we received press requests from a wide array of news outlets over the last week. It has been difficult to be away from my community while they are so deeply hurt and struggling for support. We send our love and wishes for a full recovery of both........

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