Laura Merage was at an Apple Store in downtown Denver to get a new phone on June 1, 2025.
She heard hushed voices and saw other people looking at their phones, so she checked hers only to see notifications that grabbed everyone’s attention — a firebombing attack on a group of mostly Jewish people in downtown Boulder. Merage turned to her husband, David, and told him they were driving to Boulder to support and mourn with their fellow Jewish Coloradans.
“It took me a while to really understand what I was reading,” Merage told the Daily Camera. “It felt like I’m in Germany in 1940. The whole idea that in — well, it’s gonna make me cry — in today’s world, not so long after the Holocaust, that something like this could happen and the whole dynamic of fire and firebombing and attacking all of that was just too much to bear. I became very emotional.
“I still become very emotional.”
The Merages had already begun organizing a congress on combating antisemitism in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel.
This week, the first Congress to Confront Antisemitism & Preserve Democracy was held early in downtown Denver and hosted by the David Merage Foundation. Laura is an artist, and David is a co-founder of Chef America Inc., which created Hot Pockets.
The two-day congress consisted of 450 attendees from across the U.S., most of whom, Laura Merage said, aren’t Jewish. That was intentional.
“I strongly believe that antisemitism is not a problem for Jews to solve by themselves,” Laura Merage said. “It’s not going to happen, first of all. Second of all, your voice is a lot stronger and will be taken more seriously as someone who’s outside of the Jewish community. … At the end of the day, I can be dismissed as a Jew who is raised with certain beliefs and (is) just biased. But if you speak up, they can’t say that about you.”
She added that protecting all vulnerable people is vital to protecting American democracy.
On Tuesday, the antisemitic attack on the Pearl Street Mall was the focus of keynote discussions at the congress.
Colorado Attorney General and leading gubernatorial candidate Phil Weiser and Boulder Chief of Police Stephen Redfearn gave separate addresses on Tuesday. Both spoke about the importance of supporting all vulnerable communities. Redfearn, who answered questions from Susan Rona of the Anti-Defamation League, explained how Boulder is healing since the firebombing attack.
“No one has to stand for being abused, victimized — even verbally — and it shouldn’t take a terrorist attack for us to wake up to the fact that we need to be better,” Redfearn said.
In a later interview, Redfearn explained that the congress taught him that “every community has the same fears” and that he thinks Boulder has done a good job supporting the Jewish community.
“A lot of communities don’t have the relationship that we have with our (Jewish Community Center) and with some of the synagogues and even with the ADL,” Redfearn said.
Gov. Jared Polis and Denver Mayor Mike Johnston spoke at the congress on Monday.
In the lobby outside of the main ballroom, Stephen Smith, a video storyteller who specializes in the Holocaust and genocides, presented interviews with 15 Boulder residents about their experiences during or after the Pearl Street Mall attack. That included attack survivors, Jewish leaders, Mayor Aaron Brockett and Boulder City Councilmember Nicole Speer. Those interviews were on display for congress attendees to watch on a free-standing video board. Those videos can be found at stories.lumenairi.com/boulder. The perpetrator of the Pearl Street Mall attack, who is serving a life sentence, killed 82-year-old Karen Diamond and injured dozens of others who were walking with Boulder Run for Their Lives, a group that peacefully walked along the pedestrian mall and called for the release of hostages held by Hamas.
Smith ran Steven Spielberg’s Shoah Foundation, an archive of interviews with survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust, for 12 years.
When talking about the Boulder project, Smith said he learned how victims “have one trajectory that they’re going through. The emotions that go with and the trauma that goes with being there in that moment, and that time, and the remapping of their lives as a result of that, family members, how it impacts their relationship with the community, what they discover about themselves in that process.”
This week’s congress is backdropped by what advocates say are high and increasing rates of antisemitism in the U.S.
The American Jewish Committee surveyed 1,222 Jewish Americans for its 2025 report on antisemitism in the U.S. About 93% of those respondents said that antisemitism is a problem in the U.S., and about 46% said it’s a serious problem. About 7% said it’s not a problem, and less than 1% didn’t know or didn’t answer. In all, 91% of those surveyed said the Pearl Street Mall attack, the Capital Jewish Museum shooting last year that left two Jewish people dead and the burning of Pennsylvania’s Gov. Josh Shapiro’s house made them feel less safe as a Jewish person in the U.S. Nine percent said “not at all.”
“We know that many non-Jews don’t believe that there is so much antisemitism, or aren’t aware of it. It’s not on their radar,” said Dafna Michaelson Jenet, a former state senator who presented at the congress and is the executive director of the David Merage Foundation. “Being able to share the story of Boulder and the amazing work of Boulder with elected leaders, municipal leaders, leaders from business communities from all around the country is a model for how a community can respond when an antisemitic attack happens.”
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