The shooter who on Monday killed 10 during an attack in Boulder, Colorado had targeted a “Jewish store,” says the Loomered.com news site associated with journalist Laura Loomer, a brave and outspoken young woman. I was privileged to meet her some 14 months ago during her unsuccessful campaign for a congressional seat in Florida, when travel had not yet been cancelled., Right away, we hear that Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty has said that investigators have not identified a motive for the suspect, who has been identified as Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa from the Denver suburb of Arvada. Alissa was reportedly born in 1999 in Syria. Since I am something of an expert on Islamism and am the author of the book The Ideological Path to Submission... and what we can do about it (Mantua Books), this immediately raised some red flags in my brain, but not so in the mainstream media. You see, while Loomered.com reported that the King Soopers grocery market targeted by the shooter is known as a “Jewish store” with a large Jewish clientele due to the supply of kosher items the store carries, this was not reported by the mainstream media. King Soopers website indeed advertises the grocery chain as “Your One-Stop Shop For Kosher Groceries.” The store is also included on a Vaad Hakashrus of Denver list of stores that carry kosher items. Citing a source in Boulder law enforcement, Loomer also told the National File that the shooter had sworn allegiance to ISIS before the attack. Loomer has written on her Telegram channel: “Source tells me shooter carried out the attack in the name of ISIS. Biden admin(istration) has already given orders to keep it under wraps to avoid conversation in the media about Islamic terrorism and reversal of Trump’s travel ban (which ban the terrorist was opposed to.” “The irony isn’t lost on me how a Radical Islamist, and ISIS member drove 25 miles out of his way to get to this specific store just to shoot everyone in sight. Yet, not a single mainstream outlet wants to talk about the fact that the location of the attack is a Jewish store, with a majority Jewish clientele,” Loomered.com concluded. Rabbi Marc Soloway of Congregation Bonai Shalom in Boulder, posted on Facebook: “Friends, I am sure we are all so shaken and frightened by how close today’s horrible shooting was to us. A store that so many of us have been in multiple times. While we wait with terror and sadness to learn more about the victims, I hope and pray that you and your loved ones are safe.” Note how the Rabbi says that his congregation waits “with terror and sadness to learn more about the victims.” The Rabbi understands what terror is, even if media do not. Saturday evening is the start of the Jewish holiday of Passover, commemorating how Moses led the Jewish people out of slavery in Egypt, to head for the Promised Land, and along the way to receive the Torah on Mount Sinai. Before the Egyptian Pharaoh would agree to let his Jewish slaves leave Egypt, G-d through Moses brought plagues and pestilence down on the Egyptian people, culminating in the death of the first born sons of the Egyptians. Aish.com says “It is written in the Torah, "The Children of Israel journeyed... 600,000 adult males on foot, besides the children." (Exodus 12:37) “Since the verse only includes the number of men who were 20 years of age and over, we can extrapolate the total population by including the women and children as well. “According to Rabbi Yonasan ben Uziel (circa 1st century CE, author of an Aramaic translation of the Five Books of Moses), there were 3 million Jews in total who witnessed the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai. (see Targum Yonasan –Exodus 12:37) It is probable that a comparable number of Jews left Egypt. “By the way, the Talmud says that 80 percent of the Jews never even left Egypt. They were so steeped in Egyptian culture that they were unwilling to join the Exodus. As such, they were lost to the Jewish nation forever.” (my emphasis) If about 3 million Jews left Israel and witnessed the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai and they represented only 20 percent of the Jews in Egypt, then 12 million Jews stayed in Egypt, becoming lost to the Jewish people. Now let us go back to the Boulder shooting. The Jewish Virtual Library website shows that there were about 5 million American Jews at the end of the Second World War and about 7 million today. However, the actual figures for today’s Jews must take into account the 70% intermarriage rate and other problems. Adam Garfinkle in his interesting essay, “The Collapse: Is the end of American Jewry’s Golden Age” in Tablet writes “Thanks to the continuing steep decline of Jewish education and experience among nonhalachic American Jews, the assimilation/intermarriage data suggests that within two to three generations (18 x 3:=54 years) the number of Americans professing to be Jews will be on the order of a third to a quarter of what it is today.” If that is true, and most Jews celebrating at a Seder this year, will know it is true, we can learn from the past – not just that Jews with Hashem’s help escaped the plagues of Egypt, but that American Jews and the rest of the Galut, given the antisemitism, now increased due to the empowerment of Islamists throughout the world, soon need to join the increasing numbers of their brothers and sisters in Israel. For we see young Islamists continuing to go on murderous rampages against Jews or Jewish stores, and the non-Jewish media and political elites perceive the story to be only one about gun control, and they only get upset about so-called Islamophobia and not antisemitism. Is there really any difference between the terrorism by French Islamists against Jewish Kosher food stores and Jewish schools and individuals in Paris and such acts in the new Leftist America - which has voted out the most Jew and Israeli-friendly President in history and voted in a Biden administration pledged to reverse Trump’s pause of Islamic immigration? And do we not understand that with critical race theory, gender fluidity, abortions on demand, moral and cultural relativism, support for Iran and the genocidal Palestinians, and antisemitic universities and newspapers, that America keeps tolerating paganism and that is not any better for the Jews than ancient Egypt was? Howard Rotberg is the author of four books and is the president of Mantua Books – www.mantuabooks.com
