When “Never Again” Must Be More Than Words: AHA’s Statement on the Boulder Attack

June 2, 2025

For the second time in as many weeks, Jews in America have been violently attacked merely for being Jews. The savagery and depravity required to burn other human beings alive is shocking. The Boulder victims were themselves peacefully advocating on behalf of other victims of antisemitic violence–the Israeli hostages who are still held in Gaza, nineteen excruciating months after the October 7 attacks perpetrated and supported by Islamic extremists. 

Many Americans, myself included, naively hoped that the murders of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim in Washington, D.C., less than two weeks ago would be a rare and isolated event. This was not to be. Enemies of liberty and peace have demonstrated that “Globalize the Intifada” is not an empty slogan, but to our shame “never again” has far too often proven to be. Jewish communities have been put at risk by passivity regarding or worse—active endorsement of—antisemitic rhetoric chanted on campuses and often found at the heart of institutional and economic virtue signaling. Casual acceptance of irresponsible, inaccurate, and biased media coverage of events in the Middle East inside and outside of Israel has only exacerbated the problem.As the formidable Ruth Wisse has reminded us many times over her long career battling those who would seek to do harm to the West by doing harm to its Jewish citizens, “We have to believe the right things–that is indispensable. But we must also do the right things.” AHA Foundation believes the right things, and that is why we stand in solidarity with our Jewish friends and neighbors at this particularly distressing moment. But along with our founder, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, we are also firmly committed to do those things that we can to counter the antisemitism that has regrettably emerged again in the West.

Sincerely,

Trey Dimsdale

President

AHA Foundation

P.S. We urge you to read two powerful essays from our founder, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, written in response to the recent antisemitic attacks in Washington, D.C., and Boulder, Colorado. In both pieces, she confronts the alarming rise of antisemitic violence in the United States and calls on all of us to meet this moment with moral courage.