Two years ago today, Hamas terrorists unleashed the most brutal assault on the Jewish people since the Holocaust.

Everyday Israelis — parents, children, young couples — were doing everyday things when they were brutally attacked, raped, mutilated, kidnapped and burned alive in their homes. Hundreds were taken hostage; dozens remain captive today.

Many were at a music festival for peace, where terrorists committed some of their worst atrocities — slaughtering those who truly believed peace was possible with people who harbor a blind, murderous hatred for Jews, Israelis and Americans alike.

“It’s still shocking to me even two years later that this happened, and the way it’s still happening with the hostages still being held,” Rabbi Avraham Mintz of the Chabad Jewish Center of South Metro Denver told me.

Since Oct. 7, 2023, Israel has fought to eradicate Hamas from Gaza. The sheer barbarity of Hamas’ strike — which started this war — must never be forgotten.

Yet two years later, that deliberate onslaught has faded from too many memories. Hamas still embraces its founding charter’s goal: to annihilate the Jewish state. Yet somehow, Israel is the one accused of genocide — an obscene inversion rooted in resurgent antisemitism.

Genocide requires intent to destroy a people. Hamas seeks that. “From the river to the sea” echoes this. Israel goes to extraordinary lengths to avoid civilian deaths while defending itself. Imperfect, yes, but its goal is to destroy Hamas, not an entire population.

The Palestinian population has grown since 1948 to about 5 million. Claims of “genocide” are a modern twist on the ancient blood libel — the lie that Jews kill gentiles for ritual or political ends. As Rabbi Jonathan Hausman puts it: “Israel becomes the Jew of the world.”

These lies now fuel a wave of global Jew hatred. A new report from the Combat Antisemitism Movement recorded 13,339 antisemitic incidents worldwide between Oct. 7, 2023, and Oct. 1, 2025 — including 6,326 in 2024 and nearly 5,200 already this year. On American college campuses alone, incidents have nearly tripled — from 249 in 2022 to 742 in 2024.

In June, an illegal immigrant firebombed a peaceful rally on Boulder’s Pearl Street Mall — targeting a weekly demonstration simply calling for Hamas to release its hostages. He insisted it had “nothing to do” with Jews, only a “Zionist group supporting the killings of people on his land (Palestine).”

Boulder City Councilwoman Taishya Adams echoed that excuse, refusing to sign a council letter condemning the attack because the attacker’s goal was “ending Zionism.”

“Anti-Zionism doesn’t exist,” said Rabbi Mintz. He noted those who rail against Israel never seem to show the same outrage over in Africa, Ukraine, or Syria. Instead, Israel — “the one that’s simply trying to defend itself” — gets the greatest attention.

Boulder’s Run for Their Lives rallies still face harassment. Jewish marchers are routinely screamed at, called racist and obscene names and accused of complicity in genocide.

“I don’t think this community feels safe for people who don’t want to hide that they’re Jewish,” Rachel Amaru, founder of Boulder’s chapter, told CBS Colorado. Organizers have now stopped publicizing their march routes.

It’s no wonder why: In September, activist Laura Gonzalez was arrested for harassment and retaliation after yelling at Councilman Matt Benjamin, shoving a woman and taunting her through a megaphone. The night before, she’d unleashed a profanity-laced tirade at city council, accusing one member of being a “Zionist” and claiming it “has nothing to do with Judaism.”

In April, Gonzalez called Zionists “Nazis or even worse,” branding councilmembers “Zio-Nazis” supporting a “settler colony” that “should not exist because it’s not real.” Hamas’ chartered goal — spoken aloud before a Colorado city council.

In June, she accused city staff of prioritizing “the safety of Zionists” bent on sustaining “a settler colony that depends on genocide.” Never mind that no one is targeting antisemitic activists while Jews are doused in gasoline and set on fire “because Zionism.”

Let’s be real: “Anti-Zionism” is code for antisemitism — political cover for hatred and violence against Jews.

Just last week, a terrorist attacked a synagogue in Manchester, England, on Yom Kippur, driving into worshippers and stabbing two to death. Was that “anti-Zionism,” too?

“Things have gotten worse,” observed attorney and Superior resident Elliot Fladen. “Week after week brings a new report with polished letterhead and poisoned reasoning — deliberately redefining genocide until it becomes a license to attack Jews.”

Fladen doesn’t practice Judaism but has Jewish family. At an “anti-Zionist” encampment on Denver’s Auraria campus in April 2024, a man threatened to beat him while his daughter filmed the exchange.

“When violence erupts, whether in Manchester or Boulder, the same people who romanticize October 7th as ‘resistance’ give at least the impression that they believe the Jews have it coming,” Fladen told me.

Still, Rabbi Mintz feels hopeful. The Jewish people, he said, have outlasted the Romans, the Inquisition and the Nazis.

“The darkness we’re experiencing is something we haven’t experienced in decades, but together, we’ll overcome this challenge,” he said. “I believe in humanity. We are going to continue to focus on the positive, on the light, on the goodness — because that’s really the response to darkness.”

The rabbi is right. But goodness cannot prevail by itself. It needs good people to stand up, tell the truth — and refuse to turn away.

Jimmy Sengenberger is an investigative journalist, public speaker, and longtime local talk-radio host. Reach Jimmy online at Jimmysengenberger.com or on X (formerly Twitter) @SengCenter.