In 1938, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini stripped all Jews of their citizenship. Among them was a two year-old infant girl, who would have known very little at the time about the antisemitic storm that was brewing over Europe. However, the increasing persecution of Jews would define her childhood. The little girl was born in Gyor, Hungary, and the family moved to the small Italian island of Lussinpiccolo, which is now known as Mali Lošinj in Croatia, to open a hotel. The small island should have been a place of safety for Italy’s Jewish community, one of the oldest in Europe, but like all Jews under Mussolini’s fascist regime, their lives were at great risk.
The family made the big decision to flee the island and move back to Hungary. Hungary was also not safe after the country aligned with Nazi Germany and passed anti-Jewish laws. They again fled, this time to France. France should have been safe for them, but the Nazis invaded in 1940. Now, the young family were escaping for their lives. They were determined to flee the antisemitism.
As the German occupation intensified, Jewish refugees had no where else to go. They made their way through Spain to Portugal in the hope that they might be able to find a country that would accept them to live permanently. Unique among nations, the Dominican Republic accepted around 800 Jewish families through the Sosua Settlement Project. The girl’s family was one of those fortunate enough to be accepted. In 1941, when the girl was aged 5, the family managed to secure passage on the Portuguese cargo liner SS Nyassa and sailed across the Atlantic Ocean, via New York, and eventually settling with other Jewish refugees in Sosua, Dominican Republic. The undeveloped Caribbean island would have seemed a world away from central Europe. There, the family worked the land along with other Jewish refugees. Despite the hardships, they were grateful for the haven that the settlement provided.
The name of this little girl was Barbara Steinmetz. After the war, Barbara moved to the United States, married, and moved to Boulder, Colorado where she became an active member of the Jewish community.
This week, on 1 June 2025, the 88-year-old Holocaust survivor was injured in an antisemitic firebombing attack in the city. The attack happened at a peaceful pro-Israel march in solidarity with the Israeli hostages that are still held by Hamas, more than 600 days after being taken captive.
It is completely unacceptable that Jews should be set alight on the streets of America. But this is what “globalize the intifada” looks like, and this call is being echoed throughout the world. It also follows the murder of the engaged Israeli couple, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, who were targeted in a terror shooting outside a Jewish event in Washington DC on 21st May. Like in that attack, the terrorist in Boulder, Egyptian-born Mohamed Soliman, also chanted “Free Palestine”. Soliman also proclaimed “End Zionist”, and police have deducted from questioning that he was deliberately targeting “Zionists”. This is not just a threat to Jews, it is a threat to everyone who stands with Israel’s freedom and values.
The West is no longer the safe haven for Jews that it should be. It is unthinkable that a Holocaust survivor who escaped multiple countries to flee antisemitism, should once again be a victim of Jew-hatred in her twilight years – in her own hometown, and in a country that should be a place of safety for Jews to live in.
Thankfully, Barbara is expected to recover after sustaining burns. In total, 16 people were injured – three critically – in the pro-Israel solidarity walk after Soliman, disguised as a groundskeeper, used a makeshift flamethrower and Molotov cocktails. Soliman has been charged with 28 counts of attempted murder.
The Jewish community in America has understandably enhanced security. As advocates for Israel, we must enhance our efforts in standing with the Jewish people. The “globalize the intifada” war-cry has been fueled by the relentless and untamed demonization of Israel, empowered by complicit politicians, haughty celebs, and biased media outlets that have been duped by the antisemitic Hamas narrative. Hamas doesn’t need spokespeople – they have plenty of willful and morally bankrupt champions.
The shameful treatment of Israel by the UK government, the BBC, the UN, and others, in response to the blatant lies of ‘genocide’ and ‘starvation’ circulating in the past few weeks and months are giving antisemites around the world legitimization for their actions.
You can take action to combat the globalizing of hate against Israel. This is our moment to speak out. In honour of Holocaust survivors like Barbara Steinmetz. In honour of those who didn’t survive. In honour of innocent Jewish children uprooted from homes 85 years ago and now facing a new evil in 2025, please act now.
We have three active petitions with the option to also write to your MP.
They are:
Justice not Jihad – calling on the UK to enforce the ban on Hamas
Investigate the BBC – no public funds for Hamas propaganda
No State for Jew Hate – saying no to the UK recognising a Palestinian state
