Messianic Jews David and Rivkah Costello say that they’ve struggled to feel welcome wherever they move.
They left a Jewish neighborhood in Illinois because their belief that Jesus is the Messiah – a tenet of Messianic Judaism – alienated them from others in the community.
Then they relocated to an area that turned out to be predominantly Muslim, where they said pro-Palestine sentiment and what the Costellos deemed to be anti-Jewish attitudes made them leave again.
Last month, they chose Colorado Springs, a city with relatively small Jewish and Muslim populations, bringing their five young children and an intention to start afresh.
Days later, a Muslim mother of five from across the street came over with cupcakes, introducing several of her own children to the Costello brood.
‘I was like, “Oh, maybe this will be different than our old neighborhood”,’ Rivkah told the Daily Mail.
Days after their Muslim neighbor’s welcome gesture, however, the same woman’s husband drove 100 miles north from the Costellos’ new street to Boulder on his way to kill Zionists.
Egyptian national and Uber driver Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, launched a flamethrower attack on Sunday, June 1, in Boulder on a gathering in support of hostages held by Hamas. Victims number at least 15, ranging in age from 25 to 88, including a Holocaust survivor.
Soliman has been charged with a federal hate crime alongside attempted murder and other felonies, with 118 charges filed against him in Boulder on Thursday.
His wife and children were taken into custody by ICE after the attack, though a judge has temporarily blocked their deportation.
David, meanwhile, can’t stop thinking about how Soliman would have passed his house adorned with its mezuzahs as he headed to Boulder with alleged plans to use homemade Molotov cocktails for murder.
‘We’re literally across the street from him – and I was like, “How were we not attacked?”’ he said. ‘I mean, it’s pretty clear we’re Jews … we have mezuzahs [small scrolls containing verses from the Torah] on the door.
‘It went from “How were we not attacked? “Why not us?” to “Thank God that it wasn’t, that we weren’t attacked, because it would have been a very easy thing to throw out one of those things that he developed, a Molotov cocktail or whatever, to our door … I can throw a football to his yard.’
David continued: ‘We could have been dead. This could have been a very different story.
‘My heart goes out to the people in Boulder,’ he said. ‘But we were a really close target and a really easy target to hit – but he decided not to.’
He and Rivkah, whose children range from eight years to three months old, practice and run a nonprofit organization dedicated to ‘Rabbinic Messianic Judaism’. They keep Kosher and dress in the Orthodox Jewish tradition, though the couple have come under fire in the past for their beliefs and work – including media reports accusing them of being Christians trying to convert Jews.
‘It’s really hard to describe what we are,’ David told the Daily Mail. ‘We are like the Orthodox community of Chabad but we believe a different person is the Messiah.
His wife Rivkah added: ‘Whether they think we are [Jewish] or not, we live a Jewish life.’
As they moved in to their new home in Colorado Springs, Rivkah with her head covered and David wearing a yarmulke, they were joined by members of their community dressed similarly.
‘So a very Jewish presence on the move in,’ he said.
Outside the home, Rivkah quickly set up the mezuzahs as a symbol of protection and identity, though Jewish tradition allows a grace period of 30 days before households must affix them to the doors.
Rivkah said she had felt a need to put them up as soon as possible.
‘There’s a name of God written on the outside that’s said that evil forces, when they see it, flee,’ Rivkah said. ‘So I thought about that when we found out about everything.’
When Soliman’s wife arrived with cupcakes and her children to welcome the new neighbors, Rivkah was too polite to tell her that their kosher lifestyle meant they couldn’t eat the gift.
‘I took it and just said thank you, and that was pretty much it,’ she said. ‘The kids said hello to my kids.
The Costello family were getting ready to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, preparing food and paying no attention to the news or their devices, when the attack happened on Sunday afternoon.
Then federal agents turned up on their doorstep.
‘The FBI came and said, “Oh, I see that you’re wearing kippah and tzitzit, do you know what happened in Boulder?”’ David said.
The agents told them that their neighbor had injured ‘lots of people’ with a flamethrower at a pro-Jewish gathering – then the Costellos went into electronic lockdown for days in observance of the holiday.
They were still learning reported details of the attack on Wednesday. They’ve mostly sheltered their children, telling them: ‘They got the bad guy.’
The Costellos said they were very nervous that Soliman would get out on bail, which has been set at $10 million.
‘We’re trying to raise some funds to get a security system, at least,’ said Rivkah, adding that she’d sent a message out through their nonprofit organization, Ahavas Chinam, asking for help with costs.
They were reeling this week as they continued unpacking in their new state and new home while learning more details about their neighbor’s alleged terror attack on Jews.
‘I don’t know, maybe we should just build a log cabin on a mountain somewhere,’ Rivkah said.
‘That’s one attitude,’ said her husband. ‘But the other attitude is to stand up to it… We’re going to be faithful to what we believe, and we are going to continue standing with our community.’
Whatever happens, the mezuzahs are staying.
‘We trust God to protect us,’ Rivkah said. ‘We also believe that when you’re following his commands – which putting those mezuzahs up is – he rewards you.
‘You know, sometimes when you read stuff like that – “Oh, it says that if you do this, it protects you” – you’re like, yeah, okay.
‘But now I’m convinced of it.’