By: Willie Recht
Chief Development Officer
What does belonging mean? This week, we begin the book of Bamidbar—literally, “in the wilderness.” It opens with what may feel like an unlikely spiritual starting point: a census. God commands Moses to count the Israelites, tribe by tribe, family by family, each person accounted for. At first glance, a census is about numbers. But in our tradition, counting is never just about quantity; it is about belonging. Each matters enough to be counted. Each person is part of something larger than themselves. And yet, embedded in this structure is a tension that feels eerily relevant today.
In the wilderness, the Israelites camped not as isolated groups, but as a collective arranged around a shared center. Their diversity was real, but so was their interconnection. Their survival depended not on any one tribe, but on their ability to function as a people.
Across the Jewish world—and here in Colorado—we are blessed with extraordinary diversity: of practice, perspective, generation, and experience. But we also see the growing reality of fragmentation. We gather in different spaces, align with different causes and views, and often speak past one another rather than with one another. The risks of this are not abstract. When our sense of shared obligation weakens, so too, does our collective capacity to support and secure a thriving Jewish future.
Last week, during my last Mandel Executive Leadership seminar, I had the opportunity to reflect on the concept of Jewish peoplehood. Our cohort, made up of Jewish communal leaders from across the country and landscape, spoke about the idea that peoplehood is not simply an inherited identity—it is a lived commitment. It asks something of us. To belong to the Jewish people is to accept a measure of responsibility for one another and to recognize a broader “we.” It is to understand that our individual stories are bound up in a collective story. That sense of peoplehood does not erase difference. But it does insist that difference cannot come at the expense of connection. The census in Bamidbar teaches us that every individual counts—but it also teaches us that we are counted together.
Perhaps the challenge—and the opportunity—of this moment is the work to reclaim that balance. To build a Jewish community that honors distinct voices and paths, while strengthening the connective tissue that holds us together. To move from fragmentation toward a renewed sense of shared purpose and responsibility.
We may not always agree. We may not always gather in the same spaces. But if we lose the sense that we are fundamentally responsible for one another, we risk more than division; we risk diminishing the very idea of a Jewish people.
As we enter this Shabbat and Shavuot, may we be reminded that we are each counted—and that we count on one another. Shabbat Shalom & Chag Sameach.
Please email Willie Recht at wrecht@jewishcolorado.org with questions or comments.