When Rabbi Dave Yedid and his husband Daniel Eisenberg planned the first public event of Base Denver, a program of Mem Global, they sent out 20 invitations to a housewarming party at their home in Lowry.
Through word of mouth and a bit of mystery, those 20 invitations multiplied into 64 people who packed the house and small backyard.
Rabbi Dave Yedid and his husband Daniel Eisenberg
For Rabbi Dave, the success of that event in 2022 reinforced his belief that Base, a home-based Jewish community for young adults, was the right idea in the right place at the right time.
“People who come to Base often want a different kind of relationship with Judaism than what they were raised with,” says Rabbi Dave. “We are grassroots by design. We don’t have a building, but young adults looking for friends, partners, prayers, and a relationship with a rabbi can find a place to gather and call their own.”
In September, the work of Rabbi Dave and the success of Base Denver garnered national attention. The Covenant Foundation presented Rabbi Dave and nine other emerging Jewish educators with the Pomegranate Prize. With this prize, The Covenant Foundation works to strengthen educational endeavors that perpetuate the identity, continuity, and heritage of the Jewish people. The ceremony took place at the Museum of Jewish Heritage—A Living Memorial to the Holocaust in New York.
“Base is still young, so this recognition feels reaffirming, especially from The Covenant Foundation because they fund so much innovative Jewish work,” Rabbi Dave says. “I am grateful to be part of the Covenant alumni network filled with creative and committed people who have so many great ideas and care for our Jewish future.”
Base Denver still holds events in Rabbi Dave’s home, but when the crowd hits 70 people, as it did recently for Shabbat, he collaborates with other Denver venues like Rodef Shalom or the Staenberg-Loup Jewish Community Center. Whether they meet in the rabbi’s home or in a venue, Base invites Jewish young adults, multifaith couples, and curious people alike to build a community rooted in relationships. In its early days, Base was nurtured by a Programs of Impact and Need (PIN) Grant from JEWISHcolorado. PIN grants address immediate and specific needs within the community.
Rabbi Dave is a native New Yorker, but the seeds for Base Denver were planted in the Rocky Mountains during the eight years he spent as a staff member at a Colorado camp.
‘It was a life-changing summer’
Rabbi Dave grew up in Long Island, in a family that is Sephardic on his father’s side and Ashkenazi on his mother’s side. His upbringing was largely secular, but he was driven to take a more spiritual path. He started a Jewish club in his public school, spent a gap year in Israel between high school and college, was President of the Hillel at Middlebury College, and in the last year of college decided against pursuing a PhD in Geography in favor of devoting a year to Torah study at Hadar.
Ramah in the Rockies
It was a counselor he met during his gap year in Israel who suggested that he get involved with Ramah in the Rockies, an immersive, Jewish summer camp that combines outdoor adventure activities with a strong focus on Jewish education, identity, and community. For eight years, starting in 2012, Rabbi Dave kept “reorienting my life” to return to Colorado for camp. When he first came to Ramah in the Rockies, the camp was only in its third year.
“It was a life-changing summer,” he recalls. “All of us who were there felt like pioneers. The camp hardly had curricula or programs, so we had a lot of power to shape it. I dove in headfirst, leading backpacking trips, dance, photography, the new special needs program, as well as prayer. I found my voice as a Jewish educator.”
Rabbi Dave earned an MA in Jewish Gender and Women’s Studies and received Rabbinic Ordination from The Jewish Theological Seminary. After a two-year internship with a New York City synagogue, he came away wanting to do something more entrepreneurial. In the same way that he once laid the foundation for the future of Ramah in the Rockies, he and his husband, a therapist and Jewish educator, decided to pioneer Base Denver.
And that’s where JEWISHcolorado Board Chair Ben Lusher comes in.
‘You have to bring an extra chair’
If you ask Rabbi Dave, “What is Base Denver?” he will—no surprise—answer with a question.
“Where are Jews going after college?” he asks. “Why are they not joining synagogues? Where are they, and what do they need?
The answer, he believes, can be found in Base—a vibrant, inclusive, pluralistic community centered in the home of the rabbinic family.
JEWISHcolorado Board Chair Ben Lusher knew the founders of Base in New York City and saw potential for the concept to succeed in Denver.
“Ben was instrumental in getting Base started here,” says Rabbi Dave. “He is why we are here.”
Since its inception, Base has succeeded thanks to the unrelenting efforts of Rabbi Dave and Daniel.
“We worked really hard that first year, and we said yes to everything,” Rabbi Dave says.
“If people wanted to come to Shabbat, we would say ‘Yes,’ but you have to bring an extra chair because we had people pounding down the doors.”
Rabbi Dave began a program that invited cohorts of couples at all stages of their relationship—premarital, partnered, newly married—to examine how Judaism fit into their lives and what values they want to commit to together in the framework of text and tradition. He and Daniel have since run four couples’ cohorts through Embark, specifically for mixed-heritage couples. The Pomegranate Prize was bestowed specifically for that programming. In a letter of recommendation for the prize, one Colorado participant summed up the role Base has played in their life.
“At the start of our mixed-heritage cohort, I felt uncertain of my place in Judaism as the non-Jewish partner…Through discussion, text study, and chavruta learning, I deepened my understanding of the values at the heart of Judaism and discovered they closely aligned with my own…For the first time, I truly saw a future for myself in the Jewish community…We have committed to raising our future children and continue to strengthen our ties to Jewish community through regular Base Denver events.”
The Pomegranate Prize carries a monetary award that Rabbi Dave plans to use for professional development. It also brings with it confirmation that the work of Base—where people can come to redefine their relationship with Judaism—has a future in Colorado.