At the June board meeting, JEWISHcolorado welcomed new leadership and also honored those concluding their terms. Among them was Rob Kaufmann, whose decades-long commitment to JEWISHcolorado was recognized. The following remarks were shared in gratitude for Rob’s leadership, dedication, and impact on the organization and the broader community.
As we welcome new board members, we also reluctantly bid farewell to others. Even this man can’t tell you how long he has been working on behalf of JEWISHcolorado, but we know that Rob Kaufmann has a long and, in many ways, unrivaled involvement at JEWISHcolorado. We know that he has devoted more than the last quarter century to Jco – much of that in different leadership roles, including the Board Chair from July 2021 to July 2023.
He began his service for Jco as Temple Emanuel’s representative to the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC). He later chaired the JCRC and served on the Jco board of directors. Rob co-chaired the Jco Public Officials Mission to Israel in 2013 and was the 2016 recipient of the JCRC Community Leadership Award. In 2021, he inspired the launch of our successful Real Estate & Construction Network (RECN), which continues to experience tremendous growth today.
JEWISHcolorado has been so fortunate for these many years to have Rob’s wisdom, his talent, and commitment. But lest you think Jco was the only organization to have been lucky, think again. The very first sentence of his online bio at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck speaks of his commitment to the community.
In addition to Jco, his community service includes past and current leadership roles with the Colorado Regional Health Information Organization, Colorado AIPAC Council and CORHIO, The Colorado Health Foundation, HealthONE, Hillel Colorado, the Jewish Community Relations Council, Congregation Emanuel, and Denver Metro Convention and Visitors Bureau Foundation.
And he doesn’t just serve; it is in his DNA to drive change. He can boast many accomplishments at Jco – among them, launching our successful Real Estate & Construction Network, now in its third year.
Rob has spent the past year chairing JEWISHcolorado’s Nominating Committee – all while serving on Brownstein’s Executive Committee and co-chairing Brownstein’s nationally recognized Real Estate Department. As a shareholder with the Denver-based law firm of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP, Rob is recognized as one of the nation’s top real estate attorneys and community leaders. And in that role, over the last decade, (on top of his own gifts), Rob has ensured, through annual gifts from Brownstein, that his firm has donated $ 1 million to JEWISHcolorado.
Rob’s family has been a part of the Colorado community for six generations and is an alumnus of JEWISHcolorado’s Joyce Zeff Israel Study Tour (class of 1978), and also a graduate of Cherry Creek High School and the University of Texas at Austin. Rob and his wife, Jen Gilbert-Kaufmann, are the proud parents of four BBYO’ers and two DJDS alumni.
But we all know that parting is not so simple in Jewish organizations. We hope to keep Rob around and engaged on the Boulder Hillel project deal, taking full advantage of his real estate expertise and as one of our top campaign solicitors.
Rob, we want to thank you for your service and offer this gift as a token of our gratitude for all that you do for our community.