Congregation Ohr Shalom in Grand Junction is the newest member of JEWISHcolorado’s Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC), joining 45 member organizations and 15 at-large members. The organization represents diverse parts of Colorado’s Jewish community to advance shared values and policy priorities. In his own words, Lee Soifer, who leads outreach at Congregation Ohr Shalom, discusses what prompted the synagogue to join the JCRC.
We came to the JCRC through two different connections. Joseph Breman, who is a member of our congregation, is an at-large member of the JCRC. Also, I spent time in Vail last summer and met Seth Levy who is the JCRC representative for B’nai Vail. He told me that the JCRC connects Jewish organizations around the state with a shared mission of doing outreach and policy work.
This piqued my interest. Although I am relatively new to this area, it didn’t take long after we moved here in 2021 to realize that there seemed to be a disconnect between Grand Junction and the rest of the state. There was not a lot of communication or contact between us and other Jewish organizations in the state. This surprised me, given the large Jewish community in Denver.
I discovered that there was also a disconnect between Grand Junction and other mountain communities. It seemed like we lived on little islands. When I looked at the cohort of mountain Jewish communities, including Vail and Aspen, I realized that our areas of focus were very different.
What really struck me is that the children in these Western Slope communities didn’t have connections to each other. There are 86 family units at Congregation Ohr Shalom, but my 6 and 8-year-old children are the only Jewish kids in their school.
Lee Soifer (third from left), Brandon Rattiner (second from right) and the Congregation Ohr Shalom Board
Brandon Rattiner [Senior Director, JCRC] visited Ohr Shalom in September to talk about the work of the JCRC. Our entire board was unanimous in their support to join JCRC and become more engaged in the state’s Jewish community as we are seeing more antisemitism everywhere. I wear a star, and I have not personally experienced any antisemitism in Grand Junction, but my wife and I have heard about other incidents. This is America. People want to be accepting and have a peaceful community, but there are always outliers.
I grew up in Northeast Pennsylvania in a small town and my experience was that people didn’t hate us. They just didn’t know what to do with us. Living in Grand Junction is like being Jewish in any small town in America. At school right now, we are dealing with the Christmas program. The people at the school might have good intentions, but they don’t know how to deal with folks who are not celebrating Christmas, something that they consider to be a critical part of civil society in America.
The most serious antisemitic incidents since October 7th have happened at the high schools that are part of Mesa County Valley School District 51. School leadership does not try to brush off these incidents, but the problem here is the same one we see all over the country. The school doesn’t know how to deal with what is happening. It’s not for lack of wanting to deal with it properly—it’s a lack of knowledge. Through the JCRC, we can offer the communication and mediation tools that schools need to properly address these incidents and enable us to be heard and taken seriously.
On the positive side, I want to point out that in the Mesa County Valley, the mayor of Fruita is Jewish and the outgoing mayor of Grand Junction is Jewish. In my opinion, Grand Junction is changing significantly as new people move in, and a younger generation takes leadership. John Marshall, the President of Colorado Mesa University, has been honored by JCRC with the White Rose Award for his support of Jewish students on campuses after October 7th. We do a Jewish film festival in Grand Junction, and it’s growing every year. President Marshall and his team have actively supported us by donating space and staff and AV equipment. That is the kind of positive experience we have had with civic leadership here.
Ohr Shalom is a welcoming place, and if people are visiting, we love to have guests. Joining the JCRC and becoming connected to the community-at-large was a no-brainer. Now, we have a resource to help us work with the school district to improve the way they handle antisemitic incidents. We are excited about the new relationship with the JCRC and optimistic about real outcomes with the schools. We are also hoping to build a closer relationship with other communities like Vail, Aspen, Durango, and Telluride, so we have more of a network.
My dream is to get all our kids together to go skiing or mountain biking or river rafting, so that all the children in these little towns know that there are Jews everywhere.