On July 1, Neil Oberfeld succeeded Ben Lusher as the Chair of the Board at JEWISHcolorado. Oberfeld is an attorney and shareholder at Greenberg Traurig where he has built a respected reputation for assisting national and regional developers, retailers, and institutional owners and investors in real estate and general business matters. He brings years of deep and broad nonprofit experience with him to his new role. Recently, we talked about the many ways he has already served Colorado’s Jewish community and the goals he has for his new role as Chair at JEWISHcolorado.
As you prepare to assume your duties as Board Chair, do you remember your first experience with JEWISHcolorado? It would have been called the Allied Jewish Federation of Colorado when you were growing up.
I remember it well. My family moved to Colorado from Montreal, Canada, when I was 16 years old. My parents, Joyce and Donald, immediately became involved in the Jewish community. They made philanthropic gifts to the Federation, and they used the opportunity to teach my brother and me about tzedakah and the importance of supporting our Jewish community.
Why do you think your parents were determined to become involved in the community and the Federation?
In Montreal, there were many Jews. But when we came to Colorado with its smaller Jewish population, we learned that there was a different expectation here. My father was close with Larry Mizel and Larry always told my father that, in Colorado, you are expected to get involved in the Jewish community. That is how it is done in the West.
My parents followed that advice. My father was on the American Jewish Committee board and involved in the Latino-Jewish Coalition. My mother was involved in the early days of the Mizel Museum and also served as Executive Director of the America-Israel Friendship League. My parents always supported the Federation and Israel. They taught me importance of helping people who were in need because we were fortunate to be in the position to do that. We learned that we had an obligation to help others so that, through their own hard work, they could achieve success like our family had.
At what point did you follow in your parents’ footsteps at the Federation?
When I got back from law school, Judy Robins invited me to a Federation event for young leadership. I remember the event well and learning about Federation’s critical role in serving our Jewish community locally and abroad. Through Judy, I also became involved in the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).
Neil Oberfeld on a 2025 JEWISHcolorado Impact Mission
That was the beginning of a long and very busy series of commitments to Colorado’s Jewish community!
Yes, it was. I went on to chair the Mountain States Region of the ADL, and I served as National Commissioner. That work led me to become involved at the Rose Community Foundation and its Jewish Life Committee for 17 years, working with Rose’s early leaders like Don Kortz, Arlene Hirshfeld and Sheila Bugdanowitz. I feel fortunate to have been involved in the early days at Rose Community Foundation. It was an incredible time to be involved in Jewish philanthropy. Rose’s Jewish Life Committee invested millions of dollars into our local Jewish community. I went on to serve as chair of Rose’s Jewish Life Committee, which helped me develop a deeper understanding of our Jewish community and the challenges and opportunities that we are dealing with. I also chaired Rose’s Aging Committee, through which I became involved at Shalom Park and went on to chair the Shalom Park board during the very challenging days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
As my responsibilities at Rose and Shalom Park were winding down, I knew it was my time to finally get more involved in JEWISHcolorado. When I joined JEWISHcolorado’s board, I got to chair the launch of what was our new Safety and Security Committee. I then served as JEWISHcolorado’s Campaign Chair for two years, which included the terrible attacks on October 7th and being part of our Jewish community’s historic response to needs existing in Israel. I also became involved in Mile High United Way, which was founded in Denver over 135 years ago by leaders of our Jewish community and others, where I recently completed my term as Chair of the Board of Trustees.
You stepped down from Mile High United Way on June 30, and you started as Board Chair at JEWISHcolorado on July 1. So you had about a minute off! How are the two roles different?
Mile High has a large board with many CEOs and industry leaders represented on the board. JEWISHcolorado is much more hands-on. I have been working closely with Ben (Lusher) and Renée (Rockford) for the past six months, meeting every week and sometimes more often than that. I see how many important decisions Renée must make every day. It has been important for me to be part of the feedback loop with Renée.
How have you seen JEWISHcolorado evolve in the years you have been involved?
JEWISHcolorado has invested a tremendous amount of time and energy building trust within our community. Israel has always been an important part of JEWISHcolorado’s work, but now it is even more important. JEWISHcolorado has had to respond to the events in Israel on October 7th and the years that followed, the current events with Iran, and, locally, with fighting anti-Israel legislation and attacks on our Jewish communities, the worst of which was the Boulder firebombing. We at JEWISHcolorado are very focused on safety and security. This work has become one of the top three things we spend money on each year. It is important for our community to understand that the dollars raised by JEWISHcolorado for safety and security goes to benefit each and every Jewish organization in our community.
Where does JEWISHcolorado stand compared to all the other roles you have played in the nonprofit world?
Everything I have done has led up to this moment. I am coming in with a lot of energy, and I am very excited to work with Renée and the JEWISHcolorado team. JEWISHcolorado is well positioned to continue to make significant impacts in our community. This is especially because of Ben and Renée’s good work. I can’t imagine a better time to come on as board chair.
As you look into the future, what do you see as the biggest challenge that JEWISHcolorado will face?
I see a variety of issues on the table. To start, there is the rise of antisemitism and hatred toward Israel and that devolves into safety and security issues for everyone, particularly on college campuses. As we look to the future, we need to think about the ways we will provide a high- quality Jewish life for our children and grandchildren, by supporting core programs—day camps, summer camps, Hillels, PJ Library, Jewish Explorers, and the Joyce Zeff Israel Study Tour. Finally, we are watching the changing demographics of our community and donor base. We are working hard to make sure there are funds in place, in perpetuity, ensuring high-quality Jewish life programming in Colorado for many generations to come.