By: Renée Rockford
President & CEO
These ten days bookended by Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are known as the Yamim Noraim—the Days of Awe. They are a sacred time for repentance and deep introspection, inviting us to reflect on the past year and recommit to our values.
As with much of Jewish tradition, time is marked not just by ritual, but by the intentional creation of space—for thoughts and emotions, for divergent viewpoints, for repenting and forgiving, confessing and committing to do better. We are not, and have never been, a single-minded people. Yet, our history teaches that division within the Jewish people is among the greatest threats to our continuity. That is especially true when it comes to the Jewish community’s divergent views on Israel and the war with Hamas.
As a statewide umbrella organization serving Jews and Jewish communities across Colorado, JEWISHcolorado is committed to mitigating that risk. We acknowledge the complexity of this moment in Jewish and Israeli history—and we invite the community to move forward together, guided by hope and resilience.
Here’s how we’re doing that:
- We began internally—with our staff—creating space for dialogue and listening. These sessions allow our employees to share what they’re hearing in the community and to process their own experiences as frontline Jewish communal professionals.
- We regularly elevate the voice of our Shlicha, Nelly Ben Tal, who has offered unique and powerful insight into life in Israel since October 7. Read her High Holy Days message.
- Our Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) actively engages diverse and historically overlooked viewpoints within our community to ensure that all feel welcomed and that their perspectives are reflected in our external relations work.
- This past summer, we invited clergy—rabbis and cantors from across the state—to participate in a full-day workshop with Resetting the Table, a political mediation organization. Using transformative methodology, participants learned to facilitate difficult conversations, grounded in a willingness to truly listen and understand differing perspectives.
- Our JCRC convenes 44 member Jewish organizations to advocate collectively in political spaces, ensuring Jewish voices are heard across the spectrum. We have led bipartisan delegations of elected officials to Israel, and locally, hosted Shabbat dinners with a quarter of the Colorado Legislature.
- JEWISHcolorado also brings together 14 different groups and more than 50 organizational partners—from Jewish Day School leaders to representatives of Jewish communities in the Northern and Mountain West regions of our state. Dialogue is the first step toward collaboration.
- For the fourth year in a row, we’re honored to host scholars from the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. Their series of “Courageous Conversations” continues to inspire deep, meaningful engagement. This season’s topics include:
- Homeland Reconsidered: Israel as a Refuge, Anchor, and Source of Disorientation
- At Home in Exile? American Jewish Belonging in an Age of Rising Insecurity
- Between Loyalties: Negotiating Solidarity, Safety, and Jewish Peoplehood.
- (To place your name on a list for future programs, click here)
- On October 29, we’ll host Avi Mayer, creator of Jerusalem Journal, for a timely discussion titled “From Heartbreak to Hope.” On November 6, Yehuda Kurtzer, President of the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America, will join us for an intimate, limited-space conversation about leading with moral clarity, speaking authentically across difference, and holding together a diverse Jewish community in complicated times.
- We offer additional programs through the Israel & Overseas Center, which are designed to create space for everyone to come together, ask questions, learn collectively, and navigate these challenging times.
- For over 30 years, JEWISHcolorado has partnered with the communities of Ramat HaNegev in southern Israel. Together, we’ve developed shared programming, youth exchange cohorts, teen connections through the Joyce Zeff Israel Study Tour, and community-building initiatives that benefit both regions.
Through these efforts—and the full spectrum of JEWISHcolorado’s programs—we focus on relationship-building, partnership, and mutual understanding, within our local communities, across Colorado, and with the people of Israel. The Torah teaches: “Do not take vengeance or bear a grudge…love your neighbor as yourself.” Love, in Judaism, is not just a feeling—it’s a behavior. It lives not within us, but between us.
At JEWISHcolorado, we are building a community where everyone can see themselves and one another. We invite individuals and partner organizations into spaces that welcome nuance—where anger, disillusionment, hope, and camaraderie can coexist. We are creating a tent wide enough for all. As we enter 5786, may we do so with hope for change and renewed energy to embody the Jewish value of tikkun olam—to repair our world. We pray for the return of every hostage and for war to give way to peace. This Yom Kippur, may our reflection lead to renewal, and may our intention to act with purpose be answered with G’mar chatima tovah—a good final sealing in the Book of Life.
Please email Renée Rockford at rrockford@jewishcolorado.org with questions or comments.