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Har HaShem shelters the homeless

Now in its third winter offering overflow shelter to Boulder’s homeless, Har HaShem is the only synagogue in the metro Denver-Boulder region to open its doors to the homeless. Har HaShem, which serves as a shelter on Thursday nights, works in partnership with BOHO, Boulder Outreach for Homeless Overflow, formed in 2008 when a homeless man froze to death.

Denver’s homeless congregate downtown. The city of Denver has a wonderful program devoted to meeting the needs of the homeless regardless of the weather. While it’s unlikely the homeless would gather on Grape Street or Glencoe or Belleview or Monaco on a cold night, we’d like to think that if they found themselves in these areas that an open, accommodating synagogue would welcome them inside.

The point is that Har HaShem has been doing this for three years. As Rabbi Josh Rose says in the article on page 10 of this week’s IJN, “We look at these acts of kindness as being acts that accrue to our benefit because we don’t have to do them . . . but that helping the poor and those in need is not optional, it’s imperative.”

We applaud Har HaShem for doing the right thing for right reasons — and may we all follow suit wherever we live.

Copyright © 2013 by the Intermountain Jewish News




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