Aish of the Rockies marked its 25th anniversary last Sunday. As the chronicler of this community, we have seen many synagogues founded and folded, many outreach programs founded and floundered. We have never seen anything quite like Aish of the Rockies last this long, with every indication that, if anything, it is just beginning.
We have never seen any organization with so many logos behind which stood actual, vibrant programs, all built on a single vision — to reach every Jew.
Under the leadership of Rabbi Yaakov and Chaya Meyer, a modest Southeast Center for Judaism was founded 25 years ago, derived from earlier, even more modest outreach programs. Modest, but sincere. Modest, but growing. Modest, but based on vision. Modest, but built on the determination to realize a dream.
But a dream realized is a dream diminished. The thing about Aish of the Rockies — well, start with the name. It is no longer the Southeast Center for Judaism, no longer Aish Denver, no longer only a synagogue.
It is all of the above, and more.
It is a dream that keeps expanding.
Its vision has come to embrace the Rockies, more particularly, every Jew in the Rockies, regardless of background or education, who has never tasted the sweetness of the Torah, or who wants a deeper taste.
Which brings us back to those logos: for JOI, the Jewish Outreach Initiative to young families; for ShabbatSpot, a downtown Denver outreach to young professionals; for so much else: teens, advanced Torah students, Bar and Bat Mitzvah youth, younger kids, adult Torah studies. Not to mention the social side. Oh, not to forget the Aish shul, now led by the next generation, a Meyer son-in-law and daughter.
All this is words, but, as was said on the virtual anniversary celebration last Sunday, “words cannot suffice.” To get beyond the words, it is necessary to enter the Aish shul or to partake in any of the Aish of the Rockies programs and divisions. There is something unifying, something underlying, something uplifting in them all.
It is the feeling that Judaism counts, something way beyond an ancillary part of life.
It is the feeling that Judaism is eternal because G-d is eternal — and that we can know G-d in our lives.
It is the warmth that the participants have for one another.
It is the commitment that the leaders, beginning with the Meyers, care about every Jew — the feeling that this is not just a slogan or an abstraction.
It is the dedication that brings people to Aish, whether in reality or in virtual reality, every weekday beginning long before dawn — this is an active scene!
It is the knowledge that Aish is a place for religion, and that religion includes friendships and community, not only on Shabbos and Jewish holidays; that religion includes the emotions, the intellect, the spirit.
It is the knowledge that if one is single or has a family or does not have a family, or has a strong Jewish education or does not have a strong Jewish education, Aish makes one — everyone — comfortable. If anything was evident at this virtual anniversary celebration, it was the variety of the participants, from every imaginable geographical segment of Colorado and every imaginable social stratum.
Speaking of geography, the shots of the Old City of Jerusalem, the camels and the expanses of Israel — as background to videos of participants on Aish study tours in Israel — reminded viewers of the origins of Aish of the Rockies in Aish HaTorah of Jerusalem, overlooking the Western Wall. Here is the place where, said Steve Berg, CEO of Aish Global, that he and rabbis like Rabbi Yaakov Meyer look out at the Temple Mount and figure out how to change the Jewish world.
Aish harbors a large vision adjacent to genuine focus on each individual, as the chief rabbi of of South Africa Warren Goldstein said in his tribute to the Meyers. Aish is macrocosm and microcosm, headed, as Norm Brownstein put it, by “an amazing scholar and an incredible human being.”
Copyright © 2020 by the Intermountain Jewish News
