Alex remembers, to this day, an incident that transpired 16 years ago, when he was a student at Cherry Creek High School.
“In freshman year I was in a class and some guy Hitler saluted at me.”
Alex was dismayed.
“He just stands up and Hitler salutes,” he says. “And the teacher does absolutely nothing. I was scared and I was angry, and I was hurt. I felt he was so ignorant of what that meant.
“I was especially angry.”
Attacks like that, no matter how much one tries, are impossible to forget. It was seared into Alex’s consciousness.
Fast forward to this past July 4, 2026, when Alex was leaving Aish Kodesh after Saturday morning services for the mile-plus walk to his condo. Another instance of hate awaited him.
“A guy in a Range Rover in the parking lot starts yelling at me. ‘The gas is on, the ovens are ready!’” he said.
“I’ve never heard something so starkly anti-Semitic.”
The wounds of hate, returned.
“The man was sitting in his car and at first I couldn’t see his face,” Alex says. “Then he screams, ‘I’m gonna kill you. I’m gonna kill all you Jews.’
“I didn’t really believe it at first. I kind of stopped in my tracks. I didn’t realize he was speaking to me and then I realized, oh, he’s speaking to me. I was more shocked than anything.
“After my high school years, I think anti-Semitism, at least in terms of violence, had really calmed down a little, even though everyone was dealing with the Aryan Nation and those overt neo-Nazi groups.
“It seemed like a time when I thought, ‘This is really good.’”
Last week, the Winston Downs neighborhood association, which borders the area where Alex was harassed, warned its residents to be cautious as reports of anti-Semitic harassment in the neighborhood grow, especially on S. Monaco Pkwy. near BMH-BJ.
You may be curious about Alex’s name. That is not his real name; he asked the IJN to preserve his anonymity. The July 4 weekend was the first weekend at his new home; he moved from downtown, to be closer to his shul.
“That Hitler salute was ignorance,” Alex, 30, says. “This guy — there’s something real behind it. It’s not an empty threat.
“I felt that if he had a gun, he would have shot me.”
Alex remembers distinctly when he made eye contact with his verbal assailant.
“He had glasses and was very short; crew cut gray hair, very thin gray hair. Maybe 49, 50 years old. A salt-and-pepper goatee. We did lock eyes. He clearly recognized me.”
Alex got in touch with the Denver County District Attorney’s office. Alex told the IJN that authorities found the man to be a neighbor in Alex’s condo complex.
“He was apparently still sitting in his car. And they did eventually question him. I couldn’t get a restraining order in place, because it’s only in place for as long as he’s going to court. And they actually haven’t even formally charged him. The defense attorneys he has have said he’s too incompetent to be formally charged.”
A Denver Police Dept. captain tells the IJN: “These instances happen a lot. More times than what you would expect.”
For the most part, Alex is doing well. He works at a law firm in downtown Denver. He is proud of his faith, since he has “become religious.”
But then, those hateful words resurface in his mind.
“The gas is on. The ovens are ready.”
Those words are impossible to unpack.
“I’ve never had something so direct,” says Alex. “I have had several experiences downtown of anti-Semitism, but nothing like that direct where I actually felt threatened.
“I’ve had moving cars with people yelling slurs and what not. But anti-Semitism has just invaded this political landscape.”
One day, Alex hopes, he can have this conversation while disclosing his real name. Today is not that day.
“It’s so really unfortunate that this is happening in Denver. I grew up here and it’s such a loving city, and now it’s changed so much.
“It’s really horrendous.”
© IJN 2026
