An open letter from the Jewish Community Relations Council of Colorado to Melat Kiros, Democratic primary candidate for Colorado’s Congressional District 1, accuses Kiros of “an absence of empathy” for the local Jewish community.
The letter, sent May 28, addresses statements made by Kiros when she appeared on the Hasan Piker show last month.
Piker has made a name for himself in progressive, anti-Israel circles and has campaigned with a number of progressive Congressional candidates across the country.
According to the JCRC letter, its senior director, Brandon Rattiner, met with Kiros prior to the interview to share with her the impact of her statements on the Jewish community.
“My goal was to help navigate a very specific challenge,” Rattiner wrote.
“You have made opposition to Israel central to your campaign while running to represent the congressional district with the largest Jewish population in Colorado.
“Even if it is not your intent, many of the people you hope to represent feel threatened by some of your rhetoric and policies, particularly amid rising anti-Semitism.
“I tried to explain why, and to encourage a more nuanced, empathetic, and careful way of discussing these issues.
Instead, Rattiner told the IJN, Kiros “doubled down,” prompting the JCRC to write the letter.
In her Piker interview, she described the Hamas massacre on Oct. 7 as “an inevitable consequence of apartheid.”
“We have to hold people accountable,” Rattiner said, “and we have to have standards. We need to communicate that our community is not going to stand idly by.”
An Ethiopian immigrant, Kiros was raised in Aurora. She recently moved into the First Congressional District, which encompasses Denver and is currently represented by Diana DeGette.
At the Democratic Party assembly in March, Kiros received over 66% of delegate votes.
Kiros was working as an attorney for Sidley Austin in New York, when she was terminated in November, 2023.
She had declined to remove an open letter she had posted on Medium in response to a letter signed by over 100 law firms calling for law school deans to reject anti-Israel, anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim harassment on campus by students. Her firm was one of the signatories.
Among those who reacted publicly to JCRC’s open letter was Deep Singh Badhesha, a prominent Colorado Democratic Socialist.
On X he described critiques of Kiros as “attacks” and said they are only happening because of a corporate establishment that is “funded by AIPAC and dark money.”
He also said that Diana DeGette “takes $$$ from Lockheed Martin, AIPAC and countless other corporate PACs.”
In his posts, Badhesha did not address Kiros’ description of the Oct. 7 massacre.
According to AIPAC, DeGette has not accepted AIPAC funds since 2022.
In terms of policy, DeGette and Kiros’ platform are similar. Kiros’ is comprised of four issues — affordable housing, Medicare for All, universal childcare and an arms embargo against Israel.
DeGette was a co-sponsor of the Medicare for All Act; her platform supports reproductive freedom, calls for abolishing ICE and discusses environmental protections. She has also voted against selling offensive weapons to Israel.
For one Jewish community member active in the Colorado Democratic Party, it’s not only Kiros’ anti-Israel rhetoric that concerns him. Kiros, he told the IJN, has no political experience and has not worked or lived in Denver. For him, “that’s disqualifying.”
He also sees a through thread from her firing in New York to making her anti-Israel stance a major part of her platform.
Kiros is not the only primary candidate to have appeared on Piker’s show.
Last month, State Sen. Julie Gonzales, who is running in the Democratic Senate Primary against Sen. John Hickenlooper, was also interviewed by Piker.
“It’s become a campaign stop for Democrats,” says the Colorado Democrat. Piker’s approach, he says, stimulates black-and-white condem- nation of Israel.
That reflects what Rattiner wrote in his open letter. “Jewish history, fear, trauma, vulnerability and lived experience were entirely excluded from the contextual framework you extended to everyone else.
“And that absence of nuance [in the Piker interview] inevitably produced an absence of empathy.”
There is concern in the American Jewish community and elsewhere that Piker’s increasing popularity and courting of anti-Israel views is endangering the Jewish community.
On June 1, the UK’s Home Office revoked Hasan Piker’s entry authorization as well as that of his patron, his Cenk Uygur, who is Piker’s uncle.
The Home Office said that “their presence in the UK may not be conducive to the public good.”
Many Jewish British groups welcomed the decision.
With reference to the Colorado Jewish community, Rattiner says that his letter has been well received “from people to the far left in our [local] community to people on the far right in our community.”
He does not regret reaching out to Kiros ahead of the Piker interview. “We’re always going to be an organization that talks to people, that has that open-door approach,” he told the IJN. “But we’re also going to hold you accountable for the choices that you make.
“That’s why the emphasis of the letter was not litigating foreign policy disagreements; but . . . we asked [Kiros] to make space for us, and [she] did the exact opposite.”
As of June 1, Kiros had not responded to the JCRC.
As of June 2, neither Kiros nor Colorado Democratic Party Chair Shad Murib has responded to request for comment by the IJN.
© IJN 2026
