PASSOVER EDITION 5786 SECTION C PAGE 24
Every year the IJN salutes people — known or obscure — who bring freedom into our lives. Passover, with its message of gratitude to G-d for our freedom, is the appropriate moment to say thank you. This year, the IJN salutes Neil Oberfeld, Cheryl Mirrop, Lindy Eichenbaum Lent and Don Sweeting.
Neil Oberfeld
Leadership
That smile you see in this photo of Neil Oberfeld isn’t just for the camera. It’s ever present. Neil Oberfeld is just always smiling. Always nice.
Behind that smile is a serious community leader who has steadfastly given his time and talent to lead many central community organizations, including Shalom Park, ADL, Rose Community Foundation and Mile High United Way.
Through his work at RCF, Oberfeld gained an in-depth understanding of the issues facing the elder community, which he took to Shalom Park, for which he served as board chair during the COVID pandemic, the most challenging time the facility has faced.
Oberfeld’s leadership potential was recognized early on. In the mid-1990s, the ADL honored him with two young leadership awards, and sure enough, in 2014, he became chair of the ADL Mountain States Region and served on that organization’s national commission.
Oberfeld has juggled his community leadershp responsiblities with his high-stakes, demanding career as a real estate attorney at Greenberg Traurig, where he is a sharefolder.
Neil Oberfeld came to community involvement naturally, as modeled by his parents Joyce and the late Donald Oberfeld, both of whom have left their mark on the civic and artistic life of Denver and Colorado. Their son Neil carries forth a beautiful legacy with the family poise and perceptivity.
Cheryl Mirrop
Activism
Potentially impotent in the face of hostage-taking and IDF casualties after Oct. 7, 2023, Jews in the intermountain states and around the world came up with positive ways to move forward. A unique way was devised by Cheryl Mirrop. In addition to her steady attendance at Run for Their Lives, Mirrop reached out to Doron Perez, an international figure due to his position as head of world Mizrachi and his wrenching status as the father of an IDF soldier murdered on Oct. 7 — two weeks before his brother’s scheduled wedding. The wedding went on, and Perez became an inspirational figure.
With no “protekzia,” only a pure heart and deep desire to bring a message of hopeto Denverites — to cast perspective on the war and its losses — she touched Perez’ heart. “Words that emanate from the heart enter the heart.” Perez devoted 90 minutes via Zoom to Denver listeners. A bereaved father, fully vulnerable in offering his personal story, he also articulated messages of hope and perspective. A positive response indeed.
Perez did not stint. And so, Mirrop stepped up again, securing his Zoom presence a second time — all with no organizational backing, just one person making a difference. Mirrop became a role model who herself became a message of encouragement.
Perez has since become president of the World Zionist Oranization. The Jewish people will be hearing from him — and Denverites will recognize him, thanks to Cheryl Mirrop.
Lindy Eichenbaum Lent
Philanthropy
Lindy Eichenbaum Lent went from being the go-to person when Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper made news to becoming a newsmaker herself, appearing on page one of the IJN as she was named president and CEO of Rose Community Foundation in 2017. She went from being the only Jewish girl in her small-town Texas high school to heading a $400 million foundation that has changed and enhanced Denver’s philanthropy landscape.
As Hickenlooper’s spokesperson, Lent exuded confidence and efficiency, traits which led her to her next position as executive director of the Civic Center Conservancy, where she gained valuable nonprofit experience, readying her to step into the big shoes left by RCF’s beloved longtime CEO Sheila Bugdanowitz, who passed away suddenly in 2016.
Lent has filled those shoes well. Under her stewardship, by 2024 RCF had grown to $399.6 million in assets and in 2024 alone it dispersed more than $19 million in grants to a wide spectrum of human service, educational, arts, health and Jewish organizations.
Lent is known for her calm guidance and upbeat personality, combined with strategic thinking and passion for helping others. Since Oct. 7, she has also become a strong voice for the Jewish people. She reaches a broad swath of Denverites who might not otherwise hear a Jewish perspective.
Don Sweeting
Solidarity
At a time when a superficial understanding of Israel and Jewish history is rife, an insightful exception is Dr. Donald Sweeting, a professor and former president of Colorado Christian University. His defense of Israel and powerful voice against anti-Semitism are more than welcome indicators of support. They are carefully reasoned, deeply informed indicators of profound commitment.
Rev. Sweeting need not hide his own religious commitment to embrace the Jewish people and the State of Israel — to which he has traveled many times.
Rev. Sweeting is a thinker, not a polemicist. He is a soul brother, not a political ally. He does not tolerate Judaism, he respects it and Christianity’s roots in it. He is living proof that people need not be of the same philosophy or theology in order to live together — and more than to live together, to enjoy each other. He is a living embodiment of what makes America great at its best.
The IJN is proud to publish Dr. Sweeting’s critiques of anti-Semitism and to portray his pro-Israel sentiments as taught from a biblical perspective on the CCU campus.
Dr. Sweeting is not a lone voice on campus. Its president, its students, its professors and its supporters form a phalanx of friendship. Gratitude is in order. But it goes beyond gratitude because of the sincerity that pervades it. If there were no Dr. Sweeting, we would have to invent him.
© IJN 2026
