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Kudos: Four praiseworthy Jewish community addresses

L-r: Scott Levin, Krista Boscoe, Doug Seserman

L-r: Scott Levin, Krista Boscoe, Doug Seserman

PASSOVER EDITION 5777
SECTION C PAGE 20

Doug Seserman: Community

It is hard to establish a community address, and easy to take it for granted. Doug Seserman has worked hard to become the central Jewish address in Colorado, yet made it look easy.

From the day he took over the Allied Jewish Federation of Colorado 15 years ago he exuded confidence. He brought a marketing background, not a Jewish one, to his position, but quickly embraced the Jewish mission. He relished educating himself about Judaism and Israel, and has become an able spokesman, promoter and builder.

Midas had the golden touch. Seserman has the creative touch. Working with his leadership, he reconceived the annual campaign under Total Choice Tzedakah; reconceived Jewish communal funding from an allocation to a grant model; reconceived the endowment arm as a major source of Jewish communal income; reconceived Super Sunday into the Men’s Event and Choices; and reconceived the federation itself as JEWISHcolorado.

Throughout, he has stood up for Israel, managed a very diverse constituency, moved beyond setbacks (for a new headquarters), inspired lay leaders and fortified our community’s partnership with the Negev into the envy of many federations. (Originally, who wanted that empty desert? Well, Seserman saw further and clearer).

Articulate, friendly, warm, thoughtful, Seserman reestablished the federation as the primary Jewish communal address in Colorado, via JEWISHcolorado.

Krista Boscoe: Education 

The marketing, outreach, development address at Denver Jewish Day School is the office of Krista Boscoe, an 18-year veteran of the 41-year-old, K-12 day school.

Today, more than 360 students fill the hallways of two buildings on the spacious southeast Denver JDS campus which exists due, in no small measure, to the fundraising abilities of Krista Boscoe.

Boscoe who holds a law degree from DU, was brought on board in 1999 to direct the $14 million campaign to build a unified home for the merged K-12 Herzl Jewish Day School and Rocky Mountain Hebrew Academy. Well, whoever hired Boscoe knew what they were doing because in 2002 the Denver Campus for Jewish Education became a reality; that same year, Krista Boscoe earned a promotion to director of development. Under her leadership, DJDS has received several million-dollar gifts.

Donors respond to Boscoe because she truly believes in Jewish education and the mission of DJDS. She could practice law, but she is directly committed to the well being of the Jewish community. With her finger on the pulse, she seems to know everyone and everything going on. She represents DJDS at nearly every community fundraising dinner, appearing comfortable and cordial in every segment of the community.

Boscoe succeeds because she has become an address for efficiency and congeniality. And when that address succeeds, Jewish education succeeds.

Mintzim, l-r: Dovid, Shaina (Bornstein), Mendel, Avraham

Mintzim, l-r: Dovid, Shaina (Bornstein), Mendel, Avraham

‘Mintzim’: Outreach

Need a Jewish address in the mountains and other unexpected places? Try this Hebraicism: the plural of Mintz, as in “Mintzim”: two Mintz brothers, Rabbis Mendel and Dovid, who have put their personal Jewish stamp on the well known Colorado addresses of Vail and Aspen; another Mintz rabbi, Avraham, who gave birth to  the previously unknown Jewish address of Lone Tree, Colo., and a Mintz sister, Rebbetzin Shaina who, with husband Yakov, gave birth to the previously unknown Jewish address of Longmont, Colo.

Few if any families in Colorado Jewish history have had such a deep and widespread impact as the Mintz family. In Aspen, Rabbi Mendel and his wife Lieba have built one of the most beautiful synagogues and centers in the US. Their light touch and embracing outreach touches native and visitor alike. In Vail, Rabbi Dovid and Doba Mintz have now built their own center, linking skiing with shul in a new and alluring way. In Lone Tree, Rabbi Avraham and Hindy Mintz have pulled in previously underattached Jews into a beautiful environment, beginning with preschoolers, then reaching Jews across the gamut of age, background and intensity. In Longmont, Shaina and Rabbi Borenstein have demonstrated once again that even the seemingly least fertile Jewish region can blossom when love and enthusiasm are added to Jewish commitment.

Dear “Mintzim” —thank you for vivifying the Jewish face of Colorado with four strong Jewish addresses across the state.

Scott Levin: Defense

Scott Levin is sort of like the doctor — someone you would rather not see, but someone you are very grateful to see when you need him. As director of the Anti-Defamation League Mountain States Region, Levin has become the address when anti-Semitism threatens to harm the Jewish community.

His is not an easy task, dealing with potentially violent people, misguided at best, hostile at worst; and with many other, very diverse groups: police; schools; government; the press; racially and religiously diverse community activists; and lay people, including young leaders, needed to guide a Jewish community organization.

Scott Levin brings to all this just the opposite set of personal characteristics one might expect in such a hardnosed position: personal charm, poise, the capacity to listen, the capacity to disagree without taking disagreements person- ally; alongside the expected ironclad commitment, intellectual rigor, curiosity and management skills.

Having trained as a lawyer and enjoyed his legal career, Levin now finds far more meaning in defending the Jewish people and in countering prejudice.

This is what a Jewish address really means: love of the Jewish people and their destiny, and love of doing and fostering what is right, above all else. A number of praiseworthy Jewish community addresses stand out, among them the adroit and focused Scott Levin.

Copyright © 2017 by the Intermountain Jewish News




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