View from Denver

Former President Barack Obama criticized the founding of Israel, not because Jews didn’t deserve a refuge, but because the founders of Israel “took land” from the Palestinians. Did they?First, a preamble. Jews deserve Israel not only as a refuge, but because Jews are indigenous to the Land of Israel.

Enjoy reading and deciding on the 14 statewide ballot measures in Colorado’s upcoming election. If Constitutional Amendment 85 passes, there will be no more ballot measures in the next election, or in any election. Zippo. Zilch. Amendment 85 reads: “Shall there be an amendment to the Colorado Constitution . . . requiring all state and local ballot questions to be written in plain language and at no more than an 8th-grade reading level . . .?”

In 2026, ICE tripled the number of arrests of illegal immigrants. Sounds like a winning campaign, no? Actually, it’s absurd. Do the math. ICE reports 1,264 arrests per day in 2025. Multiply 1,264 times 365 days per year. That comes to 461,360 arrests in 2025.

“Hateful words targeting Denver Jews wrongly demonizes Zionism” is the headline over an op-ed in the Denver Post, Sept. 20, 2026, by Scott Levin and Rabbi Joe Black. I have penned comments on this op-ed. I invited Scott Levin and Rabbi Black to respond. Their comments follow mine.

Is it hard to be joyous? The Vilna Gaon (1720-1797) is reputed to have said that the hardest mitzvah in the Torah is to be joyous for all seven days of Sukkot, without stop. Is it tough to be happy?Is it right to take drugs, or to drink heavily, if that is the only way to feel joyous?

For the coming year, let every Jew undertake a specific enhancement to one’s Shabbos observance. Let it counterbalance, so to speak, the absence of the spiritual merit of shofar on the first day of Rosh Hashanah.

At a time when I thought it obvious that nothing else matters like “who shall live and who shall die” — at a time like Rosh Hashanah — I learned that “nothing else matters” means something else to Steve Bannon and to the Jewish attorney general of Michigan, Dana Nessel.

Rabbi Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman, the esteemed Ponovitcher rov, was asked why Jewish law states that one must leave a cemetery by a different route than the way one came. He responded, “Can any thinking person leave a cemetery the same as when he came?”

Pete, sweet Pete. Pete’s Fruits and Vegetables is not the same without you. Your sons are not the same without you. Your grandchildren are not the same without you. The Greek community of Denver is not the same without you. The Jewish community on the East Side of Denver is not the same without you.

When the human being, living in a world of woe, yet blessed under a blue sky, next to an ocean or with mountains in sight, is pained, speechless or baffled, the cup of Kiddush (santification) and the cup of Havdalah (division) are one and the same.