Media Contact: Stacey Rosenbaum, haverinbox@gmail.com

November 5, 2024

Dear Friends,

We woke up last Friday to the news that, once again, Jews were the target of an act of antisemitic hatred in our own back yard.

More than 20 incidents of graffiti depicting antisemitic slogans, hate speech and images appeared on buildings and sidewalks on the University of Colorado Boulder campus, including the sidewalk in front of the CU Chabad Rabbi.

We, the rabbis of Haver, the Rabbinic Council of Boulder, condemn this most recent act of Jew hatred in the strongest terms. We stand with the Jewish members of the CU community who have been targeted in this cowardly act of antisemitism. How difficult it must be for Jewish CU students and staff who see this hatred and wonder who it is that bears them so much animosity and may indeed harm them.

In his book, “Not In God’s Name,” Rabbi Jonathan Sacks writes, “Those who seek to eliminate Jews, seek to eliminate freedom. Antisemitism is a sickness that destroys all who harbor it. Hate harms the hated, but it destroys the hater. There is no exception.”

We sincerely hope the CU community at large will join us in condemning this hate speech and finding meaningful ways of preventing future acts of antisemitism.

L’shalom,

Rabbi Deborah Bronstein, Rabbi Emerita Congregation Har HaShem

Rabbi Ori Har DiGenarro, Conscious Learning Community

Morah Yehudis Fishman, Community Educator

Rabbi Tirzah Firestone, Rabbi Emerita Congregation Nevei Kodesh

Rabbi Ruth Gelfarb, Congregation Har HaShem

Rabbi Sarah Bracha Gershuny, Community Rabbi

Rabbi Lynne Goldsmith, Adventure Judaism

Rabbi Fred Greene, Congregation Har HaShem

Rabbi Jamie Korngold, Adventure Judaism

Rabbi Charna Rosenholtz, Shulchan.net

Rabbi Eva Sax-Bolder, Community Rabbi

Rabbi Alan Shavit-Lonstein, Adventure Judaism

Rabbi Marc Soloway, Congregation Bonai Shalom

Rabbi Diane Tiferet Lakein, Congregation Nevei Kodesh