A native Denverite, Miri Kornfeld, 35, graduated from DJDS and earned a BS in biochemistry and BA in Jewish studies from UCLA. She spent her junior year abroad at Tel Aviv University and later earned a master’s at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Today she is the Colorado director of StandWithUs, an Israel advocacy organization. She is the mother of Barak and Lavi, “the loves of my life!”
How did Israel become so important to you?
I grew up in a Zionist family. My maternal grandfather, Burton Caine of blessed memory, and my maternal grandmother, Shulamith Caine, taught themselves Hebrew and raised my mom and her brothers speaking only Hebrew at home. So Hebrew was my first language.
Although I didn’t have family there, Israel was always important to me. I didn’t realize why until I took my first trip to Israel at 16 with Camp Ramah Israel Seminar — and fell in love.
As a freshman at UCLA, I was so excited when I saw a map of Israel in the middle of campus on Holocaust Remembrance Day. I was elated to be in a place with a large Jewish and Zionist community. But, on closer inspection, I saw that it was the anti-Israel disappearing map of Palestine which depicts terrible lies about Israel and completely re-writes the Jewish people’s history in their ancestral homeland to fit the anti-Israel narrative.
There were other panels filled with the classic blood libels about Jews and even a photo of Anne Frank wearing a swastika arm band.
I will never forget the panel with classic children’s nursery rhymes that had been re-written, one of which was “Fee Fi Fo Fum, I want to drink the blood of Palestinian children.”
These images were on the “apartheid wall” in the center of UCLA’s campus. It was apartheid week at UCLA, and it was Yom HaShoah!
I felt as if I’d been stabbed in the heart. I understood deeply that nothing on the wall was truthful, yet without the knowledge of how to debunk any of it, let alone control my emotions in such an instance, I did the only thing I knew how to do: I cried.
Bruins for Israel (BFI), a pro-Israel group on campus, reached out to me. I wrote an op-ed for the Daily Bruin about UCLA Students for Justice in Palestine’s tasteless timing in picking this particular week, and the harmful images on the apartheid wall.
I became a BFI executive board member, and by my senior year was its president.
Why advocacy and education?
By graduation, I knew that my true calling was in Israel education. StandWithUs was instrumental in helping us on campus, so I knew I needed to work there. I never wanted a freshman to be caught off guard like I was when I got to campus.
Shortly after I started at the organization, we received a grant to start a national high school program and Roz Rothstein, co-founder and CEO, asked me to be its director. In 2012, we created the Kenneth Leventhal High School Internship.
Together with my talented staff, every year we trained hundreds of high school student leaders from hundreds of schools throughout the US and Canada in effective Israel education techniques, and how to stand up to anti-Semitism, so they could proactively impact their schools and communities and be prepared for the challenges they will face on campus.
At StandWithUs, we believe that “education is the road to peace.” This approach could not resonate with me more. SWU is nonpartisan; we present the facts on-the-ground. When you know the facts, it’s impossible not to understand that Israel is the ancestral home of the Jewish people.
What made you return to Colorado?
I’ve been part of StandWithUs for 13 years, first in LA and then in New York.
In 2022, I moved back to Colorado with my twin boys. Once they were toddlers, I knew it was time to launch StandWithUs Colorado.
What achievement are you particularly proud of since Oct. 7?
I am so proud to be part of the coalition of Jewish organizations in Colorado who are working seamlessly to stand up to the anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism in our state.
Because of our work, pro-Hamas organizations’ efforts have been severely impacted. We show up as a community to prove that we will fight back against hate, that Colorado is not an echo chamber for anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic rhetoric.
One example of a meaningful achievement: After I was approached for help with ceasefire resolutions emerging in the state, SWU (together with others) consistently monitored City Council agendas to see if and when a ceasefire resolution was introduced. We created relationships with mayors and Council members. We spoke up (myself included) either in person or virtually at every single City Council meeting around the state where a ceasefire resolution might have or did, come up.
Due to this tireless work, no ceasefire resolution passed in all of Colorado with one exception — in Glenwood Springs where the resolution was not on the agenda. It was brought up during the meeting in a surprise attack, a tactic employed by anti-Israel agitators.
Since its passage, many City Council members expressed regret that it happened the way it did.
We also defeated the ceasefire resolution that was presented to the Colorado Democrats a few months ago.
How did Oct. 7 impact your Jewish identity?
I’ve always been an unapologetic and outspoken Jew and Zionist, but no one is the same after Oct. 7. I’m now more aware of my surroundings, especially when I’m with my kids.
I started working even harder to educate and make a difference for Israel.
I’ve made it a priority to have more conversations about these issues with those who are unaffiliated or not Jewish and relate our current struggles to them. It’s something I have always done, but today, it takes on a new meaning.
What is meaningful to you about being Jewish?
I used my breaks at Tel Aviv University to explore the world. One trip took a friend and me to Turkey, Spain and Morocco. Everywhere we went, we stumbled upon an old Jewish ghetto, a kosher restaurant, a Jewish museum, a shul, etc. In many of those places, the only language we could converse in was Hebrew. It was truly beautiful.
No matter where you go in the world, the prayers that we read in synagogues are the same. It brings tears to my eyes to be in a shul in another part of the world and hear familiar words. It is truly remarkable that our traditions have stayed alive for thousands of years and from generation to generation. It is what binds us together as Am Yisrael, the people of Israel, all around the world.
Who has been an inspiring figure in your life?
My grandfather, Saba Burton Caine, who passed away last December. He taught himself Hebrew, lectured around the world on Israel and Zionism and was involved in the movement to free Soviet Jewry. He was one of the lawyers who worked on freeing Natan Sharansky and they remained lifelong friends.
Favorite book?
The Prime Ministers, by Yehuda Avner. Anyone who calls themselves a Zionist needs to read this book.
Favorite Israeli TV series?
I like most Israeli TV shows because it is an opportunity to hear Hebrew being spoken. I loved “Fauda” and “Tehran.”
What do you do in your free time?
Free time . . . what’s that? I love taking my boys to museums.
Guilty pleasure?
The Israeli version of the TV show, “Married at First Sight.”
Favorite spot in Colorado?
Watching the aspens change in the fall.
© IJN 2024