L'Chaim (Spring)

Bar and Bat Mitzvahs are fairly regular occurrences at Chabad Jewish Center of South Metro Denver. The occasions, while adhering to Jewish law and respecting age-old traditions, were each tailored to reflect the celebrants’ individual personalities. The common denominator: the honorees were all either 12 or 13 years old. Over the weekend of Jan. 30-31, 2026, the Bar Mitzvah of Gabe Zeller at South Metro was completely different, and one that everyone associated with it will never forget.

The Jewish Lead & Whiskey Society (JLAWS) is one of the newer organizations to be woven into the fabric of the Denver Jewish community, but it’s far from your typical Jewish organization. JLAWS meetings don’t take place in living rooms or boardrooms. There is no parliamentary procedure. There are no committees. There is no fundraising. Instead, JLAWS meetings take place on a shooting range twice a month. Members work at perfecting their firearms skills to protect themselves and their fellow Jews in the event of an anti-Semitic attack at a synagogue or other communal gathering. In early 2023, Jewish Navy veteran Josef Elchanan was alarmed by the upswing in anti-Semitism in the US and around the world.

Three millennial Denverites share their Bar and Bat Mitzvahs and how the ceremonies impacted their Jewish identity.

Eight years before Svitlana Cherkasova was born, her mother Anna Cherkasova saved a Jewish girl’s life. Eighty-four years later, Anna Cherkasova was formally recognized by Yad Vashem as a Righteous Among the Nations, a rare designation for non-Jews who helped Jews survive Nazi persecution. Accepting the posthumous award — which was presented by a Yael Eini of Israel’s Consulate General in Los Angeles — on Anna’s behalf was her daughter Svitlana Cherkasova, now a resident of Kavod Senior Life.

Following an anti-Semitic incident in Steamboat Springs, Rabbi Kolby Morris-Dahary formed STAND (Steamboat Team to Disrupt Anti-Semitism and Discrimination) while enlisting the support of local community leaders to join her movement.

Vignettes of Jewish Santa Fe: Rabbi Berel Levertov, Prof. Ron Duncan Hart and Rabbi Jack Shlachter talk about Jewish life in northern New Mexico, including Los Alamos.

Peter DeWolf likes toffee. He likes it so much that he makes it. He makes it so much that he sells it. He sold it so much to friends that he decided to sell it to hotels and business.

For Jewish students at the University of Denver (DU), the last five months have been, to put it mildly, tempestuous. The Intermountain Jewish News speaks with students, institutions serving Jews on campus, the ADL and the university’s administration.

Walk around the room at any medium-to-large event in Denver’s Jewish community and you are likely to hear someone speaking English in that unmistakable melodic South African accent, a mixture of British and Southern accents.

Few would dispute that John Fielder is Colorado’s best-known photographer today, quite possibly ever.

Down Valley Jewish Family and Friends, is a new chavurah serving Jews not only in Carbondale, but as far northwest as New Castle and as southwest as Redstone.

The teacher in the front row is Denver-bred Mallory Bustow, who has built a solid reputation as a B’nai Mitzvah tutor at area synagogues