Amid Israel’s intensifying military campaign in Gaza, more than 2,000 people gathered in Denver last week for the Jewish National Fund's annual Global Conference for Israel. The violence in Gaza follows an attack by Hamas militants in October that killed more than 1,200 people in Israel. Hamas took hundreds more hostage. Since then, Israel Defense Forces have killed more than 15,000 in Gaza and displaced roughly three-quarters of Gaza residents.
As the conference got underway, hundreds of protesters gathered outside the Colorado Convention Center to demand a ceasefire and call attention to Israel’s occupation of Palestine.
“I've lost over 70 family members over the past two months in Gaza. I don't want my home to be destroyed,” said Abdullah Elagha, a Denver resident from Gaza.
The protests — and the heightened reports of anti-Semitism nationwide — fueled a sense of vulnerability for some Jews attending the conference.
“We're under attack as Jews and as Zionists, and I think we're so lucky to have this conference as a time to support one another,” said Cheris Kline-Berlinberg of Denver.
Ian Sachs traveled from Arizona to attend the conference. He said the protesters didn’t bother him, that he felt safe, especially with the presence of Denver Police. Still, rising anti-Semitism is top of mind for him right now.
“When it turns into Jews being targeted that aren't Israeli or have nothing to do with this, and I've got kids, and for me to have a military security guard at their Jewish day school … you know, my blood boils,” he said.
Outside the conference, a lot of the protesters lining the streets were also Jews. Many of the protests were organized in part by the local chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace. In the last few months, the grassroots nonprofit has grown from 10 people advocating for Palestinian freedom to 120 activists, including 15 who were arrested on Sunday for blocking an intersection at Speer Boulevard and Champa Street.
These activists are among a growing faction of Jews speaking out against the Israeli government and in support of a ceasefire. Protester Franny Alani from Denver says that was once taboo in many Jewish communities.
“I went to a very conservative synagogue growing up, If you expressed, you know, any critique or dissonance around Zionism, you were immediately alienated, silenced,” she said.
In The NoCo producer Mickey Capper spoke with protesters and people attending the conference about how the conversation is shifting in the Jewish community, including protester Allie Cannington. (Mickey was surprised to recognize them from his Jewish Day School.)
“It tears me up that supporting Palestine is equated to being anti-Semitic,” Cannington said. “It is critical that we show up, as Jews, that we communicate their unapologetic, uncritical stand with Israel is wrong.”
Both inside and outside the conference, we heard people express that they want everyone — Jews and Palestinians —in Israel, Gaza, and beyond, to be safe. But it was difficult for them to agree on what safety looks like.
“I am an American Jew, but Israel is still my home,” said Kline-Berlinberg. “Right now there's a lot of anti-Semitism in the world — and in Israel, we can be safe.”
In Cannington’s eyes, though, it’s impossible to justify the loss of life in the name of Israel’s security and safety. “There is no way that our safety can be sustained if it comes at the expense of other people. We can't use our fear as a catalyst to murder other people.”
We unpacked some of these perspectives with Ira Chernus, professor emeritus of religious studies at University of Colorado Boulder. He has been speaking out against the Israeli government's actions since Israel’s occupation of Palestine began in 1967. He shared with In The NoCo how the conversation about Israeli policies within American Jewish communities has changed over the decades.
