As every year, the Jewish New Year is the moment Jews here in Colorado converge for family celebrations and flock to their congregations for worship on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

This year, it’s also a moment when events are rapidly converging around the war in Gaza, as Israeli forces close in on Gaza City, three NATO nations declared recognition of a Palestinian state, and President Donald Trump announced a 21-point peace proposal that could end the fighting and return the hostages.

At gatherings, Jews are talking intently about those events, and their Rabbis at various places of worship are preaching about what the moment means.

“What a place to be on Yom Kippur, and yet we can’t help but feel a little bit of hope,” said Rabbi Sarah Shulman at the Hebrew Educational Alliance in Denver, who was planning a sermon for HEA’s Kol Nidre service Tuesday night.

Fast moving events

She was one of seven rabbis at major congregations The Denver Gazette reached out to over the past week of High Holidays for reactions to fast moving events in the Middle East. One declined to speak and two did not return repeated calls.

That follows two years from the moment hostages were taken and civilians were killed in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. That led to an invasion that has claimed tens of thousands of lives in Gaza, as well as worldwide protests, and violent events close to home, including a June attack in Boulder that claimed the life of a Jewish demonstrator.

The ongoing war has created rifts in the Jewish community, between neighbors and family, as individuals debate the facts and the emotions surrounding the ongoing war. Many of those in Colorado have personal ties to Israel, where an intense debate is taking place over when troops will return home and whether compromises are needed to get back the remaining hostages.

Opposition to Netanyahu

Some of those issues were expressed by Howard Lipshutz of Denver, who was in Yom Kippur services Wednesday. He told The Denver Gazette of his ongoing support of the state of Israel, but his opposition to Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu’s prosecution of the war.

“I was one hundred percent supportive going into Gaza after Oct. 7,” Lipshutz said. “But as it progressed over the long period, the suffering let alone the number of innocent deaths runs against my values as a Jew.”

Lipshutz added that he talks with others who question the numbers of civilian casualties claimed by Gazan sources, and who argue that aid flowing into Gaza is hijacked by Hamas.

“Even if all of that is true, the suffering of millions is difficult for me to justify,” Lipshutz said.

Among the rabbis who spoke to The Denver Gazette, Rabbi Rick Rheins of Temple Sinai, a Reform movement congregation in south Denver, said that the difficulty of the moment is further complicated by violent societal rifts that played out in attacks and mass shootings at schools and churches, and an assassination over recent weeks.

Social rifts

Last week, he recalls, he preached a Rosh Hashanah sermon on the value of finding things that Americans have in common, rather than what divides the nation.

“I spoke about the importance of opening our minds to different perspectives. Despite the political violence that has been plaguing the United States as well as the Jewish concern over Israel, we are cautiously optimistic,” Rheins said.

Some of that optimism surrounds the 21-point peace proposal, which Hamas hadn’t accepted coming into the closing hours before Yom Kippur Wednesday, but that had garnered some surprising support from European governments as well as some in the Middle East.

“I hope that (the proposal) will be able to overcome the reticence seen in Hamas,” Rheins said. “We want peace. We want the sweetness of God’s blessings to be enjoyed by all. I’m hoping that they’ll let go of their weapons and hatred, although that’s a tall order.”

A former hostage visits Denver

Rabbi Avraham Mintz of Chabad Jewish Center of South Metro Denver, an orthodox congregation, said that his own services had been made more poignant by a visit over the week from Judith Raanan, one of a group of hostages who had been released early in the conflict.

“We spent the day with her,” Mintz said.

“As a rabbi you see a lot of passion,” he added. “There’s a lot of pain in the world right now. It’s up to us to rise above our differences. Instead of pointing fingers, what we can do here every day as Coloradans is to add kindness to the world. That should be our drive.

“God believes in us, and we have to believe in ourselves.”

Sermon messages

Mintz and other rabbis all reaffirmed that however the current peace initiative plays out, Israel, they said, isn’t going anywhere.

“There is lots to criticize about the current (Israeli) government, but there is also a fundamental truth about who started this war and about how it treats its own people,” Rabbi Shulman said, while planning her Wednesday evening sermon at HEA, a congregation affiliated with American Judaism’s Conservative Movement.

Shulman said that recent reactions by other nations to Israel’s continuing pursuit of Hamas were disturbing, including the walkout that many United Nations delegates had staged during an address before the General Assembly early in the week by Netanyahu.

“The image of so many delegates walking out of the U.N. as he took the stage was a real symbol of where we’re at on the world stage,” she said. “To not even be willing to hear his speech, that was a powerful moment.”

Permanent peace

“It’s a difficult time to be a Jew anywhere, as so many turn their backs on us,” she added.

“I think Israel has turned the tables on what’s happening in Middle East,” Rabbi Bruce Dollin told The Denver Gazette.

“They have brought this issue around to seeking a permanent peace. We have to see what the response is from Hamas, but I think there’s a great deal of hope.”

Dollin, former senior rabbi at HEA in Denver, said that he has given a number of introductions for parts of the services during holiday worship, and that his message is optimistic.

“I like to envision a region that works together, that shares technology, and that works for the benefit of their people instead of for the violence and hate we’ve seen coming from Hamas,” he said.

Reject terror

“I have always seen Israel as seeking peace, and over the last years they have shown that they’re not going anywhere. It’s a first-world nation with a strong military and a strong culture,” Dollin said. “The time is now for all countries in the region to reject terror and start rebuilding.

“It’s a challenging time for rabbis,” said Rabbi Shulman, who was planning her sermon for Kol Nidre that opens Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement.  “We’re heading into Yom Kippur services with tempered optimism.

“What will we find in coming days? Perhaps we’ll have a deal waiting for us after the holiest day, or perhaps we’ll have to wait longer. Only the words of Hamas will tell us where we are.”

Shulman said some of her sermon will address dealing with the moral complexities that Jews face in the current situation.

Love in relationships

“Everything we read on the internet is about extremes,” she said. “We can hold those complexities, we can acknowledge and criticize some of the missteps made, and at same time not agree with those who are embracing antisemitism.”

“On Yom Kippur there is a necessity for emphasizing love in our relationships,” Temple Sinai’s Rabbi Rheins added. “Not AI or ChatGPT generated love, but real person-to-person love, a love that transcends race and religion.”

Pondering whether the new moves from the White House and from Israel could lead to peace, Rabbi Dollin said he believed Israel’s recent moves may have set the stage for a paradigm shift in the entire region.

“Twenty-four hours from now, all of this might be moot,” he said. “Perhaps Hamas can suddenly say we’re going to disarm and leave, or they could say no, we’ll redouble our efforts to destroy. Then Israel will have to continue to defeat them.”

Rabbi Mintz, whose congregation had just installed a new Torah scroll, a hand-copied manuscript of the first five books of the Bible, said that every character of the text must be perfect.

“Even if one letter is cracked the entire scroll is invalid,” Mintz said. “Likewise with humanity, if one of us is lacking, all of us are lacking. We have to look within us and then we can see the good in others. Then we can transform this world into God’s garden.”

Yom Kippur ended after sundown Wednesday, with some congregations ending their services then, others continuing on until three stars can be seen in the sky in a single cluster.