I am a liberal rabbi. Every Shabbat, I lead my congregation in prayers for safety and healing for both Israelis and Palestinians. I have been deeply critical of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government. I have protested alongside hundreds of thousands of liberal Israelis in the streets of Tel Aviv.
I donate to organizations dedicated to coexistence and have shared tea in the home of Palestinian peace activists in the West Bank. Last month, 12 fellows from the Task Force on Arab Citizens of Israel visited my congregation, and we listened with deep empathy to their personal stories and struggles.
My views and my activism have sometimes earned me criticism within my community. Some have feared that crying out for the pain and suffering of Palestinians somehow undermines my desperate cries for the peace, safety, and security of Israelis. But I do not believe that is the case.
The Israeli/Palestinian conflict is extraordinarily difficult. Holding compassion for both peoples should not be difficult. To me, this is not a departure from my religious and progressive values; it is the essence of them. The belief that every person’s humanity matters. The belief that suffering deserves empathy. The belief that justice requires us to expand our moral concern, and that Israelis and Palestinians both deserve dignity, security, and self-determination.
For most of my life, I assumed those values were widely shared by the people and movements I considered my political home. Lately, I am not so sure.
What has shaken me over the last two years is not criticism of Israel. It is how noble critiques of Israeli policy have swiftly turned into radicalized calls for Israel鈥檚 elimination — a sentiment we never apply to other democratic nations. This obsessive fixation within leftist political discourse has created real fear in many Jews. And yet, when Jews talk about these fears, people in my own political camp stop listening.
That is why I have found myself deeply troubled by the campaign of congressional candidate聽Melat Kiros.
Over the past year, I have repeatedly found myself wondering whether she understands the fear she creates in Jews like me.
, Kiros condemned the existence of Israel, effectively calling for the elimination of the only Jewish state.
She has called the atrocities of October 7, 2023, both “resistance” and 鈥渋nevitable.鈥�
Just this week, , she refused to call the 2025 firebombing attack on Jews in Boulder antisemitic. She said it was an attack on innocent people marching for the release of hostages, but said of the man accused of murder, “I don’t know. I don’t know what was in his heart.”
When she can鈥檛 even name the antisemitism Jews in Colorado are experiencing every day, how can we believe that she will work for our safety? I have deep concerns that the 鈥渏ust鈥� world she claims to want to create does not include Jews like me and my community. She considers Israel an illegitimate, colonialist state and appears to have closed her mind to all other opinions and, indeed, to the human consequences of her rhetoric.
Over the past year, Denver鈥檚 Jewish community has repeatedly tried to engage Melat Kiros. We have shared our fears and concerns. Yet time and again, we have been met with dismissal, indifference, or silence.
My fears were amplified by Kiros’s recent decision to organize a rally featuring Hasan Piker and elevate him as a prominent voice in her campaign.
To many people, Piker is simply a provocative political commentator. To me, he represents a growing tendency on the left to speak passionately about empathy and justice while showing remarkably little of either when Jews are involved. He is profoundly dangerous.
I recently watched a video in which Piker laughed as a woman described her fears about rising antisemitism in America. Piker has repeatedly said that ” Together with a guest, he characterized the firebombing attack in Boulder as similar to anti-Nazi resistance. He also calls Hamas and Houthi attacks “resistance,” denounces many who express positive feelings about Israel, and describes liberal Zionists as liberal Nazis.
Sick. Absurd. Infuriating. When Piker equates most mainstream Jews with the barbaric people who murdered our families, he is flipping the narrative and building validation for Jewish-hate and violence here in America and beyond.
By choosing to elevate Piker and share a platform with him, Kiras made a clear statement. She signaled that this kind of rhetoric is acceptable within her political coalition. For most Jews, including folks like me who advocate tirelessly for peace, coexistence, and for Palestinian dignity and self-determination, that message is terrifying.
When people on the right use antisemitic tropes, those of us on the left are quick to point fingers. Yet when antisemitic discourse comes from within our party, many just shrug and ignore it.
In the past month alone, students in Boulder as an act of “resistance.” (I bet they listen to Piker.) Denver Jewish Day School was forced to cancel summer camp after receiving threats. The ADL filed a civil rights complaint alleging severe antisemitic harassment in Boulder schools. And one of my congregants left his middle-school baseball team because the antisemitic hate speech was unbearable. These are just a handful of examples of what we are facing every day.
When Kiros speaks about dignity and justice for all people, I want to believe she means it. But dignity that excludes Jews and denies the safety of Israelis is not universal dignity. And a politics that embraces voices that mock Jewish fears or demonize Jewish identity does not make my community safer — it makes us more vulnerable.
I will continue to advocate for all who are marginalized and insecure in our society, because that is what my religion and my humanity demand of me. I do not believe Milat Kiros has shown the curiosity, humility, and empathy necessary to represent my community as a political leader.
Rabbi Rachel Kobrin moved to Denver in 2018 to become the spiritual leader of Congregation Rodef Shalom.
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