COLORADO SPRINGS, FEB 1.

When CU first began its Jewish Studies program in 2007, about a dozen students pursued the certificate.  This year, 75 students are enrolled in the certificate program. Provost Russell Moore told the board that no other schools in the Rocky Mountain region offer a Jewish Studies major.

The Jewish Studies Program thanks its donors, students, faculty, administration and staff who worked to make this possible.

More information is available from this Daily Camera article.

Young Judea:  Young Judea, recently spun off from Hadassah, run really solid programs in Israel.

Israeli Scouts (haTzofim):  The Scouts’ (Tzofim) trips also have a great reputation and have an added advantage of having 30% of participants being Israeli teens.

The evening program is scheduled on February 15th at 6:30 pm at Bnai Havurah, 6445 East Ohio Ave, Denver 80224 303-388-4441.

Please RSVP by January30 to indicate interest in attending and get any last minute information. Contact me with questions via e-mail: IsraelSummer2012@yahoo.com.

b’Shalom-

Shmuel Deitel

Boulder Jewish News encourages Bar and Bat Mitzvah students to submit their d’var torah and information about their Mitzvah/Tikkun Olam projects.  For more information, please email editor@boulderjewishnews.org

Not only is transportation on the Boulder Bus free of charge to Limmud Colorado participants, but it’s also a great opportunity for fellow Boulder Jews, their friends and loved ones, to start building a Limmud community before conference has even begun! Residential and non-residential participants are welcome to use the bus on Saturday night, Sunday, or both.

Please note that the bus will run PENDING RESERVATIONS, which can be made on Monday, January 16 via email to Dafna at: dafna.michaelson@gmail.com. Please indicate whether you’ll be using the bus on Saturday, Sunday, or both, as well as the names and ages of all members of your party.

Here are the details:

Saturday, January 21: Bus leaves from Har Hashem at 6:15 pm and arrives at the Inverness Hotel and Conference Center in Denver by 7:30 pm. Bus departs Denver at 11:15 pm and arrives in Boulder at approximately 12:15 am.

Sunday, January 22: Bus leaves from Har Hashem at 7:45 am and arrives at the Inverness Hotel and Conference Center at 8:45 am. Bus departs Denver at 9:15 pm and returns to Har Hashem in Boulder at 10:15 pm.

We look forward to seeing you all at conference, and, please remember to make your reservation on Monday, January 16 by 11:59 pm.

Professor David Shneer, Singer Chair in Jewish History at CU. (Photo by Glenn Asakawa/University of Colorado)

Congratulations to David Shneer, Professor of History and Director of the Program in Jewish Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder as his recent book, “Through Soviet Jewish Eyes: Photography, War and the Holocaust” was selected as a finalist for the 2011 National Jewish Book Award in the Holocaust category.

As the longest-running North American awards program of its kind in the field of Jewish literature, the National Jewish Book Awards is designed to recognize outstanding books of Jewish interest. Awards were given out for 2011 in fourteen categories. A complete list of the 2011 National Jewish Book Award winners and finalists is available at www.JewishBookCouncil.org.

There are a few remaining copies of “Through Soviet Jewish Eyes” in hardback for sale through the CU Art Museum. Signed copies are $45 plus shipping and handling. Proceeds benefit the exhibit and collection that has been established at CU as a result of Professor Shneer’s research. To purchase a book, contact Jennifer Conrad at 303.492.3008 or via email at jennifer.conrad@colorado.edu.

It all started the summer before my last semester at UW-Madison.  I had heard good things concerning the technology entrepreneurship scene in Boulder, Colorado and I wanted to check it out.  Without any plans, I got on a plane and went to Boulder in hopes of networking with tech start-ups.

The first night I was in Boulder, I went to a group meditation and sparked up a conversation with a nice young man named Chris Thorne.  Chris just so happened to be working for a tech start-up called Spot Influence, and was nice enough to share the BOCC* with me—a networking event for the tech start-up industry. Tuesday morning came along and my socks were knocked off by how perfectly things fell together–the BOCC was EXACTLY what I was looking for.

As the BOCC concluded, I began a conversation with a smart dude who just so happened to be a graduate from UW-Madison–the college I was currently attending.  Not too far into the conversation, we also figured out that we were both Jewish. Perfect timing, for at that precise moment Cheryl Fellows from Boulder Jewish News was walking by and heard our conversation.  She clarified that we were Jewish, and simply handed me a sticker that said “Boulder Jewish News.”

About an hour later, I took that sticker out of my pocket, looked at it and placed it on the back of my Mac Book pro–I don’t know why I did, I don’t really like computer stickers.  Either way, my trip concluded – successfully – and I was off to Madison, WI for my last semester.

A few weeks into school, I was working on my start-up – WomStreet.com – with my business partner, Alex, who just so happens to be Jewish as well.  As we were talking, we were approached by a nice Jewish lady named Chava Cohen.  She saw the Boulder Jewish News sticker, asked if we were Jewish and then proceeded to talk to us about her Jewish student organization JEM.  It just so happened that Alex knew all about JEM and actually went on his Birthright trip through them.  Because of that conversation, I found out about Birthright – an amazing opportunity for young Jewish adults to escape to the motherland for free – and signed up for my Birthright trip through JEM.  My trip starts in three days.   (Follow my trip on twitter: @VfordVendetta.)

Let’s connect all the dots:

1.  I went to Boulder wanting to network with Tech Start-ups, and I had no idea how it was going to happen.

2.  I met a random guy at a random meditation who told me about the EXACT event that I was looking for.

3.  After this amazing event, I sparked a random conversation with a random guy who just so happened to graduate from the school I was currently attending, and we both shared the same Jewish heritage.

4.  While I was conversing with this random guy, the second we realized that we were both Jewish, Cheryl from Boulder Jewish News walked by, heard our conversation, and gave me a sticker that said Boulder Jewish News.

5.  For no reason at all, I placed that sticker on my Mac Book pro, which I never do.

6.  Back in Madison, while working at a coffee shop with my Jewish partner, a nice Jewish lady from JEM told us about Birthright.

7.  It just so happened that my partner knew about Birthright, because he went to Israel with them.

8.  Now I’m going to Israel.

Steve Jobs – one of my heroes – once said that it’s impossible to look forward and see how things will work, you can only look back and connect the dots.  These were some serious dots.

*BOCC (Boulder Open Coffee Club) is an open conversation between tech enthusiasts/entrepreneurs at 8:00 am every other Tuesday at the Atlas Purveyors Coffee Shop on Pearl Street, Boulder Colorado.

For the 2011 awards, entries were received from 162 countries. The winning entries will be celebrated at an Awards Gala Event to be held at Theatre Folies Bergere, Paris, on March 6, 2012 and all finalists will have their books exhibited at the Paris Cookbook Fair, March 7-11, 2012.

Eleven years in the making, “One Egg Is A Fortune” is a cookbook with contributions from 50 well-known Jewish people from around the world who have shared recipes and stories. See the Boulder Jewish News review here, including a link to purchase the book.  The book was created to raise much-needed funds for Jewish elder care. For more information, email info@oneeggisafortune.com or visit  www.oneeggisafortune.com.

Boulder Jewish News encourages Bar and Bat Mitzvah students to submit their d’var torah and information about their Mitzvah/Tikkun Olam projects.  For more information, please email editor@boulderjewishnews.org