Reflection's host and hostess, Jonathan Lev and Susan Rona

The Boulder Jewish Community Center held its annual Reflections fundraiser Saturday night at the Omni Interlocken Hotel, and continued its recent string of fundraising successes (and successful parties).  This year’s edition welcomed over 450 people, and raised over $110,000 for the JCC’s current year operating budget.

The event honored Andy and Audrey Franklin as Bright Stars, and Danny and Karli Sherwinter as Rising Stars.

Jonathan Lev, Boulder JCC Executive Director said:

This year’s Reflections highlighted the best of the Boulder Jewish community. The Franklins and the Sherwinters demonstrate the engagement that is driving our community into the future.

“There is momentum building in the Boulder Jewish community. Reflections brought the community together in an extraordinary way…  I am so thankful for the community’s attendance and generosity. This event helps ensure that the Boulder JCC continues to bring together our community and provide excellent programming and services throughout the year.”

Audrey Franklin, Ardee Imerman, and Andy Franklin

Karli and Danny Sherwinter with Wendy Aronson

Here are the BJN slide shows from the event.  There are three; the Cocktail Hour, the Program/Dinner, and the Party.  Enjoy!

Cocktail Hour:

Dinner and Program:

The Party:

Susan Rona and Butch Weaver sign the land transfer papers.

On Thursday, February 2nd, the Boulder Jewish Community Center’s efforts to build a new facility took a major step forward as Susan Rona, representing the JCC, and Butch Weaver, representing the Oreg Foundation, owner of the future site of the new JCC, signed a donor agreement whereby the Oreg Foundation will transfer a roughly ten-acre parcel to the JCC.

The Oreg Foundation (originally the Weaver Family Foundation) purchased a thirty acre parcel at the corner of Cherryvale and Arapahoe over a decade ago, with the intent that Jewish nonprofit agencies could establish a Boulder Jewish Commons on the site. The JCC will be the first organization to do so. The JCC has raised $16,600,000 towards its goal of $18 million to construct its new facility, has finalized its architectural plans, and has worked closely with the Oreg Foundation to work out the details of its future on the Boulder Jewish Commons site. Together, the JCC and the Oreg Foundation have begun to submit the JCC’s plans to the City of Boulder for zoning approvals. The land transfer agreement signed on February 2nd marks another step forward for the project, as the Oreg Foundation formalized its commitment to the JCC.

l-r :Susan Rona, Butch Weaver, Francine Lavin Weaver, and Jonathan Lev

To celebrate, the Oreg Foundation and the JCC held a signing ceremony on the site of the future JCC, complete with a champagne toast. Butch Weaver, President of the Oreg Foundation, was joined by Julie Shaffer, Executive Director of the Foundation, as well as Francine Lavin Weaver, the President of 18 Pomegranates Foundation. Each spoke of the original vision the Weaver Family Foundation had of a Boulder Jewish Commons and of their pleasure at seeing the JCC move forward towards construction. The JCC was represented by Susan Rona, President of the Board, Jonathan Lev, Executive Director, Wendy Aronson, Assistant Executive Director, and several members of the JCC’s Board and staff. “This is an incredible day for the JCC, the Oreg Foundation, the Weaver family, and the entire community,” said Jonathan Lev. “It is a truly historic milestone.”

The JCC and Oreg Foundation will now work with the City of Boulder to seek the necessary approvals and permits for the project. The JCC will break ground after the city and permitting process and is dependent on the City’s timetable for approvals.

For more information about the JCC’s project, please see www.boulderjccbuilding.org

Members of the Boulder JCC staff and Building Committee, Oreg Foundation, and 18 Pomegranates Foundation gather on the future site of the Boulder Jewish Community Center to celebrate this milestone.

The JCC will break ground after the city and permitting process and is dependent on the City’s timetable for approvals.

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.

Jewish tradition encourages us to make every effort to prevent and diminish human suffering. From the Talmud, we learn that, “Whoever destroys a soul, it is considered as if he destroyed an entire world. And whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world.”

In partnership with Congregation Bonai Shalom, Har HaShem will host the Bonfils Blood Donation Drive and new Save a Life Health Fair. The goal is to provide an opportunity to make a blood donation as well as to educate the Jewish Boulder community on organ donation, the bone marrow registry, BRCA/hereditary cancer and ovarian cancer, and recently expanded testing options for Jewish genetic diseases.

Representatives from a variety of organizations will provide materials and answer questions in the North Building Social Hall including Bonfils Colorado Marrow Donor Program, Donor Alliance, American Transplant Foundation, Rachel Greig, a local kidney and pancreas recipient, Colorado Ovarian Cancer Alliance, and Dr. Ellen Elias, a Denver based geneticist at Children’s Hospital with support from the Victor Centers for Jewish Genetic Diseases.

Appointments to donate blood MUST be made in advance. To schedule a time to donate blood, contact Donna Werner at (303) 449-4672 or donna@bw-construction.com.

If not donating blood, there is no registration required to attend the Save a Life Fair to speak with representatives and pick up materials. For information or to volunteer, contact Susan Labowitz at (303) 543-0516 or labovitzs@gmail.com.

Andy and Audrey Franklin: Shining Stars

When asked how they met, Audrey and Andy Franklin laugh sheepishly and glance at each other. It seems there are two versions of the story.

They agree that they met “après-ski” in Vail during the terrible snow season of 1976-77. But according to Andy, Audrey was brazenly flirtatious, even though he was there with a date. Audrey insists her overture to Andy was quite innocent.

It hardly matters who made the first move. What matters is they married in 1978 and that skiing has remained the couple’s abiding passion.

Andy was already living in Boulder when he met Audrey, who was living in Denver at the time. He had made aliyah to the mountains with the sole intention of being a ski bum. Almost unintentionally, he got a job at HP in Loveland as an electrical engineer in product R&D.

“I came here from Atlanta as quickly as I could to ski. I didn’t mean to get a job,” he recalls during an interview in their gracious Wonderland Hills home with sweeping views of the mountains they love.

When their son Sam was born in 1981, the Franklins joined Har HaShem and Audrey became active in the fledgling Jewish community. Andy, who grew up in the highly assimilated Reform Jewish community of Atlanta, was less Jewishly engaged in those early years leading up to his son’s Bar Mitzvah.

But when the Franklins went on a Federation mission to Israel with other B’nai Mitzvah families – including Mark and Jackie Wong, Ardee Imerman and Peter Berntsen, and Francine Lavin Weaver - Andy had a transformative experience.

It was my first trip to Israel and it was life-changing,” he explains. “It made me connect to the Jewish part of me. There was a sense of community, not just with the other families, but with Israelis and the Jewish people. I felt part of the Jewish community locally and globally for the first time.”

After the transformative trip and his son’s profoundly meaningful Bar Mitzvah, Andy allowed himself to “get sucked into Federation by my friends, especially Karyn and Richard Schad.”

Audrey notes that Andy possessed practical skills, such as knowing his way around a spreadsheet, that were extremely useful to Federation and the other Jewish and non-Jewish organizations he became involved with. He was Boulder campaign chair for a number of years and remains active with Federation as well as the AJC, where he serves on the executive committee.

Meanwhile, Audrey was diligently volunteering her time establishing new Boulder Jewish agencies. She served on the board of Boulder Action for Soviet Jewry and joined the  Boulder steering committee of ADL, where she currently serves on the board. Recently she launched the Boulder Jewish Oral History Project.

Together the Franklins have served on numerous Har HaShem committees and worked on various congregational fundraising efforts.

Their work in the secular community has been equally robust. The Chinook Fund. EFFA. Boulder Community United. Intercambio de Comunidades. Safehouse Progressive Alliance for Non Violence. Reading to End Racism. BMoCA.

These are just some of the organizations touched by the Franklins’ generous hands. Audrey was honored with the Pacesetter Award for her exemplary work in the community.

Andy observes that there’s a theme that runs through Audrey’s extraordinary list of commitments, and that is an interest in bettering the lives of marginalized and immigrant populations, dating back to the Hmong families in Sam’s early school days.

“She has always worked to make our community more welcoming, more open and inclusive and engaged,” he says. “She has always cared deeply about the disadvantaged.”

Despite their long list of accomplishments and the inestimable impact they have made on the Jewish community, this is not the first thing people in the community mention when the Franklins’ name comes up. More often it is the Franklins’ warmth that causes friends to speak with such affection and to describe the Franklins as “a lovely couple.”

Just as they have different stories about how they met, Andy and Audrey have different feelings about being honored by the Boulder JCC.

Audrey does not enjoy being in the limelight, and feels humbled to be singled out for recognition. “We are just people who say yes when asked. We’re worker bees. But we aren’t the visionaries,” Audrey says modestly. “I’m a Vermonter. I don’t enjoy the attention. I just like to help.”

While Andy does not seek the limelight, and is equally modest, he is much more comfortable accepting recognition. “I am truly honored and flattered. The appreciation is really very nice,” he says. “I am very happy to play my part. And we’re very happy to do what we can for the JCC.”

Although the Boulder JCC has not been the focus of the Franklins’ energy, they both express deep appreciation for the role it has played creating Boulder’s thriving community and recognize how vital it is to our future.

Most people came her from long-established communities,” Audrey notes. “But our generation is lucky to have had the opportunity to create and transform this community. People with vision and passion have made that happen for us, and they still are.

“I always say that you could do something Jewish every night of the week,” she adds, picking up the spring Movers postcard on the coffee table as one example. “It’s stunning what has been created in Boulder.”

The Franklins may not want to take much credit for their role in creating the amazing community they love, but they do credit each other, frequently touting each other’s virtues as they talk.

When told how beloved they are, Audrey says it’s because of Andy. Andy says it’s all because of Audrey.

Such a lovely couple indeed.

Click this ad to find out more, and register today!

Dvora Meyers’ article about Boulder, “Share and Share Alike: Boulder’s Jewish Community at Work“ appeared on the JTA site on December 27th.  It starts thusly:

REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK

BOULDER, Colo. (JTA) — On a sunny Thursday in this city at the base of the Rocky Mountains foothills, 25 Jewish communal professionals have gathered for their monthly “Schmoozers” meeting at the JCC.

The fact that the powwow always takes place over lunch is unremarkable — when Jews get together, there is usually food involved. What stands out is the degree of communal cooperation: The meeting, participants say, allows representatives from all organizations to plan ahead together and pool limited resources, embodying the collaborative spirit that pervades Boulder’s Jewish community and which has allowed it to grow and innovate.”

Here are links to Boulder organizations appearing in the article, plus the article itself and the author’s page on the JTA site:

• Boulder JCC
• Anti-Defamation League (ADL)
• Hazon in Colorado
• Jewish Studies Program, University of Colorado, Boulder
• Reb Zalman Schacter-Shalomi
• The Adventure Rabbi
• Limmud Colorado
• Haver
• Ignite Chanukah
• Open Snow
• Boulder Jewish Festival
• Share and Share Alike: Boulder’s Jewish Community at Work
• Dvora Meyers JTA Archive
• Dvora’s Matisyahu Concert Review

If you aren’t familiar with JTA, they are truly the Associated Press of the Jewish World.  Boulder Jewish News has links to JTA’s most recent ten articles at the bottom of each BJN page, and for history buffs, JTA has a fabulous browsable and searchable archive of 250,000 stories going all the way back to their early days, starting in 1923.  It is worth spending some time on their site if you haven’t before, and signing up for their newsletters.

Enjoy our latest brush with international fame!

Boulder ADL Steering Committee l-r: Sara-Jane Cohen, Bill Cohen, Amy Stein, Fred Toback, Jerry Pinsker, Audrey Fishman-Franklin

ADL’s Boulder Steering Committee and Congregation Har HaShem hosted a farewell party for former Boulder ADL Director Amy Stein on Sunday.  Amy is leaving Boulder at the end of the month and moving to Boston, where she will take up a new job as New England Regional Political Director for J Street.

The party was organized by Fred Toback and Sue West, Sara-Jane and Bill Cohen, Jerry and Marilyn Pinsker, Shayna Alexander and Har HaShem.  Fred and Bill said a few words, and presented Amy with a plaque from the community which reads:

With love and gratitude to

Amy Stein

Whose vision and tireless work
have made Boulder ADL
the principal ally
for all people in our community
who seek justice
and fair treatment
for all
April 15, 2007 – December 16, 2011

Enjoy these pictures from the event:

The mission of 18 Pomegranate’s Dare to DO initiative is to inform, involve and inspire a Boulder Jewish community that is engaged and vibrant. 

The primary strategies for Dare to DO include: Jewish Together - Boulder, Boulder Jewish Educator Support (BET: the Boulder Educator Team and Chidush: Innovative Educator Workshop) and future plans for a community-wide learner driven program.  Our program has grown and the foundation needs to grow, too.  Click here to see the job description.  Applications will be accepted through Sunday, January 8^th.