Shabbat shalom!  Today is the 50th anniversary of the assassination of our 35th President, John F. Kennedy, a day that shocked and saddened the country and most of the world.

Last night, I attended JEWISHcolorado’s Men’s Event in Denver, along with a few dozen other Boulderites.  I was proud to see Seth Wong, son of Mark and Jackie Wong and the chairman of the Young Adult Department, up on stage welcoming the 1,200 men “and a few good women” to this year’s event.  Along with a TEDx style talk by President and CEO Doug Seserman about the changes this year for the former Allied Jewish Federation, we were treated to video greetings from Governor Hickenlooper and Denver Mayor Hancock.  There was also a video chronicling the flood relief efforts undertaken by Nechama and ISRAid, with funding distributed by JEWISHcolorado from contributions from all over the Federation system.

Finally, we were treated to a fine keynote speech from former Israeli Ambassador to the US Dr. Michael Oren.  Oren used his storytelling gifts as a historian to remind us what an extraordinary moment we are living in as part of the 4,000-year history of the Jewish people.  And as usual, we were treated to on open bar and four buffet stations of Jewish comfort food, courtesy of Larry Mizel.  We left feeling proud to be part of the Jewish community in Colorado and the world.

Coming up this weekend is the community’s ceremonial burial of sacred texts ruined in the Boulder Floods, and this is the last weekend to visit the Chanukah Bazaar at Har HaShem.  Chanukah starts Wednesday night, continues through Thanksgiving, Black Friday and into the following week.  Be sure to check out our Chanukah Video playlist at the bottom of each page on the site.

Have a great weekend! Here are this week’s stories that ran in the BJN: