Progressive groups celebrated a major victory in June when 29-year-old Democratic Socialist Melat Kiros defeated 15-term Rep. Diana DeGette in Colorado’s 1st Congressional District. However, her primary upset and sharp anti-Israel rhetoric have raised safety concerns among Denver’s Jewish community.

Local Jewish leaders told Fox News Digital that Kiros's controversial comments—including describing the October 7 attacks as "inevitable," refusing to label a local firebombing as antisemitic, and accusing Israel of genocide and apartheid—have left many in the community on edge.

In the hours after Kiros claimed victory, Rabbi Menachem Lehrfield, director of the Jewish Outreach Initiative in Denver, wrote on social media about his fear, noting that many neighbors seemed to support the anti-Israel rhetoric Kiros campaigned on. After facing a barrage of antisemitic comments, Lehrfield published an op-ed explaining that for observant Jews like himself, simply wearing a yarmulke in Denver now feels dangerous.

Just 24 hours after his op-ed, those fears were realized. Lehrfield shared an incident where someone rolled down their car window near his home and yelled, “dirty Jew.”

Brandon Rattiner, senior director of the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC), and Susan Rona, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Mountain States Region, have addressed community reactions and are tracking antisemitic incidents in Colorado.

A few weeks after a 9News interview in which Kiros condemned violence but refused to call a specific attack antisemitic, she clarified that the attack in Boulder was indeed antisemitic and that the attacker spent a year planning it.

The rise of Melat Kiros has thus intensified concerns about antisemitic hostility and violence within Denver’s Jewish community.

Sources