by Ian Zuckerman, Colorado Newsline
July 7, 2026
As a proudly Jewish Coloradan, I am thrilled at Melat Kiros’ victory in the Democratic primary. Yet, reading local editorial pages, you would think Jewish Denverites face the terrifying prospect of being represented by a candidate who harbors Jew-hatred and apologizes for violence against vulnerable Jewish communities.
Do I suffer from self-hatred? Have I been living under a rock? Neither.
I disagree with those who find antisemitism in Kiros’ words because I do not accept their equation of her criticism of Israel, and her solidarity with Palestinians, with hatred of Jews.
If rejection of political Zionism as an ideology were equivalent to antisemitism, many of the most influential Jewish philosophers and intellectuals and theologians of the 20th century would be antisemites. Likewise, Europe’s largest mass Jewish political movement would be labeled antisemitic. As Molly Crabapple details, the Jewish Bund was an Eastern European socialist party that flourished in the half century before World War II, advocating Yiddishkeit cultural pride and armed self-defense against rampant antisemitic violence.
The Bund fiercely rejected the Zionist message that Jews must build an exclusionary ethno-nationalist state of their own. They believed Zionism pandered to European antisemites who also dreamt of a Europe cleansed of Jews. They foresaw the logic of ethnic cleansing embedded in the Zionist myth of “a land without a people for a people without a land,” and refused to trade their own oppression for that of Palestinians.
How democratic socialist Melat Kiros stunned Colorado politics with congressional primary win
The Bund argued that Jewish safety should be fought for where they lived, through self-defense and alliances with other oppressed groups, forging a patchwork coalition of the exploited majority battling the privileged few. Rather than adopting the exclusionary logic of their persecutors, they found security in a collective fight for a just society for all, where ethnic scapegoating would have no purchase. The Yiddish word Doikayt, or “hereness,” symbolizes this vision, insisting that belonging was not determined by formal citizenship (from which Jews were often excluded), but by the material reality of being interwoven in the fabric of a community.
This vision of Doykeit reverberates with renewed urgency in Trump’s America. Just as antisemitic laws in the Russian Empire rendered Jews aliens in the societies in which they lived, today undocumented status does the same for migrants, determining which members of our communities do not “really” belong to the societies in which they contribute their labor, make their lives and raise their families. Many have also found in this tradition resources for a Jewish identity based on justice and solidarity rather than identification with Israel.
Much of the alarm about Kiros’ purported antisemitism stems from her interview with 9News about the 2025 Boulder firebombing. Kiros stated unequivocally that no one deserves violent attack for their beliefs, noting that a hate crime designation depended on the intent of the perpetrator — whether his assault was motivated by racial hatred of Jews, an ideological animus toward Israel, or both. For critics, the fact that Soliman shouted “Free Palestine!” is immediate proof of antisemitism. But if we reject that automatic equation, we must know more about his motives to know if the attack was indeed a hate crime.
This dispute amounts to splitting hairs in light of the basic moral facts: peaceful demonstrators were brutally assaulted, and the act merited the unequivocal condemnation that Kiros offered. Yet by loudly proclaiming that every Jew is essentially bound to the state of Israel, pro-Israel critics encourage deranged individuals like Soliman, who indiscriminately attack Jews under the guise of solidarity with Palestinians. In a perverse mirror image of Zionism, assailants like Soliman conclude that if all Jews are essentially tied to Israel, all Jews are essentially guilty of Israel’s crimes.
This is the wrong path. Kiros got it right: respect for basic human dignity means that no one should be subjected to violence because of their beliefs or their ascriptive identity. Though the scale is incomparable, our condemnation of the attacks in Boulder and our horror at the genocide in Gaza stem from the same moral principle.
The siren song of nationalism is everywhere the same: Only when we are surrounded by people just like us can we finally be free. From immigrant communities terrorized by ICE agents to the shattered lives of the occupied territories, the need for a better vision of freedom is as urgent as ever.
This Coloradan Jew hears the voice of Bundist organizers echo in the campaign of Melat Kiros: Denver belongs to everyone who lives here. Our task is to stand together and fight for the equal dignity and belonging of everyone who makes Denver their home.
Ian Zuckerman, Ph.D., is an associate professor of history, politics and political economy at Regis University.
Header image by Hannah Busing on Unsplash
Colorado Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Colorado Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Quentin Young for questions: [email protected].
