What could Amy Stein find to do in the war against hatred in Boulder, Colorado? Boulder is located in a beauty spot, at the base of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. The city violent crime rate for Boulder in 2009 was lower than the national violent crime rate average by 42.97%. Boulder is in an area of the US where neighboring towns close their police stations at night. Indeed, the city of Boulder frequently acquires top rankings in health, well-being, quality of life, education, and art.
As of the census of 2000, there were 94,673 people, 39,596 households, and 16,788 families residing in the city. According to a 2007 estimate, the median household income in Boulder is $50,209, and the median family income is $85,807. Boulder is home to a variety of music, from classical to jazz to pop, and from informal street performances to concert music. Boulder is famous for its status as one of the most liberal cities in Colorado and as home of the main campus of the University of Colorado, the state's largest university with 29,884 students..
Indeed there are not even that many Jews in all of Colorado estimated as 78,620 or 1.7% of the total population of 4,665,177.
Never-the-less, the world intrudes on this quiet part of the world with its hatred of Jews. The ADL found a remarkable increase in anti-Semitism in Colorado from 2009 to 2010. The number of incidents rose from 14 in 2009 to 38 in 2010, 35 of which were acts of anti-Semitic harassment and three acts of anti-Semitic vandalism.
Among the incidents in Colorado was the hacking of the websites of two Boulder synagogues and the Boulder Rabbinic Council and defacing them with anti-Semitic messages that included, “Jews are terrorists,” “Child Organ Smugglers,” “F—- The Jews!” and “F—- Israel.” FBI investigators found the origin of these attacks originated abroad. In another incident, a student in a Colorado high school was reportedly bullied with anti-Semitic text messages, one which allegedly read, “Jews are really hot when they’re on fire.”
Amy Stein has been the Community Director of the Boulder Anti-Defamation League office since April 2007. The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, fights anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.
She is mandated with the ADL’s mission to “stop the defamation of the Jewish people…to secure justice and fair treatment to all” by responding to complaints of anti-Semitism, hatred and bigotry; tracking extremist groups; assisting and training law enforcement;; and striving to preserve religious freedom for all.
Prior to this position, she was with ADL in San Francisco and Seattle in both professional and lay capacities. A graduate of Brandeis, Amy is Chair of the Boulder Human Relations Commission and serves on the civil rights and diversity committees at CU and for the city of Boulder.
In addition, she has also served on the Board of Directors of Congregation Bonai Shalom and the Boulder Jewish Community Foundation, and on various local government committees. She also has served on boards and committees of the Boulder Valley School District and the Allied Jewish Federation of Colorado.
Amy M. Stein received a 2011 Multicultural Award from Boulder County's Community Action Programs on October 6. She received the award in the partners category, as a white community member who works with people of color to promote social justice around race issues.
Ray Stewart, chairman of the Boulder Community United and member of the Boulder Human Relations Commission described Amy Stein as one courageous person.
She stands up against discrimination wherever she sees it, no matter what. It is Amy Stein’s voice that we hear most often denouncing hate crimes of any nature, against any person. She is the one, not our elected officials, who usually stands up to voice the conscience of our community, restating each time that acts of hatred are not acceptable and will not pass without consequence.
Amy Stein carries out the work of the Anti-Defamation League in an extraordinary fashion. She carries out their mission of eradicating hate, intolerance, racism, sexism, and all the forms of discrimination, through education and through a personal courage to stand up for what is right, every time, and endure the personal attacks from those who perpetrate stereotypes and stoke the fires of fear and mistrust.
The World of difference program of the ADL, which Amy Stein coordinates in Boulder, is a massive effort to fight against hatred through bringing anti-bias education programs to schools, businesses and community groups. It seeks to help participants: recognize bias and the harm it inflicts on individuals and society; explore the value of diversity; improve intergroup relations; and combat racism, anti-Semitism and all forms of prejudice and bigotry.
The program involves a broad spectrum of groups in the community. It addresses diversity issues in the pre-kindergarten through 12th grade school communities. Services include workshops and curricular materials for teachers, support staff, classified staff, administrators, students and family.
It assists college administrators, faculty members and students learn to examine stereotypes, expand cultural awareness, explore the value of diversity, and combat all forms of bigotry. It offers social service workers, volunteers and staffs of community organizations, after-school/youth service leaders and providers - as well as civic leaders - skills and strategies to work together more effectively. It helps corporations, not-for-profit organizations, community groups, government, law enforcement agencies and small businesses examine and address culturally based workplace issues.
Possibly surprisingly, the city of Boulder provides Amy Stein with a number of issues that involve the fight against hatred.
The granting of a lease to provide for an eruv in 2007 – a symbolic boundary for those who observe the laws of the Jewish Sabbath - was tainted by comments from some in Boulder who judged, mocked, and even demonized the proponents of the eruv. At the City Council meeting, and on the Web site of the local newspaper, the Boulder Daily Camera, some commentators mocked Orthodox Judaism, describing it as "weird," "archaic," and even "irrational, unreasonable, and delusional." Furthermore, beyond the mocking of Judaism were myths of Jewish control of government, lies of Jewish desire to squelch debate, and ugly slurs.
At the Colorado University Board of Regents Feb. 22, 2011 meeting, a Boulder alumnus asked for the consideration of a resolution to divest from companies that support Israel. Boulder resident Michael Rabb, 64, asked the university to divest from stocks from those companies that support “Israel’s apartheid policies against Palestinians.” The resolution also stated, “Arabs in Palestine continue to suffer under Israel’s illegal and immoral regime of military occupation, colonization and apartheid.”
Also in Sept. of 2011, a group of local residents called for Boulder to add the Palestinian city of Nablus as its eighth sister city. Guy Benintendi and his longtime friend Essrea Cherin teamed up to begin the somewhat arduous tasks that are required before they can formally ask the Boulder City Council to accept Nablus as a sister city.
Most amazingly, terrorists can be found in peaceful Colorado. Indeed, there is a Colorado history to terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki, one of al-Qa'ida's most dangerous figures in their global terrorist network, who was killed on September 30, 2011 in northern Yemen's al-Jawf province by Hellfire missiles fired from two Predator drones at the vehicle in which he was travelling.
According to U.S. federal government officials, he was a senior talent recruiter and motivator who was involved with planning operations for the Islamist militant group al-Qaeda. His sermons are alleged to have helped motivate at least three attacks inside the United States. He was believed to have been linked to a series of attacks including 9/11, the shootings at Fort Hood in 2009 and the failed Christmas Day "underwear bomber" the same year.
Born in New Mexico, Anwar al-Awlaki arrived in Colorado in 1990 as a 19-year-old to study at the Fort Collins campus of Colorado State University, after spending more than 11 years in Yemen. He graduated in 1994 with a degree in civil engineering.
While at CSU, al-Awlaki joined another half-dozen or so Muslim students who took turns giving the Friday sermon at the Islamic Center of Fort Collins mosque. Mr. Awlaki discovered a knack for preaching. His knowledge of the prophets was good," said Moin Siddiqui, a CSU statistics professor emeritus and a leader in the mosque community. "We encouraged young people to come forward and share their ideas, encouraged them to speak up."
Other former members at the mosque say Anwar Awlaki started preaching violent jihad and he exalted Palestinian suicide bombers.
Around October 1995, he moved to Denver. He drove to the Denver Islamic Society's al-Noor mosque near Denver University regularly to pray, mosque members said. There, al-Awlaki easily fit into a cadre of volunteers who delivered sermons and lectures. Leaders said they'd been hoping to appeal more to younger followers at the time and, by most accounts, al-Awlaki grabbed attention. "He could talk to people directly — looking them in the eye. He had this magic," one member of the mosque said.
Some worshipers at al-Noor Mosque found that al-Awlaki had a political agenda as well as a religious one. "What bothered him was what has been happening to Muslim people around the world," said Najeeb, 52, a former trustee at the Denver Islamic Society's al-Noor mosque. Al-Awlaki spoke often of holy warriors, he said. "He always talked about how Muslims used to be leaders of the world."
A former Denver Islamic Society community leader who asked not to be identified out of concern for his safety said that once, after al-Awlaki gave a series of sermons on jihad struggles around the world, al-Awlaki persuaded a Saudi Arabian student that he ought to join Muslim fighters in Bosnia.
The student approached the leader, who told him al-Awlaki's idea was nonsense. "I said: 'No! You need to have permission from your parents before you go to jihad. They sent you here for education.' "The leader said he confronted al-Awlaki in the mosque, warning him that "if you come close to anybody in my group, I'll throw you in the trash."
The Saudi student traveled anyway from Colorado to Bosnia, the leader said, and in 1999, he was killed in Chechnya.
And although al-Awlaki left Colorado, his sermons lived on in Denver. His recordings of traditional texts were marketed by the al-Basheer publications company, owned by Saudi Arabian Homaidan al-Turki, who came from a wealthy family with ties to the Saudi Arabian government, a company with the objective to spread Islamic ideas among English speakers. His recordings of "The Hearafter" and "Lives of the Prophets" — ranked among top sellers for al-Basheer publications.
