As Denver congressional candidate Melat Kiros—a socialist who said the Sept. 11, 2001, and Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks were "inevitable"—faced mounting criticism from Jewish voters, "Jews for Melat" came to her defense, publishing video endorsements and organizing "liberatory" shabbat dinners meant to showcase the "coalition of Jewish Coloradans" rallying behind her.
The leaders include a disability activist, Al Cannington ("she/they"), who has assailed "disability rights organizations" for their "silence on #Gaza"; a self-described rabbi, Michael Kengmana, looking to create "a Judaism beyond Zionism"; an activist, Max Mankoff, who says that "anti-Zionism goes hand in hand with Jewish values"; and a former social worker, Spencer Hacker, who has argued that Israel is to blame for rising antisemitism.
Cannington, a self-described "white, disabled, queer, ashkenazi jew whose heart is deeply broken and fully enraged by the ongoing annihilation of Palestinian lives" issued a "crip call to action" in November 2023 urging "disabled people living in the US" to call for a "long lasting ceasefire in Israel-Palestine." The call to action includes "content warnings" for "settler colonialism" and "eugenics."
Another "Jews for Melat" leader, Kengmana, is a self-described rabbi who doesn't appear to lead a congregation but rather holds monthly anti-Zionist Shabbat services with the First Unitarian Society of Denver and weekly Havdalah services with an online synagogue "dedicated to inclusive, musical, and progressive Jewish worship." As a rabbi, he aims to create "a Judaism beyond Zionism," according to a description posted by the First Unitarian Society of Denver. Kengmana was listed alongside Cannington as a point of contact for a "Passover grief vigil" the Denver/Boulder chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) held outside an immigrant detention facility in April in which the protesters demanded "collective liberation for all people unjustly detained from Colorado to Palestine."
Mankoff, who helps run the group's Instagram account and routinely posts interviews with Kiros, says that "anti-Zionism goes hand in hand with Jewish values." Mankoff said in June that accusations of antisemitism against Kiros are "really hurtful" because "it takes the attention away from the actual dangers."
A founder of "Jews for Melat," Hacker in an Instagram post accused the media of "fomenting antisemitism by attacking Hasan Piker," the socialist influencer who said that "America deserved 9/11" and that Israel is "much worse" than Hamas—and a Kiros ally. "Antisemitism is increasing but this is due to the actions of Israel and the false notion that Israel speaks and acts on behalf of Jews," Hacker wrote in the caption. He spent a year working in Denver Public Schools as a social worker but wrote on his LinkedIn profile that he left "due to politics and restrictions from building and district-level leaders that hampered my abilities as a social worker."
All four have spoken to the press—and post prodigiously on social media—about the Jews for Melat effort. "I am looking to have a leader representing us in Congress who truly is fighting for a world for all of us, who is unapologetic about stopping arm sales to Israel, defunding ICE, supporting people with disabilities, healthcare for all, and economic justice," Cannington told Boulder's Yellow Scene Magazine for an article about a "liberatory shabbat" dinner hosted by Jews for Melat in mid-October.
Cannington also served as a leader with Denver/Boulder JVP, which organized four days of protests with the Colorado Palestine Coalition—which has also endorsed Kiros—outside a pro-Israel conference in December 2023. "It, like, tears me up that supporting Palestine is equated to being anti semitic," Cannington told a local news outlet at the time. "We have to create pathways where Jews, Israelis, Arabs and Palestinians are all safe. The path of standing with Israel uncritically will never get us there." During the protest, agitators banged on the convention center's windows, and several were arrested for destruction of property. On the fourth day, another 15 were arrested after chaining themselves together and then to a parked car they had placed in the middle of a major intersection for over an hour.
Cannington's and Kengmana's rhetoric aligns closely with Kiros's own remarks, which have elicited concern from Jewish leaders. Shimon Blau, a Jewish doctor, launched a longshot bid challenging Kiros as an independent, citing her repeated refusal to call a 2025 firebombing against a Jewish group in nearby Boulder antisemitic. He said he has received hundreds of antisemitic comments since then.
In May, meanwhile, Jewish Community Relations Council of Colorado senior director Brandon Rattiner accused Kiros of making "opposition to Israel central to your campaign," causing "the people you hope to represent feel threatened by some of your rhetoric and policies, particularly amid rising anti-Semitism."
Other leaders of the "Jews for Melat" coalition leaders have been present at violent events. Mankoff, who organized a Shabbat dinner for Kiros, joined a high school walkout protesting ICE, which was promoted by "Jews for Melat." Dozens of students, at the urging of adult agitators, mobbed counterprotesters, leading to three hospitalizations. Three juveniles were arrested for graffiti, and one adult with ties to Kiros was arrested for assault. Kiros spoke at the protest and praised the truants.
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