JOI is like visiting family, we welcome you into our home and feed you heart and soul. We offer up fun and laughs, inspiration and new acquired knowledge. And like all good Jewish family - we send you home with leftovers, some food for thought that makes you want to visit again!

The Jewish Outreach Initiative’s goal is to provide authentic Jewish experiences and learning opportunities for people of all backgrounds in a meaningful and engaging way, allowing all Jews to access the profound treasure that is their Jewish heritage. Our mission is to respond to the call of Jews in the 21st century, many of whom do not feel connected in a classic synagogue setting.

No, we are not a synagogue. No membership required here, and no fixed seats. JOI is your place to build a Jewish community with out the trappings of your Bubby's shul. While praying in shul is important it is only part of one of the 613 mitzvot (ways to connect spiritually) JOI is here to provide authentic ways to connect to the other 612 1/2 other parts of Judaism.

If you are looking for a Shul, The Shul at Aish of the Rockies offers a full service synagogue.

All you need to join JOI is show up! We have a lot to learn from your questions and you will surely learn a lot from our answers! It's by learning that we change our actions and it's changing our actions that make us better people. Most people that come to JOI don't consider themselves religious.

We look to strengthen the Jewish family, whatever your unique Jewish family looks like. We welcome interfaith couples and provide the education they are seeking to decide how they will choose to raise their family.

See next question.

Long Story Short: Aish of the Rockies is the parent entity with several verticals (think Alphabet with Google, Youtube, Waze, Nest, etc.) These verticals include the Shul and JOI. Both programs operate independent of each other and there is no expectation that JOI participants become part of the Shul synagogue community.

Long Story, Long: Over 30 years ago Rabbi Yaakov Meyer started the Jewish Experience an outreach project of Yeshiva Toras Chaim. That program eventually relocated to Southeast Denver and became known as the Southeast Center for Judaism. Rabbi Meyer decided to associate with Aish a worldwide leader in Jewish education and outreach and so Aish Denver was born.

As Aish Denver grew, one of the most popular programs was the High Holiday experiences. They were so successful that Aish members and supporters asked to start having services every week. The prayer services grew until Aish outgrew its space several times. Overtime, the synagogue became the most prominent part of the organization.

As the synagogue grew and trends throughout Jewish America changed, Aish found itself in a unique bind. It's own wild success became a hindrance to Aish meeting its true mission of sharing the beauty and relevance of Judaism with Jews from all backgrounds. A synagogue was not the place to do Jewish outreach. In 2011, Rabbi Meyer had the foresight to create a unique platform to engage the next generation in meaningful Jewish experiences. The Jewish Outreach Initiative was born.

JOI was created as the outreach arm of the parent entity, the Southeast Center for Judaism while Aish Denver was known mainly as the synagogue in Southeast Denver. JOI operated beyond the formal walls of any building, holding classes at the JCC, parks as well as people's homes and offices. As most Aish branches throughout the world do not have synagogue components, JOI in Denver is similar to what you would encounter at Aish in other cities offering Jewish learning opportunities and experiences to people of all backgrounds.

In 2017, JOI began to test a new strategy to widen our reach and depth. We set a goal to make our big programs larger and at the same time create more intimate opportunities for connection on a more regular basis. We believed that this would allow us to reach even more Jews as well as forge deeper relationships with those most engaged.

We created large-scale events around holidays and Shabbat to widen our reach with our most popular programs attracting over 500 people each. To deepen our impact with those most engaged, we opened the JOI Hub in 2018.

The Hub is a Jewish home away from home where JOI participants could express their Jewish identity in an authentic and personal way in a comfortable setting conducive to Jewish growth.

In the first year of this pilot, JOI’s reach increased over over 68% engaging over 1,500 people with JOI programs 718 of which were new to JOI. More than that, regular participants began feeling like they finally found a place that they could call their Jewish home.

The previous JOI Hub was a rented house that allowed us to pilot and prototype our theory. Now that it has proven successful, we have begun building a more permanent JOI Hub that could serve our community for years to come.

In 2021, after 25 years since the founding of Aish Denver, the organization decided to rebrand itself. 'Aish of the Rockies' replaced the 'The Southeast Center for Judaism' as the parent entity, and the Aish Denver synagogue is now known as simply 'The Shul.' JOI is now a program of Aish of the Rockies and is proud to be a part of the worldwide Aish Movement. To learn more about Aish Global click here.