A ballroom in downtown Denver filled with several hundred people this past week for a two-day gathering built around an unusual premise: fighting antisemitism works best when the people doing the fighting aren't Jewish. Organizers said more than 70% of attendees at the Congress to Confront Antisemitism and Preserve Democracy were not Jewish, and one of the event's most striking speakers was a Yemeni refugee who once believed Jews and Christians were destined for hell.
The gathering, known as Together at the Crossroads, was organized by the David Merage Foundation for Confronting Antisemitism, according to cbs12.com, which described it as a national gathering focused on fighting antisemitism and building partnerships across cultural and religious lines. Attendance figures varied by outlet: Colorado Politics reported more than 300 people, most of them non-Jews, crowded into the ballroom, while the Daily Camera put the figure at 450 attendees from across the country, and cbs12.com cited the American Jewish Committee's count of more than 450 leaders nationwide.
The conference’s emphasis on cross-faith allyship was reflected in remarks by Mohammed Al-Samawi, whom the Denver Gazette identified as a speaker before the roughly 450-person crowd. Raised in Yemen, Al-Samawi described being taught that Jews and Christians were enemies destined for hell, saying children were “trained to hate.” He told the audience he had never seen such allyship at a conference before, the Gazette reported.
A Personal Story of Cross-Faith Support
Al-Samawi’s account connected his changing views to relationships built across religious lines. The Gazette reported that, after learning English, he met a teacher named Luke in classes; they agreed that Al-Samawi would read the Bible and Luke would read the Quran. Al-Samawi read the Bible at 23. Later, he used Facebook to ask Jewish contacts why they hated Muslims, and said many answered that they did not.
The conversations became part of Al-Samawi’s work promoting dialogue about other faiths in Yemen and attending interfaith conferences, according to the Gazette. That work also brought danger: the American Jewish Committee says extremists issued a fatwa accusing him of collaborating with Mossad and that he received death threats against himself and his family.
Cross-Faith Ties Became a Lifeline
When Yemen’s civil war erupted in 2015, Al-Samawi fled Aden. The American Jewish Committee says four interfaith acquaintances—three Jewish and one Christian—helped him reach New York after he asked for help. At the Denver gathering, he said he would be killed if he returned to Yemen, the Gazette reported.
Al-Samawi now runs Abrahamic House in Washington, D.C., which brings Christians and Muslims together to study, talk and live, the Gazette reported. Interfaith America describes the project as a place where people of different faiths live together and build community. After the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023, and the war in Israel that followed, Al-Samawi and Abrahamic House expanded their interfaith work, according to the Gazette. He has said people are hungry to find a place to be who they are.
Why the Foundation Formed — and Who It's Recruiting
The David Merage Foundation for Confronting Antisemitism was formed in Denver after the October 7, 2023 attack, according to the Gazette, and was founded by David Merage, an immigrant from Iran, and his wife and co-foundation co-founder, Laura Merage. David Merage told the Gazette it was time to practice never again, and said the conference aimed to bring people together across different faiths and beliefs. His daughter, Sabrina Merage, said at the event that everyone is related to Mohammed — a line reflecting the gathering's emphasis on shared human connection.
Laura Merage, who said she felt true freedom when she came to the United States at age 15 to attend school, told the Daily Camera that antisemitism is not a problem for Jews to solve by themselves, explaining why the congress deliberately drew in non-Jewish allies. She also told the Gazette that the Jewish community is hurting and afraid, that hate has become normalized, and that the foundation sought allies willing to speak out during difficulty — arguing people should work to make hate socially unacceptable. The congress, according to event materials, is built around data-driven strategies for combating antisemitism and turning insight into lasting local action; the Gazette reports cohorts of attendees created action plans to build partnerships in their home cities. Speakers at the event included a singing pastor from Texas, the Boulder police chief, an Israeli-Palestinian social media star, and a woman from Steamboat Springs, per the Gazette's account.
A Backdrop of Rising, Then Falling, Incident Numbers
The Denver gathering unfolded against a national backdrop that has shifted in the past year. The Anti-Defamation League tracked 6,274 antisemitic incidents nationwide in 2025, a 33% drop from the 9,354 incidents recorded in 2024 but still five times higher than a decade earlier, according to the ADL. The organization called 2025 the third-highest year on record since it began tracking incidents in 1979. Physical assaults involving a deadly weapon rose even as overall incidents fell, climbing to 32 in 2025 from 23 the year before, and the ADL reported three people were killed in antisemitic attacks in 2025 — the first such killings since 2019. Incidents on college and university campuses fell 66% year over year, from 1,694 to 583, though that figure remains nearly three times higher than in 2021, the ADL's audit found.
Closer to home, the Mountain States region — which includes Colorado — recorded 357 reported antisemitic incidents in 2024, up from 242 the year before, according to the ADL's Mountain States office. Colorado alone recorded 279 anti-Jewish incidents that year, 41% higher than its previous record. A separate American Jewish Committee survey of 1,222 Jewish Americans found that about 93% viewed antisemitism as a problem in the United States, and about 46% called it a serious one, the Daily Camera reported.
In Boulder, the Pearl Street Mall attack has kept antisemitism concerns close to the surface for Colorado residents. The Boulder County District Attorney's Office said additional charges, including first-degree murder counts, were filed in that case after consultation with the U.S. Attorney's Office, the FBI and the Boulder Police Department.
Local Partnerships and Limits on the Numbers
Denver-area interfaith organizing predates the summit, though these groups have different purposes. The Interfaith Alliance of Colorado says it was founded in 1998 by faith leaders from multiple backgrounds seeking greater representation in public life. Habitat for Humanity of Metro Denver says its Interfaith Alliance, representing nine congregations, has supported the organization’s housing mission since 2002. The ADL’s incident counts in this article cannot be directly compared with Colorado or FBI anti-Jewish-bias totals using the information available here: no matching official figures or methodology sufficient to explain a gap are provided. Colorado Crime Statistics cautions that current-year counts may not cover a full 12 months and should not be compared with previous years. Separately, a May 7, 2026, report by Axios Boulder said Soliman’s state case had been resolved by a guilty plea, while his federal hate-crime case remained ongoing at the time of that report.
