DENVER — Ever since launching his campaign for Congress, Dr. Shimon Blau, an independent running for Colorado's 1st Congressional District, said he has faced a barrage of antisemitic comments online.
"We expected a little bit of of hate messages. I think everybody that's running for political office receives their fair share of messages that are hateful. But this was really on a different level," said Blau, who is a physician and small business owner.
In a post on his campaign Instagram page on Saturday, Blau called out the antisemitic comments left on his social media pages.
"I've got thick skin. It doesn't hurt my feelings. But I am offended as somebody from the Jewish faith and even more so as an American because these kinds of comments do not reflect our American values of tolerance and inclusivity," Blau said in the video posted online.
In an interview with Denver7, he said the attacks on his faith are troubling and said it affirms the reason he decided to run Colorado's 1st Congressional District, a seat that represents most of Denver. Blau said he joined the race after hearing Democratic nominee Melat Kiros say she could not call the Boulder firebombing attack on a mainly Jewish group antisemitic without knowing the suspect's intent.
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"She was unwilling to call it an act of antisemitism," Blau said. "It's really a dog whistle to allow for more, and it puts me, it puts other members of the Jewish community at risk."
Data from the Anti-Defamation League shows Colorado saw its third-highest number of antisemitic incidents on record in 2025, including seven assaults, 82 vandalism incidents and 78 cases of harassment. ADL recorded 167 antisemitic incidents in Colorado last year, a roughly 40% drop from 2024, though levels remain historically high.
ADL said antisemitic incidents skyrocketed in the months after the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel, representing a 361% increase between Oct. 7 and Jan. 7 compared to the year prior.
Brandon Rattiner, senior director of the Jewish Community Relations Council, said there’s a clear difference between debating the conflict or foreign policy and attacking someone simply because they’re Jewish.
"These comments are not coming in response to conversations about Israel. They are coming in response to people's Jewish identity, because being Jewish is actually the problem. In a lot of these circumstances, it has nothing to do with foreign policy," Rattiner said. "When people try to explain the rise in antisemitism by looking at Israel's behavior instead of the behaviors of the people engaging in antisemitism, they are actually making it easier for antisemitism to continue."
Blau described antisemitism as a growing problem from both the right and left and said Jews should not be collectively blamed for events in Gaza or Israel.
"What people don't realize is that there are many, many Jewish people that do not agree with the Israeli government. So for them to accuse Jews worldwide of causing whatever is going on in Gaza and in Israel, it's just, it's ridiculous and dangerous," he said.
Denver7 news partner The Denver Post reported that Kiros faced controversy before entering politics when she was fired from a law firm after writing an open letter arguing that questioning Israel's legitimacy as a state is not inherently antisemitic. Kiros has denied that she holds any antisemitic views.
“My commitment has always been to protecting the sanctity and dignity of all life. That includes every single person of all faith, all different religions, and that especially includes the Jewish community, especially now as antisemitism is rising all across the state and all across this country, and I look forward to working with the community to figure out how we can combat that hate,” Kiros told Denver7 in June during her primary election night campaign event.
Denver7 reached out to Kiros' campaign for comment on the antisemitic comments directed at Blau. We are waiting for a response back.
Blau said he's not running an "anti-antisemitism" campaign, but instead he's running to give Denver voters another option in Congress.
"I'm a physician, a small business owner. There's so much that I have to offer Denver to bring down healthcare costs and to improve our economy. Those are the major platforms that I'm running on," he said. "I wanted to be very, very clear to people that this is something which I'm going to address, and when it comes up, I will call out hatred no matter where it's coming from and who is being targeted."
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