New Shluchim to Golden, CO and the Colorado School of Mines

Rabbi Yosef and Basya Stevenson, together with their daughters Chaya and Rivka, will be establishing Chabad of Golden and the Colorado School of Mines in time for the new school year.

Golden, CO sits in the foothills of the Rockies just west of Denver and is home to the Colorado School of Mines, one of the top engineering and science schools in the country. The area has a growing local Jewish population alongside hundreds of Jewish students at Mines, but until now there has been no permanent Jewish address for the community, nowhere for a Shabbat dinner, a Passover seder, or the kind of everyday connection that turns neighbors and students into family.

Chabad of Golden will serve both groups under one roof, with Shabbat dinners, holiday celebrations, weekly Torah classes, one-on-one learning, and community social events, bringing together longtime local families and students navigating Jewish life on their own for the first time.

The Stevensons bring their own personal connection to this mission: both Yosef and Basya discovered their commitment to Yiddishkeit while on campus, an experience they hope will help them relate to the Mines students who walk through their doors searching for the same connection.

Originally from S. Barbara, CA, Yosef studied computer engineering at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, where the campus Chabad House, run by the Sharfstein family, became a home away from home and the place where his connection to Yiddishkeit took root. He went on to learn in Mayanot and later Tiferes in Morristown, and continued his learning in kollel after getting married, before bringing his engineering background into conversation with the students at Mines.

Basya grew up in Miami, FL, and was studying at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan when she connected with campus shlucha Malka Werde, an encounter that set her on her own path in Yiddishkeit. She went on to learn at Machon Alta, and looks forward to creating that same sense of connection for the women and families of Golden.

The Stevensons most recently completed a three-year internship at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Chabad House under Rabbi Mendel and Henya Matusof, gaining hands-on experience serving a campus Jewish community before taking on their own shlichus in Golden.

Together, the Stevensons look forward to building a home in Golden where every Jewish resident and student knows there’s a place waiting for them.

You can partner with the Stevenson family in launching Chabad of Golden through their campaign:
charidy.com/golden