The celebration of modern Israel’s 60th anniversary at the Jewish Community Center felt like the birthday party it was – with plenty of food, fun, and, in some sense, family. Denver’s Jewish community is a diverse lot, ranging from the secular to Haredi, the most theologically conservative branch in a very large, very heterogeneous family tree. Yet what they have in common is a shared admiration, even if it’s sometimes grudging, for a state that, only 100 years ago, was nothing but a far away dream.

I picked my daughter up early from her preschool. It’s hard to explain what Israel is to a little girl barely out of toddlerhood, and utterly impossible to explain Zionism, or the rich and terrible history of the region. What got her hooked was the prospect of a camel ride.

We met up with friends, both Jewish and not, had some shish kebabs, listened to some music. Around us, little boys in yarmulkes chased each other, 20-something hipsters in dreadlocks chatted amiably, and men and women old enough to have fought in Israel’s war for independence reminisced. Later, we headed over to the camel ride, stopping on the way to pick up an Israeli flag on a stick for my daughter. In the end, it was the camel ride around the parking lot and the flag that won my daughter’s affection. On the way home, she had inferred enough of what was going on to say, “happy birthday, Israel.