{"id":20727,"date":"2019-12-27T09:04:28","date_gmt":"2019-12-27T16:04:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skyhinews.com\/?p=62197"},"modified":"2019-12-27T14:31:05","modified_gmt":"2019-12-27T21:31:05","slug":"former-israeli-officer-joins-granby-police-department","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/local-news\/former-israeli-officer-joins-granby-police-department\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Israeli officer joins Granby Police Department"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Granby town clerk Deb Hess swears in Officer David Sofer, center, Dec. 11. Sofer served for three years in the Israeli Defense Forces and with the Israeli Police for eight years.<\/strong>
Granby Police Department<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

The newest member of the Granby Police Department comes from a world away, but he wouldn\u2019t want to be anywhere else.<\/p>\n

Newly sworn in Officer David Sofer was born in Russia and moved to Israel when he was six. He served for three years in the Israeli Defense Forces before enlisting in the Israel Police and working as a captain detective for eight years.<\/p>\n

While it\u2019s been a big jump coming to the United States, Sofer said he has enjoyed the change.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say it\u2019s different,\u201d Sofer said. \u201cThe scenery is obviously different. The mentality and everything is different, but good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before moving to the US, Sofer and his wife, Alona Sofer were living in Olesh, Israel, a town he described as the size of Granby, though less isolated. About two years ago, he and Alona moved to Kansas.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause my wife was born in the US, we had the option to go and try and live the American dream, corny as it sounds,\u201d Sofer said.<\/p>\n

The couple decided they wanted to move to Colorado after visiting it a few times on vacation. They were looking for small, rural towns when they came across Granby.<\/p>\n

Sofer was chosen and sponsored by the Granby PD to attend the police academy in July. He and his wife moved to Granby six months ago and he officially began his job two weeks ago.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
Officer David Sofer, left, shakes hands with Chief Jim Kraker after Sofer was sworn in to the Granby Police Department on Dec. 11.<\/strong>
Granby Police Department<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Sofer said his time in the Israeli police saw politically charged circumstances and often dealt with gangs. One of the biggest changes he has found in America is Granby\u2019s attitude toward policing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe community here is amazing by the way they embrace the police here,\u201d Sofer said. \u201cYou feel like you\u2019re part of the community. You actually feel welcome. It\u2019s a good surprise for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, adjusting to America was not always easy. Neither Sofer nor his wife has any family in the country. He described the financial, lingual and cultural struggles that he still faces from time to time.<\/p>\n

\u201cUS and Israel are not alike,\u201d Sofer said. \u201cDifferent cultures, different people, people see things different. Once again, it\u2019s not good or bad. It\u2019s just different. We are trying to do our best to learn as fast as we can, so we can feel comfortable here. I think we did a pretty good job in two years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moving to Granby was a choice that the couple made. Sofer said he would not have bought a house and gone through the police academy if he wanted to be anywhere else. Being a part of and contributing to his community matters a lot to the new officer.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, to be part of this country, I felt like I had to serve,\u201d Sofer said. \u201cAnd there is no other way for me to ever feel comfortable living out of this country without doing some sort of service.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sofer\u2019s wife works in town and also performs as a singer in the county. They have two rescue dogs, Fender and Gibson. The couple often rescued and rehomed dogs in Israel, which is how they ended up with one of their pets.<\/p>\n

\u201c(My wife) found this puppy on the highway \u2014 stopped traffic,\u201d Sofer said. \u201cShe picked him up and we tried to find a home for him for like a week. After a week it was done. For us, in 72 hours you\u2019d usually find a home for the dog. This time, we couldn\u2019t find a home for it. I guess it was just destiny.\u201d<\/p>\n

In their free time, Sofer and his wife hike as much as possible with their dogs. Sofer also plays guitar and helps Alona to write songs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe love the place, we really love the place,\u201d Sofer said. \u201cWe love the community. The scenery is just amazing. We are definitely here to stay. Hopefully, we\u2019re going to raise our kids here. I hope to be beneficial to the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Sky-Hi News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Granby town clerk Deb Hess swears in Officer David Sofer, center, Dec. 11. Sofer served for three years in the Israeli Defense Forces and with the Israeli Police for eight years.Granby Police Department The newest member of the Granby Police Department comes from a world away, but he wouldn\u2019t want to be anywhere else. Newly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-20727","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-16 22:52:33","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KRKY Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20727"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20730,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20727\/revisions\/20730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}