• Jews are a diverse, multiethnic, multiracial people.
• Jewish identity and pride is based on culture, food, music, land, language, religion, and much more. For many, being part of the Jewish people is core to their identity, separate from the religion.
• We are a tiny community, only 0.2% of the population globally and 2.4% of the U.S. population.
• Nearly half of the world’s Jews live in the United States of America.
• The greater Puget Sound metro region has the 15th largest Jewish population in the United States.
• The Seattle area has the 3rd largest population of Sephardic Jews in the United States and the largest Sephardic group compared to the total Jewish population of any U.S. city.
• Sephardic Jews are descendants of Jews expelled from Spain in 1492, dispersed throughout the Mediterranean and the Ottoman Empire.
• Washington’s Sephardic population began settling here in 1902, primarily from Turkey, Greece, and the Island of Rhodes.
• Similar to Yiddish, a Judeo-German dialect spoken by Ashkenazi Jews from Eastern Europe, Sephardic Jews speak Ladino, a mix of Hebrew, Arabic, and Spanish.
• German-speaking Jews from Central Europe arrived with the first wave of settlers to the Northwest in the early to mid part of the Nineteenth century.
• They included such adventurers as Isaac Pincus, who landed in Steilacoom in 1855, Marcus Oppenheimer, who homesteaded on the banks of the Columbia River, and Bailey Gatzert, who opened a wholesale grocery and hardware store in Seattle and by 1875 was Seattle’s sixth mayor.

Learn more about the Jewish Community Relations Council, Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, and your local Jewish community here.

• Do Not Stand Idly By – We commit to improving the lives of the marginalized and downtrodden, living our values through action, and voicing our community’s concern on critical issues in the public sphere.
• Repair of the World – We work to improve the world, one relationship at a time. Each connection expands our consciousness and compassion, enlarges our capacity for inclusion, helps us reach out to others with greater empathy and concern.
• All in the House of Israel are Responsible for One Another – We mobilize our community when Jews anywhere are in need of our support. We are many Jewish communities bound together by shared values, history, religion, and culture.
• If I Am Not For Myself, Who Will Be For Me? If I Am Only For Myself, What Am I? And If Not Now, When? – We advocate for Jewish community interests while collaborating with other faith, ethnic, and emerging communities with shared goals.

Learn more about our values, goals, and principles here.

• Many Jews do not feel safe. More antisemitic incidents happened last year than in any year since 1979, and have been experienced by all ages and in all parts of society.
• In 2024, the number of antisemitic incidents expressing Jewish hate, including vandalism, harassment, and assaults, has risen 23% in Washington, with a 50% increase in K-12 schools.
• Contemporary antisemitism is anti-Jew, not anti-Judaism. Many think that antisemitism is about religion, but Jews are usually attacked for who we are, not how we pray.

Explore resources and support for countering antisemitism here.

• Support policy solutions to better understand, prevent, combat, and respond to incidents of antisemitism in schools and other public entities.
• Listen and learn. To be an ally, understanding is key. Schedule a meeting with the Jewish Federation’s JCRC to learn more about the local Jewish experience or to be connected to an antisemitism workshop for you and your team. Email us at jcrc@jewishinseattle.org
• Speak out. When incidents of antisemitism occur, use your position of leadership – on social media, official platforms, and in traditional media – to make clear that anti-Jewish harm is dangerous to our communities.

Sign on to the Elected and Civic Leader Pledge Against Antisemitism here.

• Ensuring all congregants are able to worship without fear of intimidation, harassment, or threats to their physical safety, Senate Bill 5436.
• Honoring minority holy days by recognizing days of religious and cultural observance for the Bahá’í, Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Sikh, and Zoroastrian communities, Senate Bill 5950.
• Protecting funding for nonprofit security grants to help ensure the physical safety of organizations that face threats based on the community they serve.
• Protecting funding for the statewide Hate Crimes & Bias Incidents Hotline.

Learn about our full list of priorities in the Washington State Legislature’s 2026 session.