Jewish Community Relations Council Chair Reflects on Coalition Building After October 7
Written by Hannah Lidman, July 1, 2025
The Jewish Council of Public Affairs (JCPA) is a national convener of Jewish coalitions, dedicated to building a just and inclusive democracy. Every year, JCPA holds a Summit that brings together Jewish Community Relations (JCRC) professionals, lay leaders, and other organizations.
Rabbi Jason Levine, JCRC Associate Director, Perri Doll, JCRC Associate, and Hannah Lidman, incoming JCRC Chair, recently attended JCPA’s Summit on Coalition and Bridge-Building Post-October 7th. In our previous blog, Jason shared more about the group’s advocacy on Capitol Hill that was a core part of the Summit.
Here, Hannah Lidman shares her reflections from the trip.
These days, any time Jews gather, it feels like an act of courage. But a few weeks ago, over 150 Jewish community relations professionals and lay leaders from across the country united for a summit at the Capitol Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C.
Returning to the very ground where Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky were murdered just a few weeks earlier was a true act of courage. Joining us were colleagues from JEWISHColorado, who came despite facing unspeakable horrors at home less than 10 days earlier. In a building with walls of glass, where we could see every person walking by, with the police and FBI checking each person entering the building, we gathered to mourn and grow together.
Hannah Lidman engages in discussion during a Summit session on combating hate online.
Unfortunately, Jews are no strangers to hardship. But year after year, and generation after generation, we face these challenges with perseverance, holding on to our values and each other. Together, as a community, we can endure and see our tree of life continue to grow and blossom. And this was the exact purpose of the Summit—finding and cultivating allies, community, and coalitions.
At every meeting of our JCRC here in Seattle, in Committees and the full Council, I find people deeply committed to tending our Jewish community. And at the Summit, I was inspired to see and hear that the same is true all across our nation. Jews from every corner of this country connect in JCRCs like ours, working through similar tough issues, from brokering divisions within the community to healing damaged alliances and nurturing new ones.
I am incredibly proud of us for doing difficult things, and things have been very challenging lately. Many thanks to the outgoing chair, Audrey Covner, for her steady guiding hand during the last two years and, of course, to the JCRC staff, without whom nothing is possible.
Hannah Lidman (right) and JCRC Associate Perri Doll (middle) network with fellow JCRC professionals.
But the most important and most beautiful part of this work is the regular garden maintenance that it takes to make the flowers bloom. We gather to elevate and multiply the impacts of the wonderful things that are happening within our region and member institutions. We marshal our resources to support important community efforts. We educate and mobilize constituents to engage with their elected leaders about what matters in their lives and communities. We set places at the table for a wide array of opinions and voices in the Jewish community to come together and craft shared communal goals. We interrogate how well we serve our members, ask for feedback, and seek out greater and more diverse representation and voices.
What I witnessed in D.C. was over 150 JCRC professionals and lay leaders sustaining each other in this critical work — so each of them can do an even better job nurturing their communities to grow and thrive — even through the hardest of times. I am honored to be able to serve as your chair in this next growing season.
Hannah Lidman
Jewish Community Relations Council Chair
Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle
