Reflections from Federation’s President & CEO
July 11, 2025
Dear Seattle Community,
As we start a new fiscal year this July, I am pleased to introduce our new board members and leadership. Please join me in welcoming Gabriel Scherzer, our Board Chair; Hannah Lidman, our new Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) Chair; and new at-Large board members Will Becker Quantz, Albert Israel, and Lynne Smith.
These community members bring decades of professional and communal leadership experience, and I am looking forward to continuing to grow the Federation’s impact together with our dedicated board. Gabe, Hannah, and Will were recently featured in our blog stories, so be sure to read and learn more about them!
Last night, I joined our local cohort of the National Young Leadership Cabinet for the kickoff to their year. Cabinet is the Federation system’s premier program training volunteer leaders aged 30-45 for impactful Jewish leadership. I’m thrilled that we have 19 people participating in the program this year, including seven new members. Cabinet members also make a minimum of a $25,000 five-year commitment to their local Federation, and we are grateful for their support and dedication.
With summer well underway, Jewish day camps and overnight camps are in full swing. I recently visited Sephardic Adventure Camp for their Sephardic Day and connected with many of our community members in the midst of a great summer.
As part of our commitment to making Jewish life more affordable and accessible, nearly 250 campers from across the state received need-based scholarships from our overnight camp scholarship program this summer, totaling over $300,000. In addition to camp, we provided over $40,000 in need-based support for teens to travel to Israel this summer. Supporting the Federation’s annual campaign supports these efforts, and we are grateful to our partners at the Samis Foundation for their partnership in funding camp and Israel scholarships.
Here in Seattle, the JCRC team has been building relationships with local school leadership and advocating for the well-being, safety, and inclusion of Jewish community members. This week, our team met with multiple Seattle Public School principals to discuss policy changes that affect Jewish students and explore how to integrate antisemitism education for faculty and students in the upcoming school year.
To further support Jewish students in classrooms, we joined Jewish Federations of North America in signing a letter urging the National Education Association (NEA) to reject a recent resolution calling for a boycott of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). The letter calls on NEA leadership to take immediate steps to veto the resolution and to address the rise of antisemitism within teachers’ unions. If you want to add your voice, take action now and ask the NEA Executive Committee members to restore their partnership with ADL and commit to standing against antisemitism and discrimination.
Our efforts to uplift Jewish culture in public spaces also extended to local libraries. We recently donated PJ Our Way chapter books (for kids ages 9 to 12) and PJ Library board books (for babies and preschoolers) to the Seattle Public Library. The books are now on display at the Greenwood branch and are helping to share Jewish stories with the broader community.
Finally, just last week, the state’s new Hate Crimes and Bias Incident Hotline was launched in a pilot phase in King, Clark, and Spokane counties. This hotline was one of the items we lobbied for as part of our legislative agenda in 2024 and will help increase reporting of antisemitic incidents in our state, many of which go unreported.
Thank you for being part of our work.
Shabbat shalom,
Solly Kane
President & CEO
Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle
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