By Nancy B. Greer
President & CEO
Next January 11, the Washington State Legislature will convene in Olympia for its 2021 session. Critical decisions affecting everyone in Jewish Puget Sound will be made when our elected representatives gather to work on the public’s business. The Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle and our partners will be in Olympia to make our community’s voice heard.
We can advocate most effectively if we receive your input. You help us shape a timely and relevant legislative agenda. By completing the Federation’s Policy Priorities Survey, you tell us what issues matter to you most. The survey results equip your Federation’s advocacy team with important information about constituent preferences that our elected representatives pay attention to, which in turn helps move critical legislation forward.
For the 2020 legislative session, you told us that fighting antisemitism and hate crimes, supporting immigrants and refugees, and upholding human rights were your top priorities. We focused our advocacy on those areas. As a result, impactful bills to combat online hate, keep courts open to all, and protect survivors of human trafficking were enacted into law.
Now, we need to hear from you again. Please take a few minutes to complete the survey. Tell us the issues that should be our highest priority, the ones in which a strong Jewish voice would make the biggest difference.
Your input will be especially important in 2021 because in the upcoming legislative session we will face unprecedented challenges—higher demand for human services resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, plunging state revenues, and the imperative to root out systemic racial injustice. Your help in setting our priorities for next year is more urgent than ever.
There is an important additional benefit to completing the survey. Your Federation can use the results to inform congregations and organizations in Jewish Puget Sound about their members’ priorities. That helps our partner organizations to better serve their members and strengthens our community overall.
Thank you for taking the time to let us know how we should shape our advocacy in the 2021 legislative session. Your input and your generous support make it possible to raise our collective voice and focus our advocacy on the most important issues that face our community today.
