Late Summer Seattle Celebrations
A festival and a new Moishe House show signs of growth and Jewish engagement.
Salad Course
NEW! Pic of the Week
With summer winding down I’m appreciating every sunny PNW mountain view. Shoutout to Rabbi Yohanna Kinberg for this moment of Jewish Zen.
Send me your Jewy pics or tag me on Insta @theotheremilyalhadeff.
This is a hilarious way to think about Hebrew/Yiddish/brand words that should never, ever be used for Jewish baby names — but wouldn’t a baby Cholent be just adorable? We’d call him Cholie for short.
Meat and Potatoes
“We Just Celebrate the Parts of Judaism Everyone Likes.”
North Seattle’s Jewish festival attracts Jews from across the board.
Last Sunday, August 21, the Chabad Jewish Center of North Seattle hosted the first North Seattle Jewish Festival at Victory Heights Park, with live music, a bouncy house and slide, face painting, Kona shaved ice, and burgers, dogs, and sandwiches from Muriel’s.
The Center’s Rabbi Shneur Marasow estimates that some 300 people came by from across affiliations and denominations. While he’s run Shabbat and Yom Tov programs, Marasow wanted to host something with more of a Hanukkah feel, and with a lower barrier to entry. “I wanted a neutral event where it’s not intimidating to participate,” he says.
Marasow and his wife, Rivka, have been in the Northgate area for about 15 months, though they both grew up here. (Rivka comes from the large Levitin clan, the family that was sent by the Rebbe to bring Chabad Lubavitch to the Northwest in 1972.) They’ve been busy knocking on doors and meeting Jewish families, many of whom are unaffiliated or lightly affiliated. Marasow says they’ve met about 130 families so far, and they have a core of 30 people on Shabbat. “We’ve got to meet hundreds of families we haven’t met yet,” he says. “I want to knock on every single door in the area and meet every single Jew.”
Come fall, they are planning a “Shofar in the Park” event at 5:30 p.m. on Rosh Hashanah (September 26) for the after-work crowd. They’re working on launching a Sunday school and continuing an online Torah class.
The festival attendees, many of whom only found out about the event through a Muriel’s Instagram post, gravitated to the shady perimeter of the park with their cups of colorful shaved ice and Dr. Browns cream sodas. Adults chatted, children ran around, and it was only a matter of time before a few men broke out into Hasidic-style circle dancing.
“You don’t have to meet for a yontif or a seder,” says Marasow. “We just celebrate the parts of Judaism everyone likes. Everyone likes good music, good food.”
“Isn’t It so Cool that We Get to Experience this as Adults?”
Seattle’s new Moishe House proves that young adults want and need Jewish community.
When one Moishe House door closes, another one opens.
While the North Seattle shomer-Shabbat/kashrut house closes up shop this month, the Central District kicked off with a housewarming party Saturday night, August 13.
The new house is an extension of the original Seattle Moishe House, which opened in 2015 on Queen Anne and moved to Green Lake. That house closed in 2021, but the search for the right group and the right house continued.
“We’re beyond thrilled with the group that’s formed; they’re passionate, driven, and excited to bring more Jewish young adult programming to Seattle,” explained Nicole Tafoya, Moishe House’s West Coast Director of Advancement, via email. “After a long housing search, they found a home in the Central District that they felt would be a great location and size to host programs, and they’re diving right in.”
House member Madison Holt, who goes by the nickname Moose, was looking for Jewish co-living situation when she moved here. The Maryland native and recent Indiana University graduate who works at Bridges Academy sought an environment where she could embrace her Jewish identity.
“Unfortunately, I was a part of a school system there outside of Bloomington where there were times that I was afraid to be Jewish, which I had never experienced in my life,” she says. Then a friend told her about Moishe House. “I had never heard of it before last year. And I was like, hmm, maybe I should explore this.” Soon, she says, the question wasn’t “should I do it?” It was, “how can I do it?”
Moishe Houses may provide a much-needed mental health boost for young adults coming out of the pandemic, too, says Tafoya. “Moishe House’s internal evaluations from 2021 revealed that 71 percent of Jewish young adult respondents say they have experienced anxiety, depression or other emotional challenges due to the pandemic; 76 percent feel their participation in Moishe House has helped them cope with the pandemic.”
The Saturday night event welcomed around 50 young adults and included a Havdalah ceremony. “It was really special,” says Holt. “I turned to Alana, who’s another member of our house. I said to her, ‘Isn’t it so cool that we get to experience this as adults?’ Because it’s something that I grew up doing at camp, and for me to be able to sit in my backyard and sing songs with people that I may have not met before — but we all feel connected in this Jewish sense — is really special. I feel fortunate that I get to be a part of it.”
Tafoya is optimistic about Moishe House’s presence in Seattle. Just this year, the North Seattle house and the Pod — a version of Moishe House in the South End called Kibbutz Darom — have held 67 programs and seen 957 attendees. Of those, 277 were unique. “This number really demonstrates that there is interest and excitement among the young adult community,” Tafoya says. “As always, we want to go where the need is, and if we keep hearing from young adults in Seattle that they want more programming and more engagement, we’re certainly open to the possibility of expanding our presence in Seattle.”
The Central District location is significant due to the Jewish community’s historical connection to the neighborhood. Starting in the early 20th century, Jewish immigrants made the CD their home. Several buildings still bear the markings of the synagogues they used to be, and elders reminisce about the close-knit feel of the neighborhood in the 1950s.
The location serves a practical purpose now, in that it’s convenient for the population of young Jewish professionals the house hopes to serve. It’s also far enough from the Pod and the former North Seattle house so as not to compete, but close enough to attract crossover.
Holt and her housemates are gearing up for activities and programs. This weekend, they’re hosting their first Shabbat dinner with OneTable featuring Ethiopian cuisine, followed by sunset meditation on Sunday.
“Something that we care a lot about is making sure that we’re having events that are relevant to our community,” says Holt. “So yeah, if anybody has event ideas that they want to make happen…they can always reach out to us through our email or on Instagram or Facebook.”
This Week Last Year
The racial equity statement is coming back around this year for completion. Stay tuned.
Dessert Course
Community Announcements
Check out the Seattle Jewish community calendar and the virtual calendar.
This week’s parasha is Re’eh.
Candlelighting in Seattle is at 7:42 p.m. Rosh Chodesh Elul starts Saturday night.
Shoutouts
Grateful shoutout to Mads Deshazo, who is leaving her role as Community Nurturer at Kadima. Her presence has been a blessing to our community, which she nurtured with kindness, humor, love and support. Kadima's and Seattle’s loss will be Boston’s gain. She will make a wonderful chaplain when she completes her training. And hey, Mads, maybe you'll return here? We can only hope. —Michael Blum
Good luck at college, Brooke Mihlstin! Love, Mom & Dad (Marilyn Corets & Adam Mihlstin)