What's Next for the Federation?
Solly Kane takes the helm at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle at the hardest moment in recent history.
Another week, another dumpster fire.
This week, it was the congressional hearing on anti-Semitism that called Harvard, MIT and Penn presidents on the floor for allowing Jew-hatred to fester on their campuses under the guise of free speech.
The presidents of these elite universities responded to Republican Representative Elise Stefanik’s interrogation with the monotone derision we’re used to seeing from some elite liberals toward conservative politicians. But for the first time, they may not get away with it. The presidents were swiftly eviscerated on social media. Harvard put out a statement assuring everyone that the school did not actually tolerate calls for genocide against Jewish students; Penn president Liz Magill put out a video statement and may have to resign.
The question was, does chanting slogans that, at their core, call for Jewish genocide run afoul of the schools’ anti-bullying and harassment policies? Each president came up with the same robotic answer: it depends on the context.
“Depends on the context” seems to be a running theme when it comes to Jews and Israel. Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal found herself in a similar bind this week when CNN reporter Dana Bash asked her to condemn the sexual assaults (to put it mildly) perpetrated by Hamas terrorists. Jayapal couldn’t get through a sentence without a “but.” Suddenly, “believe all women” doesn’t apply. Suddenly, universities that have spent years padding their classrooms to safeguard vulnerable students from being traumatized by any “harmful speech” care about free speech.
What a moral bind to be stuck in. You’ve let free speech erode in favor of social justice, and when social justice gets complicated, you pull the free speech card.
Here’s the thing: the university presidents should be right. All speech should be free, not just the politically correct messages.
Greg Lukianoff from Freedom for Individual Rights in Education, writing in
is cynical:While I appreciate and encourage their newfound emphasis on freedom of speech, it will take years for universities to demonstrate a genuine change, given their history of inconsistency. Given what I’ve seen in my two decades doing this work, I suspect that they might contradict themselves again in just a few months. I truly hope to be proven wrong.
The issue is more than speech, though, argues Jonah Goldberg over at The Dispatch. The whole affaire d’presidentes is a canary in the coalmine moment:
Behind every double standard is an unspoken single standard, and the single standard that looms like Banquo’s ghost over this feast of asininity is that only the preferred narratives are privileged. This is why I think the debate about free speech is a bit of a sideshow, albeit an important one. Even the issue of antisemitism is a bit of a distraction, as important as I think it is. The antisemitism is a symptom. A horrible symptom that brings with it complications that make the underlying disease even worse. But focusing on the symptom can still lead us to ignore the underlying malady.
The malady, of course, is the destructive Marxist ideology that’s infected colleges and schools (see my reporting on this Substack about how ethnic studies in Washington is pushing victimhood epistemology, teaching for activism, and cornering “Zionism” as an evil white ideology to be eradicated).
So, what is the solution? Do we pull our kids out of the system entirely, as people like Liel Liebovitz and Ben Shapiro have advocated? Do we fight the illiberalism of our liberal institutions with more illiberalism (i.e., swallow the red pill)? Do we demand that the rules of safetyism apply to Jews too, even if the rules are corrupt? Or do we fight to make these liberal institutions truly liberal again, knowing we may lose?
I don’t think these presidents are terrible people. They are just playing their best moves with a bad hand, and everyone can see their cards now. Claudine Gay sent out a long, robust email on November 9 outlining how Harvard was going to fight anti-Semitism — even declaring that “from the river to the sea” would be condemned. She was in the hot seat and she did what she knew how to do.
Even if this was a performative, partisan trial, it may be a watershed moment for how this country imagines the future of education. If we can admit that morality isn’t completely relative, if we can remember that this country has an actual value system, and if we can hold that everyone is truly equal regardless of where they fall on some stupid matrix of intersectional oppression, we may be able to course correct.
As Yehuda Kurtzer, president of the Shalom Hartman Institute, shared in an oddly comforting Facebook post analyzing the spectacle, “I’ve increasingly come to believe that since antisemitism is not a problem of the Jewish people’s creation, it is not our problem to solve.” Let our imperfect American leaders figure out how they are going to deal with their problem.
We’ll be here waiting for the solution. Or we won’t.
Happy Hanukkah and Shabbat shalom,
Emily
“How do we collectively go forward?”
The Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle has at times struggled to define its mission and purpose. It may be that it just had its mission defined for it. How will its new CEO, Solly Kane, decide to lead in what may be an entirely new era of Jewish history?
The Cholent: You could have never predicted that at same time you took over the Federation, we’d be dealing with the worst attack on the Jewish state since the Yom Kippur War and the highest civilian death toll since the Holocaust. How has that affected your thinking as a leader of the Jewish community of Seattle?
Solly Kane: I don’t think anybody anticipated what happened on October 7th. I'm talking to you here in the middle of my second week. One of the things that's clear is the importance of communal organizations and institutions at moments like this, and the atrocities in Israel, the horrific rise in anti-Semitism around the world locally, nationally, internationally, is painful to watch. It also speaks to why I do this work and the impact that we can have in caring for our community and supporting our brothers and sisters in Israel and then standing up for the broader Jewish community. This isn't what I imagined when I accepted this job, and yet this is the moment that’s so critical. I don’t think we get to choose the moment that we live in, but we get to choose how we respond to it. For me, it's a critical moment of how do we bring the community together? How do we stand in support of each other? How do we raise meaningful funds for Israel? How do we collectively go forward?
On that note, how do we go forward, especially in a place like Seattle, which has been historically fragmented?
I think this is a moment that calls for community coordination and leadership in a different way than we've seen in a long time. And I also think this is a moment when we're seeing greater Jewish community collaboration and coordination than we've seen in a generation. I think a strong Federation leads a community, convenes a community, cares for a community. What I hope as I step into this role is to do lots of listening with our stakeholders, with our community partners, with everybody across the Puget Sound Jewish community. I want the Federation to play a role of leading and convening and bringing our Jewish organizations together as we think about how do we collectively respond on local challenges and local issues. I think there's opportunity both for the Federation and also for the JCRC to take leadership roles in terms of responding to the rise of anti-Semitism here and everywhere.
I’m wondering if you leadership vision has changed over the past two months.
Well, I think the priorities have shifted. Certainly, it's clear to me that the priorities right now have to be combating anti-Semitism and speaking up for and standing up for Israel and thinking about communal security. I think is a direct result of October 7th. As a Jewish leader, that's what I'm thinking about in the context of, “how does the Federation support a thriving strong Jewish community here?”
In the past, the Federation has been focused on what we might call Democratic talking points, and we’ve built up a lot of alliances with other groups that share those values. But now we’re seeing some of those partners not step up as allies or friends this time around, even though we have stood by a lot of them, and that’s really painful. How do you think our relationships and priorities will shift?
So, of course, the Federation and the JCRC are non-partisan organizations. The JCRC leads by consensus in partnership with our many member organizations across the Seattle area. What you're commenting on are the exact questions that I think the North American Jewish community is wrestling with right now. One of the things that we've seen is people or organizations and individuals who have not been allies and friends of the Jewish community since October 7th. And I think that's exceptionally painful. The Jewish community has by and large stood up and stood strong next to other communities at different times, and not to have that be reciprocated leaves a lot of pain.
At the same time, I think we have to continue to invest in those relationships. I don't think that we can choose to be an insular community. I think we have to take stock of our relationships. I think we have to continue to build strong relationships across lines of difference and across the community. And I think we have to be not ashamed of who we are and what we believe in, and of our support for Israel. I think we have to be clear about that as we're rebuilding those relationships.
And so on that note, how do you view the tent, especially as we see more Jews breaking with Zionism but still maybe wanting a Jewish community?
There've been a lot of interesting articles in recent weeks about how the lines and borders of the mainstream Jewish community are actively shifting and will continue to shift. I think that we have to answer that question as a community. I'm not going to sit here and say what organizations are in the tent or not in the tent. Those are conversations that deserve to be had as a community and as we see what happens and what the future holds. At the same time, we're talking about a horrific incident, the largest number of Jews killed since the Holocaust. As we continue to learn more about the atrocities that Hamas committed in Israel and the abuse and rape of women, I think we, as the Jewish community, have to speak out against that and have to be clear in our support for Israel.
Do you have some ideas for getting the community more involved? Are there some new concepts on the table here?
I think there are already lots of conversations happening among communal organizations about the need for increased coordination and communication and thoughtfulness in how we respond collectively. This isn’t a moment where each organization and each individual can be responding on their own. We're stronger together as a community. I think prior to October 7th, it didn't matter as much. And I think post October 7th, that's really clear to a lot of people.
Community Announcements & Resources
Check out the Seattle Jewish community calendar and the virtual calendar.
Candlelighting in Seattle is at 3:59 p.m. The parasha is Vayeshev.
Seattle Jewish Chorale presents its Annual Chanukah concert this Sunday 12/10 at 3 pm at Temple Beth Am. New and old arrangements of Chanukah favorites will be heard in Hebrew, Yiddish, Ladino and English.
If you are looking for where all of the greatest Seattle artists are this Saturday (the 9th) you can get down to the Equinox Studios Annual Very Open House. Hundreds of creative souls and the people that we call friends will convene on Fifth Ave S for an afternoon and evening of fellowship, art, music, art, bonfires, art,
food trucks, and …..Art!!! Lots of great opportunities to impress you friends with your taste in locally made treasures, as gifts this season.
✡️ Rally in support of Israel: Sunday, 12/10, at noon in Seattle. For details join the WhatsApp group.
✡️ Linktree of advocacy tools, ways to help and donate to specific kibbutzim and causes, from uXeptable
✡️ Another comprehensive list organized by Israelis for donations to specific causes
✡️ December 10: Pick up some handcrafted sweet treats and help our brothers and sisters in Israel. Shop at Island Treats on Sunday December 10, from 11 am to 3 pm, and 20 percent of sales proceeds will be donated to the Israel Emergency Fund. Gift card purchases count too! Many thanks to Ann Peterson and the entire Island Treats team for their generosity!
✡️ December 11: A portion of sales proceeds from each Chanukah Box purchased from Dingfelder’s Delicatessen will go to the Israel Emergency Fund and will be matched by Dingfelder’s! The Chanukah Box can serve three to four and has a little of everything—main dish of brisket, salmon, or garlic-herb kosher chicken, latkes, gelt, sufganiyot, dreidels, and more! Many thanks to the Dingfelder’s team for their generosity!
✡️ Make a $36 or greater donation to the Israel Emergency Fund from now through the end of the year, and Eltana Wood-Fired Bagels will give you, free of charge, a half-dozen bagels to show their gratitude. Just show your donation e-receipt. Many thanks to the Eltana team for their generosity!
Have an event you want to share? Reply to this email or send it to thecholentseattle@gmail.com.
Shoutouts
Congratulations to the Samis Foundation on joining the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee’s Jacob H. Schiff Society recognizing lifetime grants in excess of $1 million. Congratulations to Connie Kanter, Samis Foundation CEO, on joining the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee Board of Directors. —Connie Kanter
Hanukkah Allegre to my friends at Sephardic Bikur Holim and the wider community. —David Benkof
Shoutout to my daughter Maya Sulkin who was featured in the Free Press. —Alayne Sulkin
Well done article. I have nothing but contempt for these administrators. I have little sympathy for the Palestinian cause, as viable solutions for a two state solution have been repeatedly avoided in the past. Hamas brutally murdered Israelis, and the non-combatants of Gaza danced in the streets in celebration. I remember seeing a clip of similar celebrations when the towers fell. It was removed quickly, but I will never, ever forget what I saw. They hate Jews, but that's just a start. The hatred extends to all who don't subscribe to their ideology.
I'm not a MAGA fan, but I now understand their position on adopting severe consequences, such as immigration bans, expulsion and the revocation of visas, for those who express antisemitism in such a vile and abhorent way.
Claudine Gay, as well as the rest of the Harvard administration, should resign.
This line is reminiscent of the sort of hopeful idea Rabbi Sacks z”l would have said(albeit it more optimistic terms), “If we can admit that morality isn’t completely relative, if we can remember that this country has an actual value system, and if we can hold that everyone is truly equal regardless of where they fall on some stupid matrix of intersectional oppression, we may be able to course correct.”