Washington's New PAC
A new group fills a void and seeks change.
“It turns out that the interests of the Jews are also the interests of America.”
On a drizzly Sunday morning in March, a small crowd gathered in Nevet Basker’s Eastside living room to hear about a new initiative to support candidates who align with Jewish community priorities.
Shocked and frustrated by the response to October 7th and the surge in anti-Israel and anti-Semitic behavior that followed, Basker and fellow lay leader Carolyn Hathaway felt motivated to affect change on the political level. The result is a political action committee called Washingtonians for a Brighter Future.
“Carolyn and I have been community activists for a very long time, serving on boards and engaged in politics in every organization in town,” Basker says. “They all do great work…[but] we have this gaping hole.”
Despite the relatively large number of local organizations dedicated to Jewish advocacy, including the Jewish Community Relations Council that lobbies for certain bills every legislative session, none is dedicated, or legally permitted, to helping candidates get elected on the local level.
“Getting people elected and supporting them to get reelected, that’s the complementary effort to the advocacy piece,” Basker says. “We have great advocacy locally, we have advocacy and politics nationally, but we don’t have politics locally.”
Washingtonians for a Brighter Future is modeled on California Against Hate, a PAC that came together when an anti-Israel candidate was running for city council in the San Diego area. California Against Hate co-founder Jared Sclar used his background in public affairs and fundraising to stage an opposition campaign. In the end, the candidate lost by 11 votes.
Sclar, who flew up to present at the kickoff, explained that while the PACs are motivated by Jewish community concerns, the focus is to support candidates with strong democratic values and “to oppose hate in all forms.”
The narrowly defeated California candidate wasn’t just scary for her views on Jews and Israel, Sclar says. She also supported defunding the police, even after an iconic building burned to the ground. The PAC focused on what they assessed as her problematic politics rather than anti-Semitism.
Anti-Semitism is “generally not the issue du jour,” Sclar says. “That’s not the issue we would communicate on.”
Washingtonians for a Brighter Future plans to follow the same approach.
“It turns out that the interests of the Jews are also the interests of America,” Basker says. “Jews make an easy target, often the first target, but it’s rarely about the Jews. It represents a rot in our society…. The people who are burning Israeli flags are also burning American flags. The people who are assaulting Jews are also violating American values and interests.”
Among their champions is Bellevue city council member Jared Nieuwenhuis, who is not Jewish but has stepped up to support the Jewish community.
“He has taken a moral stand and has been actively engaged,” Basker says. “He speaks at our rallies, he wears the hostage pin, he helped…take down unauthorized posters on city property that were hateful.”
The focus on local races is designed to elevate or oppose candidates who could move up into national positions.
“Many of the most dangerous people crop up in the small cities,” Sclar says. “If there is someone problematic, we may not know. We may not know someone is going to sneak by and get on the city council, and then they’re the next Ilhan Omar.”
Candidate filing closed on May 9th, so the next step is for the PAC to decide which races to address. No endorsements have been made yet.
“We’re looking to the community to help us identify who are the real leaders,” Basker says, “and who are the real agitators, detractors, [who are] spreading misinformation or promoting bigotry.”
Cover photo: Olympia, WA Capitol Building/Wikimedia Commons
I’ve Got Mail
I’m sharing a response to last issue’s piece about the Washington State Human Rights Commission’s resolution on anti-Semitism. I welcome comments and responses to stories. Have things to say? Drop me a line.
Hi Emily! Just read this. The sarcasm and jabs don’t resonate with me or what I think our society needs more of, but putting that aside, I hear you substantively.
The main point I picked up in this piece is that shit can be bad and worthy if denunciation without being antisemitic (or to be more specific - without having to fall within an antisemitism definition of choice).
But I would argue that that unnecessary conflation is not the fault of the commission, or our cities and universities. Our Jewish institutions have made these things - antisemitism, antizionism, Israelophobia (is that a word? It should be) - interdependent long ago.
Interestingly, this critique is similar to the left’s critique of the conflation between antisemitism and critique of Israel.
We get stuck on the arguments around whether it’s antisemitism and how to define antisemitism because (a) that anchors the conversation in framings of Jewish oppression that people can wrap their heads around, and (b) it is (was?) harder to justify Federal investigations/actions for views on foreign affairs that we don’t like.
But national origin is also a protected class by many definitions of discrimination. So why aren’t we arguing that discriminating against Israelis students and professors is discrimination? Why aren’t we arguing that calling for the death to people who hold a certain political ideology (eg Zionism) is criminal?
Instead, we’re arguing that Jewish students on campus are facing antisemitism, and therefore, universities should not financially divest from Israel and Palestinian activism should be criminalized.
—Arthur Shwab, Seattle
I’d like to thank another reader for sharing, for comparison, a resolution passed by Congress in 2022, that’s rooted in some of the worst recent American examples of anti-Semitism, but is shockingly almost irrelevant given our post-October 7th reality. (I had to actually look up the reference to a synagogue hostage situation from 2022. It was barely three years ago and I had entirely forgotten about it.)
The problem comes down to defining anti-Semitism and understanding where the line is between it and anti-Zionism (and if that line exists at all) — and if this is even the right question to ask.
So here is another piece to consider, from the excellent Sapir journal. Author Toba Hellerstein argues that pro-Israel activists are going about it all wrong. Inverting Ben Shapiro’s quip, “facts don’t care about your feelings,” Hellerstein’s piece is titled “Actually, feelings don’t care about your facts.”
This is the crux: storytelling rooted in universal human experience. Language that doesn’t need translation. The pro-Israel community must stop dying on the hill of terminology.
Instead of antisemitism, talk about exclusion, fear, and erasure.
Instead of Zionism, talk about belonging, safety, and freedom.
Upon reflection, I realize that this strategy has more or less worked with friends and aquaintances who are open minded and respectful. But is it enough to pull back the people who have already fallen off the cliff? I have found that those who are anti-Israel, but still reasonable and open to conversation, don’t hate Israel as much as they seem to say they do. They have relatives there, or have been there, so they are in touch with all the feelings but still think the entire project should be dismantled. The problem is their facts are often flawed. So then what?
Share your thoughts in the comments or by replying to this email.
Lastly, here is something amusing to go into the weekend with, from local comedian Simon Kaufman.
Shabbat shalom.
Announcements
Check out the Seattle Jewish community calendar.
Candlelighting in Seattle is at 8:24 p.m. The parasha is Emor.
Shoutouts
Former Seattlite, Dr. Chaim Garfinkel (Sarah Leibert’s husband) was recently honored. The Blavatnik Family Foundation, New York Academy of Sciences and Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities announced the winners of the 2025 Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists in Israel: Yonatan Stelzer of the Weizmann Institute of Science; Benjamin Palmer of the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev; and Chaim Garfinkel of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. —Connie Kanter
To Miri Tilson for stepping up as Executive Director of SBH. —Jon Newman
Shoutout to Nevet Basker for her excellent KOMO news interview and interview on the Brady Kruse podcast, “unDivided” about the University of Washington. —Carolyn Hathaway