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The last of our holiday events for this Jewish year have wrapped up, and we'll be welcoming summer shortly! A few reminders for the months ahead:

• Planning for 5786: We wrap up every year with a half-day community meeting to review the past year and plan the next one. As a 100% volunteer-run organization, we invite all existing community members interested in being a part of this planning process join us for our Annual Retreat! 🧑‍🏫
• Sunday School Early Bird Discount: Once the Annual Retreat wraps up on 6/8, our Sunday School webpages will be updated and enrollment will open for the 2025-2026 school year. Existing students are not automatically re-enrolled! Families that enroll by 7/31 will receive the Early Bird discount (10%) on their oldest enrolled child's tuition. 💵
• Tabling for 5786: Each year, we table at the Fremont Fair Summer Solstice festival in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle to raise awareness of Secular Humanistic Judaism in our community and build engagement and excitement for next year. If you wouldn't mind sharing your experience with secular Judaism and/or SJC, we'd love your help manning our table at the fair! 🗣️
• Leadership Change/Call for Volunteers: Our President and Secretary, Jacob Kosman, will be stepping down from his role with the organization following the Annual Retreat. He was a dependable backbone to this organization who will be leaving behind huge shoes to fill. If you're interested in helping us keep this organization vibrant and growing, check out the roles we most urgently need or reach out to offer your support! 🤝

Yom HaShoah (Jewish Holocaust Remembrance Day) with the Circle was very special this year,  because Seattle's very own Holocaust Center for Humanity is hosting a new, traveling exhibit -- Let Me Be Myself: The Life Story of Anne Frank -- of which SJC is proud to be a Community Partner.

As a community, we toured the exhibit on Thursday, April 24^th, and whispers of the tragedy's parallels to our modern day political climate weighed heavy in the air. The story of the The Annex -- of both the eight Jews who were hidden away for over two years and the employees who helped safeguard them -- is a devastating one; no one in attendance left dry-eyed.

However, underpinning this, and many other Holocaust stories, is the fact that countless lives were rescued, or kept alive much longer than the Reich wanted, thanks to the bravery of both victims and allies. Anne's story is hard to revisit, but must inspire us to strive to be that neighbor who is willing to hide the persecuted when the oppressors come knocking.

If you missed our visit to the exhibit, but still want to check it out, you're in luck! The exhibit is in town through May 31st!

Reserve your tickets today!

Thanks to all who attended our first self-hosted Purim event since the pandemic! Inline with this Hebrew year's event enrollment trends, registrations again exceeded expectations! (And honestly, attendance pushed the occupancy limits of the space we'd rented...!)

Our Madrikh Jeff Treistman gave a contextual, humanistic history of the holiday, our Education Director Deirdre O'Dwyer manned a noisy (and delightfully messy!) grogger painting station, and attendees of all ages participated in a live spiel recounting the classic tale. Huge thanks to all the brave kids who stepped up to participate, and to all the adults whose enthusiastic performances kept the spiel engaging and lively for everyone!