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A special Yom HaShoah gathering

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 24th, 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!

With spring comes renewal... 🌸

SJC hosted its annual Secular Humanistic Passover Seder on Sunday, April 13th at a new venue with a refreshed, even more inclusive Haggadah! 🍷 The venue unfortunately did not allow candlelighting, due to all the historical murals in the hall having been recently restored, but fortunately, we had a young Hogwarts witch in attendance who knew alohomora and could magically light up everyone's tables!

Thanks go out to everyone who made this event so special: Education Director Deirdre O'Dwyer and longtime member Tina crafted artistic, floral centerpieces for the tables, Madrikh Jeff Treistman's spouse volunteered to lead all the singing portions of the Haggadah, and longtime volunteer Dana graciously volunteered to manage the chaotic trash/recycle/compost organization and disposal at the end of the event, to name just a few Huge Helpers. And as always, we can't forget to thank everyone who arrived early to help set up, who stayed late to help clean up, and who contributed to the potluck! These events don't happen without you!!

Want to ensure we can continue to host secular humanistic Jewish cultural events like this around the 'Sound? Consider volunteering with us! We have several roles we're looking to fill urgently!

Get involved with SJC today!

 

A Successful Purim Party! 🎭🎲

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!

 

Happy New Year, Trees!🌲

This year's Tu Bishvat ceremony and environmental action event was a huge success! SJC and Mitzvah Secular Sunday School families met up at the Kingfisher Natural Area in North Seattle on Sunday, February 9th to do some good in our community.

Our ordained Madrikh, Jeff Treistman, led a brief standing seder over light snacks of trail mix and juice, followed by a tree-planting ceremony. Typically, this is the only tree we are able to plant at this event, given Seattle's typical frigid January/February weather, but the weather was so uncharacteristically fortuitous that day that we were actually able to permit attendees to plant many of their own trees as well! Following the holiday programming, GSP's trained steward Rick Swing led some invasive species removal and planting of new, native plantlife in the natural area.

Coming up in March, we'll be hosting our own Purim event for the first time in years, and it's bound to be a ton of fun for all ages! We went with a "game night" theme for this year. Save the date!

Get involved with SJC today!

 

Fri, 9 May 2025