Government Affairs

An important piece of legislation is making its way through the Washington State Senate that fixes a gap in the state's malicious harassment statute. With cut-offs and deadlines looming, I need your help to get SB 6398 voted out of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote on SB 6398 this Friday. This bill clarifies the definition of "threat" in the state's malicious harassment statute - Washington State's hate crime statute.

In a short, sixty day session, anything is possible. But erasing the need for drastic cuts to health and human services may very well be a lost cause.

So much is at stake for low-income people and community agencies like Jewish Family Service and the Kline Galland. Lend your voice to solutions to keep our Jewish community, and Washington State, safe and strong. Join the Washington State Jewish Action Center to stay up-to-date and take action on legislative and policy happenings in Olympia, WA and Washington, DC.

The 2010 legislative session presents challenges for the Jewish community and our legislative priorities. To balance Washington’s budget and erase an almost $3.0 billion deficit, Governor Chris Gregoire’s proposed budget made deep cuts into critical programs

On December 9, 2009, Governor Gregoire released her 2009 supplemental budget. Typically, supplemental budgets make minor corrections to the two year budget passed in the previous legislative session. However, with the state facing a $2.6 billion shortfall, on top of the $9.0 billion shortfall from the year before, Gregoire's budget was anything but "minor".

Jewish Federation’s role to address and solve community problems was evident at Hate Crimes and Discrimination in the Northwest, a symposium for elected officials and their staff held on October 15.

The goal of the symposium was to explore and discuss with elected officials and their staff a wide range of issues concerning hate and discrimination. The symposium was split into three parts:

On this fall’s election ballot is an important referendum you should know about – Referendum 71. Referendum 71 asks voters to “approve” or “reject” Washington’s domestic partnership statute. The statute gives rights and responsibilities to unmarried same-sex and opposite-sex couples. A significant number of Jewish community organizations, synagogues and leaders are supporting an approve vote including the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, Jewish Family Service, Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee.

Congratulations to President Barack Obama for winning the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee explained that they hope this honor will help President Obama build momentum behind his initiatives to reduce nuclear arms, ease tensions with the Muslim world and stress diplomacy and cooperation rather than unilateralism.

The current economic recession is testing our community and families. Applications for food stamps and food bank usage are on the rise. Unemployment is up. The need for our Jewish community to come together to address poverty has never been greater.

For the second year in a row, the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle is spearheading a Jewish community-wide initiative, Focus and Fight: A Call to End Poverty.

Building on last year’s success, the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle in partnership with dozens of Jewish organizations is launching the second annual Focus and Fight: A Call to End Poverty by the Seattle Jewish Community. This year’s program runs from October 2-9, 2009, during the week of Sukkot.

Focus and Fight gives participants ways to help reduce poverty in our community and learn about how poverty affects the day-to-day lives of low-income people and families: