70 Advocates Lobby for Jewish Community Priorities in OIympia
Feb. 11, 2025
Last Thursday, advocates from across Washington State converged in Olympia for Jewish Community Lobby Day, organized by the Federation’s Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC). Traveling from as far as Bremerton and Vancouver, participants met directly with legislators and staff across dozens of districts. They educated state leaders about who the Jewish community is, what matters to us, our experience with rising antisemitism, and how they can help.
Advocates focused on three key legislative priorities: funding for safety and security grants for nonprofit and religious organizations, support for Holocaust and genocide awareness education, and ensuring healthcare for all Washingtonians regardless of immigration status.
“Every week, when I drop my kids off, I think of that day, and it’s hard to explain to my friends who have never needed regular protection to worship or learn.”
– Puget Sound Jewish community parent
“I am a Jewish parent with two kids,” noted one attendee. “My synagogue has armed security guards outside almost all the time, and in November of 2023, my synagogue was one of the ones that received an anonymous package with white powder inside. I found out about this when I was picking up my children from Sunday school and saw a bomb squad and hazmat suits with sniffer dogs in the parking lot.
“Every week, when I drop my kids off, I think of that day, and it’s hard to explain to my friends who have never needed regular protection to worship or learn. What’s my call to action? I’m here today to ask to ensure funding for the nonprofit security grants that will help protect vulnerable and targeted communities.”
In the morning, a packed room of attendees heard from Sen. Manka Dhingra, who discussed her two decades of efforts to combat hate crimes and the need, as a lawmaker, to continuously fight for marginalized communities.
“To me, this is about [protecting] our Jewish community, our Muslim community, our Sikh community, our trans individuals,” Dhingra said. “These communities face the greatest hate crimes in our country, and we have to make sure that we’re coming together and stopping it. Because when they come for one, they come for them all.”
The JCRC team led a briefing on Lobby Day priorities. They emphasized to participants the importance of bringing their voices and lived experiences to Lobby Day asks, ensuring lawmakers see and feel the need for and impact of the proposed budget provisos and policies.
“As legislators are going through the legislative process, their job in every stage is to answer, ‘Is this policy that can be afforded? Is it a priority? Is it popular?’ How do they answer all these questions, while going through the muck of all of the policy? They need their constituents to help them,” said Hannah Lidman, JCRC Public Advocacy Committee Chair, on the relationship-building aspect of Lobby Day.
“The way that we do that is by telling them our stories. Our stories are the ones that they tell their colleagues. We are the experts in what’s happening in our world. We have to tell them from our perspective.”
Max Patashnik, JCRC Director, noted the difficulties of this legislative session, including the budget deficit, loss of leadership in the Jewish caucus, and the high number of recently elected legislators across Washington State.
Throughout three hours of lobbying, attendees met with 51 legislators and staff across 22 legislative districts, making their voices heard on issues of vital importance to the Jewish community.
Alongside scheduled meetings, groups of attendees took a creative approach to outreach, congregating in the Capitol courtyard to distribute cookies with QR codes. These codes linked to information about the Puget Sound Jewish community, offering legislators and passersby a chance to learn more and find ways to speak out against antisemitism and become effective allies.
“The boots on the ground work that you all are going to be doing is work that cannot be duplicated by me or by our lobbyists alone.”
– Max Patashnik,
Jewish Community Relations Council Director
While Lobby Day proved a successful and impactful event, the JCRC emphasized that this isn’t the end of their advocacy efforts. The legislative session, which runs through April 27, requires sustained engagement and continuous communication with lawmakers, particularly concerning budget provisos, which, unlike straight policy bills, are not decided until the very end.
Throughout the session, the JCRC team will do everything they can to ensure success on our legislative priorities—lobbying policymakers, spearheading action alerts, supporting coalition asks, guiding and supporting local Jewish institutions, and planning a Passover Seder for legislators.
As the JCRC continues its advocacy efforts throughout the legislative session, direct participation from community members through moments like Lobby Day remain vital.
“The advocacy that you’re doing on these issues are going to be critical pieces for us in terms of raising the issues, getting them on [legislators’] radars,” Patashnik told Lobby Day attendees, thanking them for the important task of engaging with their lawmakers directly.
“I think this year more than ever, the boots on the ground work that you all are going to be doing is work that cannot be duplicated by me or by our lobbyists alone. It’s really, really valuable.”
Please stay engaged by signing up for action alerts. The more community members who take action, the greater our collective impact in Olympia.
