By Emily Keeler, JTNews Correspondent
If such a thing as “Jewish Standard Time” exists, when do Jews on “island time” show up? For the Jewish community on Whidbey Island, that would be: Whenever they want to.
“People like to know that they have options,” says Whidbey Island Jewish Community president Miriam Coates. Unlike other Jewish community leaders who struggle with flailing membership and synagogue politics, Coates sounds laid back and accepting of the island’s limited Jewish infrastructure. Perhaps that attitude of acceptance is because there are no synagogue or membership requirements to cause any stress in the first place. Or perhaps that’s just the island attitude.
“There’s not a huge amount of formality,” Coates says.
Coates and her husband, Aaron, along with their two children, moved to Whidbey Island for a change of pace from city life.
“We had lived in Seattle for a while, and we just decided to move to the island and build a house and live a more rural lifestyle,” she says.
She and her husband run their own sustainable design and consulting firm, Outline Studio. To educate her children and serve her community, Coates, whose background is in education, earned a certificate in Jewish Environmental Education from Jewish National Fund through its Teva Learning Center and completed the pedagogy course through the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle.
Like others who have been drawn to Whidbey or one of the many other islands throughout the Puget Sound, Coates loves “the charm of island life.” But “just because the island lacks a temple, day school, or graveyard,” she pointed out in an e-mail correspondence, “doesn’t mean there is no Jewish activity on the island.”
Events typically see up to about 30 regular faces out of the 150 to 200 islanders on the WIJC mailing list, most from the southern half of the 40-mile-long island. The Coates respects the fact that many Jews on Whidbey Island have their own traditions and aren’t affiliated with the WIJC.
An entirely lay-led chavurah with no building or paid staff, events are led by active community members and held in public spaces. While members organize informal Shabbats, Passover seders, and a sunrise birkat hachamah gathering on the beach that celebrated when the sun’s location coincided with its position during the Creation, which drew 20 people, programming mainly serves to provide a cultural outlet for island Jews to plug into at their leisure.
“Right now, a small organization focusing on the cultural aspects as opposed to the religious aspects has been much more helpful in community building,” Coates says.
“We have a lot of mixed, interfaith families,” Coates says. “We have some gay and lesbian families. Being not a regular temple, we don’t ask too many questions. We’re as welcoming as possible.”
Another way the WIJC has fostered community is by not requiring membership and dues.
“It would be difficult to get people to join,” says Coates. “That’s just not the island culture.” Everything the WIJC gets goes toward programming, and this year they received two grants: One from Humanities Washington and another from the Federation’s Special Initiatives Fund.
The WIJC is putting the grant money into two programs. With the help from Humanities Washington, in January it will host the Washington State Jewish Historical Society’s “Who’s Minding the Store” exhibit, commencing with an event on Jan. 23 at the Whidbey Center for the Arts featuring the University of Washington Klezmer band. The Federation grant will be put toward Hebrew classes to enrich the Jewish community.
“We feel it will enhance the community to have services and events and have people not have to read the transliterations,” Coates says.
In addition to these two funded areas, committed members Allan and Deloris Ament have been hard at work creating a section of the cemetery for Jewish burial. Rabbi Ted Falcon has offered his services, as Whidbey Island has no rabbi of its own.
As for growing the WIJC, Coates admits that they do the best they can with posters, their Web site and blog, listserv and by sending announcements to local newspapers.
“We do our best to get ourselves out there, but we don’t have a big advertising budget,” she says.
The WIJC blog not only features local events and updates, but informs the
community of events going on at large.
Looking toward the future, Coates hopes to see more community members taking initiative to lead programs. Ideally, this would mean more programming for children and young families and individuals taking on personal projects, such as mitzvah projects.
“I’d like to see the community take over the organization,” she says. “One of the things we really need is people willing to be participants instead of just spectators…there are a lot more people who want to go to events than want to plan events.”
Coates prides the WIJC on being “grassroots and eclectic,” and along with the active community members she looks forward to seeing participation and programs expand. At some point, “if we feel we’re able to bring in memberships,” they’ll take it from there.
To find the island crew, contact or visit their community blog at www.wijc.wordpress.com