By Janis Siegel, JTNews Correspondent
There was no furniture to speak
of in the 1960s-style, one-level, two-
bedroom house as an electrician wandered throughout, fixing the last few wiring projects.
But outside, next to the southwest wall, a newly planted garden full of native Northwest plants is beginning to thrive.
The 3rd grade students next door, at the Seattle Jewish Community School in Northeast Seattle planted it to welcome their new neighbors, the Kadima Reconstructionist Community.
After renting office, classroom, and meeting space in Seattle’s urban landscape for 30-plus years, Kadima, as most people in the Jewish and interfaith community know it, has a new home. It’s called Kadima House.
“None of the three entities have ever been in one location,” said Sharron Lerner, Kadima’s education director. “We lacked a core — the center of our community. We’ve been split up in three sections for nearly 30 years. We went from being too small, to too big, to just right. We don’t even grasp how much potential there is going to be.”
Kadima’s office has been located in the Denny Regrade section of Seattle, on Aurora Ave. North, and on Eastlake Avenue. Their Sunday school operated out of the Stroum Jewish Community Center’s former location, in the Wedgwood section of Seattle, for many years, and most recently was housed at the Sandpoint Education Center. The school’s lively Monday night middle school and adult Hebrew classes were taught at the foot of Capitol Hill just off the I-5 freeway in The Roanoke House for over 15 years.
“When we lost the NJCC, we lost a central community space,” Lerner said. “We lost a Jewish environment around us.”
When SJCS purchased the building at its current location after being longtime renters themselves (previously in space at Temple Beth Am that, after construction, now houses the Seattle JCC), Lerner discovered there was also an empty house adjacent to the property that SJCS had been trying to lease.
“We hit it off very well right away,” said Debbie Butler, head of school at SJCS. “We have similar interests and I look forward to having a like-minded agency on our campus.”
SJCS had hoped to rent the house to a Jewish organization, and it’s what they hope to do with another large basement apartment located directly below Kadima House.
“There’s a huge entry area and there’s also a kitchen, a meeting room with a fireplace, and two small bedrooms,” said Butler, who added she hopes to create a North Seattle Jewish campus.
Kadima plans to move into the space June 1 and will hold a community celebration on June 14.
“They fixed the roof and the plumbing, upgraded all the electrical, tore up the carpets to expose the wood floors, and had it freshly painted for us,” said Lerner. “Their blessing has become our blessing — mitzvah gorreret mitzvah,” Lerner said, meaning in Hebrew that one good deed leads to another.
The 1st through 7th grade Sunday school will be held at SJCS, and the Kadima office, adult programs, Monday Hebrew school, B’nai Mitzvah classes, and Sunday kindergarten will be held in Kadima House.
Kadima was originally founded in 1978 as a politically focused, labor-oriented social justice group. When the Kadima Community School was added in 1989, the pluralistic and progressive Jewish community grew into a network of families, children, teachers, and activists.
The organization is now affiliated with the Jewish Reconstructionist movement.
Kadima is on the forefront of the dialogue surrounding some of the most controversial Jewish issues today, particularly the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
During the clash in January between Israeli forces and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Kadima held a community dialogue.
“We are one of the few places in Seattle where you can have a respectful and safe exchange of ideas and a sense of being a participant in tikkun olam [repairing the world],” said Rainer Waldman Adkins, Kadima’s interim program director, and a member since 1982. “American and Seattle Jews have a very complicated relationship with Israel. It’s hard to talk openly and honestly about Israel.”
Adkins also teaches at the Kadima school. He said the students who come to the school will also experience a difference because they will feel like it’s theirs.
He anticipates weeknight programs, Havdalah programs, community Shabbat services, house concerts, movie nights and Sunday morning options in programming. For holiday celebrations, Kadima will most likely still need to find a larger, off-site location, but the week-to-week lifecycle events that make up the Jewish year will all take place on a site they can call their own.
“I have hopes that we could have ongoing [adult and community] classes,” Adkins said.
As the director of education, Lerner said she is excited to start the 2009-2010 school year.
“We really do provide alternative education in a way kids are used to learning,” she said. “Now, what we do so well will be highlighted. Now, there is a rich and vibrant Jewish learning environment all around them and everything is beautifully Jewish.”