Who we are
Kavana is an independent Jewish community in Seattle. Together we are building an innovative, relational and intergenerational model community that empowers each of us to create a meaningful Jewish life and a positive Jewish identity. We welcome folks in all life stages and from all backgrounds, and shape our community around every person who chooses to join us in this experiment of Jewish community building. We are families with children of all ages, families of birth and families of choice. Some of us are parents, some aren’t; some were raised very religious, some with no Judaism at all. We champion social justice issues in Seattle and throughout the world, and celebrate Jewish learning, creativity and holidays every chance we get. We welcome you to bring your whole self, in all your complexity, to our community.
Our Partners
While Kavana is open to all, Kavana partners have made an intentional commitment to grow and build their personalized Jewish meaning in a community context. Individually and together, partners fulfill the word “kavana”, meaning “intention”, and enjoy the privilege of actively shaping new, innovative approaches to Jewish life for themselves and for one another.
The Kavana community is dependent on our partners to participate actively, contribute to each other’s experiences, and shape how Kavana grows and evolves. We are a community of co-creators and co-curators, as we create the experiences that shape our Jewish lives and curate those experiences to find meaning and relationship with one another. Anyone can participate in our community, but partnership provides direct opportunities to join in the community as we create multiple, joyful and meaningful expressions of Judaism.
The privileges that come with being a partner also come with responsibilities. Being a partner at Kavana involves commitment in two general ways: engagement and finances. Kavana partners commit to examining their own Jewish goals, showing up regularly, actively participating in the cooperative, and also commit to making a personally meaningful financial contribution.
Our Values
We aspire to build a community that is cooperative, connected, playful, inclusive, welcoming, supportive, inspiring, and responsive!
We also strive to make Kavana a model community - a microcosm of the world we yearn to live in. As such, we embrace intentionality in our interactions with one another, and also engage regularly in addressing a range of social justice issues, from racial justice, equity, and immigration to environmental justice, in Seattle and beyond.
Our Facilities
From the outset, the Kavana Cooperative made the decision to prioritize people and programs over real estate. Kavana does have office space in the Queen Anne neighborhood (which we affectionately refer to as "Kavana HQ"), but beyond that, there is no singular building or meeting space we use for all our services and programs. Rather, we intentionally choose to meet in a variety of spaces - churches, community centers and rental venues, coffee shops, and individual's homes - throughout Seattle.
This decentralized approach affords us the opportunity to be where our people are, to find the right-sized venue for each event, and to invest in the businesses and organizations around us. Most of all, this approach supports Kavana's cooperative vision by spreading ownership and stake in the community to all of our partners (and non-partners, too!). The spirit of Kavana resides and thrives in the relationships we create with one another and the intimacy we foster... wherever we may gather!