Story by Judy Pickens
Photos by Tom Trulin
Special to West Seattle Blog

Installation of a new rabbi usually doesn’t include a salmon release – but it just made sense for Kol HaNeshamah, West Seattle’s progressive synagogue.

On Sunday morning (5/21), an estimated 35 people, from infants to elders, rendezvoused with Fauntleroy Watershed Council volunteers and a bucket of coho fry to release in upper Fauntleroy Creek.

“As a sacred community, we’re called to affirm life – and salmon have been central to Pacific Northwest communal life since time immemorial,” said Shannon Ninburg, KHN board of trustees member, seasonal naturalist, and creek volunteer. “We were thrilled to be able to include it as we welcomed Rabbi Sabine Meyer into our communal life.”

(Volunteer Dennis Hinton hands a cup of fish to Rabbi Sabine Meyer to start the release

She is the fifth rabbi to serve Kol HaNeshamah since its founding in 2003. After more than a decade as an educator for congregations in the Southwest, she was most recently rabbi for Tree of Life Congregation in Columbia, South Carolina.

By the last Fauntleroy Creek salmon release of the season on May 31, more than 900 students and adults will have stocked the upper creek with nearly 2,000 fry reared through the Salmon in the Schools program.