Click here to learn more about this year’s Passover lunches at Hillel UW!
Dean Polik & Paul Malakoff z”l
For 85 years, Hillel UW has provided meaningful opportunities for the Seattle Jewish community to come together and celebrate Passover. Morris Polack z”l, for whom our annual Passover Fund was named, gave generously of his time and resources to Hillel. In fact, during Passover lunches he would personally greet, and then solicit, all his friends to make a gift to Hillel UW to ensure the community could continue to celebrate Passover at Hillel each year.
When Morris passed away in 1993, Paul Malakoff z”l assumed this same role, making sure he was perfectly positioned at Hillel’s front door welcoming students and community members to these same Passover lunches. Exuding warmth and joy, he proudly donned a red apron with the inscription, “Pesach’s my name and matzah’s my game!”
When we lost Paul in 2017, Dean Polik, Morris’s nephew, embraced this sacred responsibility of greeting community members at Hillel’s Passover lunches with Paul’s two sons, Ed and Lew. To pay tribute to Paul, Hillel UW launched the Red Apron Society that annually recognizes two current students who reflect the type of person Paul would want to honor, “the mensch who is doing good for Hillel without being conspicuous.” And having these students wear one of Paul’s special red aprons during Passover lunches…the icing on the flourless cake!
This past October, Dean lost his courageous years-long battle with cancer. It seems only fitting that we change the name of our Passover Fund to the Morris Polack and Dean Polik Passover Fund. We know how important it was to Dean to bring community together for these special lunches and how much he would want them to continue.
Thank you to our 2025 Donors!
Visionary Sponsor
Acme Food Sales, Inc.
Lead Sponsor
Gwenn and Dean z”l Polik
Major Sponsor
Tillie and Alfred Shemanski Foundations
Champion Sponsors
Michelle Feder and Lewis Malakoff
Heike and Edward Malakoff
Jennifer Malakoff
The Okrent Family Foundation
Patron Sponsors
Joseph and Karyn Barer
Rosemary J. Coleman and Davis B. Fox
Henry M. Levy
Brian and Nancy Quint
Benefactor Sponsors
Anonymous
Rebecca and Jay Buxbaum
Stephen and Gina Dichter
Madelyn Holzman
Tom and Jo Ann Hornsten
Aaron and Nancy Marcus
Donald and Jo Anne Rosen
Henrika and Michael Sandorffy
Allan Steinman and Diane Sigel-Steinman
Jacob Van de Rhoer and Lucille Noel
Red Apron Society Awardees
2025
Susana Mogil
Jake Myers
2024
Abigail Ward
2023
Talya Lehrich
Mika Peizer
2022Lauren HarrisSolomon Lubell
2021
Addie Bjornson
Haley Masters
2020
Shana Edouard
Liam Geisser
2019
Abigail Freeman
Jacob Freyd
2018
Anna Kornfeld Simpson
Noah Zwiren
