Sephardic Philanthropist and Seattle native Becky Benaroya passes away at age 103

Becky Benaroya z'L

Rebecca (Becky) Benaroya, the first-generation Sephardic Jewish woman whose love of the Jewish community, art, children, and the city of Seattle touched countless institutions and individuals, died on February 25th, 2026. She was 103. 

Becky was born at Seattle’s Providence Hospital January 14th, 1923, the second child and first daughter to Yuda (Joe) Benoun, an immigrant from the Island of Rhodes, and Dona Adatto Benoun, an immigrant from Tekirdag, Turkey. 

In an oral history with the Jewish Women’s Archive from 2001, Benaroya reminisces about her childhood in Seattle’s Central District, where the women of the Sephardic community would gather in each others’ homes to talk and prepare meals while the men worked — many of them at the public market. Meanwhile, her father intended to make enough money to return to his native Rhodes a rich man, a dream that was erased by the Depression and the destruction of the Rhodes Jewish community by the Nazis in 1944. 

“We always heard that we were going to be moving to the Island of Rhodes because it was such a beautiful island,” Benaroya says. “Well, then, the Second World War and the Holocaust, and everybody in his family was wiped out. It makes you feel like there’s a reason for everything.”

She attended Washington Elementary, the Talmud Torah Jewish after-school program, and Garfield High School. There she met Jack Benaroya, another first-generation Sephardic Jew, whose family had come to America from Beirut via Montgomery, Alabama. At 16 years old, Becky had two other suitors, which worried her parents. 

“My parents didn’t think that was very wise for a young girl to go with a lot of boys because it spoils your reputation,” she says in the interview. “So I had to make a choice.” It was Becky’s mother who pushed Becky and Jack toward one another. “She asked him if he was taking her daughter’s time or was he serious. He was only 18 years old. He said he was serious.” He gave her a ring from his bar mitzvah until they were officially engaged.

Friend Joel Benoliel recounts that the couple got married on Valentine’s Day in 1942, just after Pearl Harbor. According to the memory of his father in law, David M. Alhadeff, “he and many of the young men who attended their wedding enlisted in the military immediately following the reception.” Jack went into the Navy and was stationed in Pasco when Becky gave birth to their first child, before Jack was deployed to the Philippines. 

After the war and two more children later, Jack moved the family to Cleveland for business, where Becky managed her small children while her husband worked. “I wasn’t consulted at all because, back then, it was a male decision,” she says. “I would have liked to have been consulted, but since I wasn’t, my job was to go along. I think that it was easier then where you didn’t have that conflict….Then I found that it was a really growing experience for me to even just go, be on my own, and learn that I could do things on my own and be independent. That was the best thing that happened to me.”

When they returned to Seattle less than three years later, Becky brought home the lessons learned in Cleveland. “I learned about reaching out to newcomers when we moved back to Seattle, because I knew what it meant to me when I was in that position,” she says.

Though it was Jack who established what became the family’s fortune by bringing the concept of the industrial park to Seattle and investing in commercial real estate, Becky was Jack’s partner and supporter in philanthropy. “Oh, just whenever he asks, ‘What do you think?’ I always say, ‘Go for it,’” she says. “Well, he knows if he can do it financially. If he thinks he can do it, go for it. We’re not going to live any differently. That’s what people don’t understand. It’s easy to give if you want to help others less fortunate.”

They developed common interests, and together they were early investors in the Pilchuck Glass School, back when famed glass artist Dale Chihuly was a “hippie” and the school consisted of some tents in the woods. After a chance outing to an auction at the Henry in the mid-1970s, the Benaroyas fell in love with collecting, ultimately amassing a collection of art, sculpture, and glass that went on to live at the Tacoma Art Museum. They invested in Howard Schultz’s idea for a coffee shop chain (Starbucks), and they financed the home of the Seattle Symphony, Benaroya Hall, which opened in 1998. 

After a grandchild was diagnosed with diabetes, in 1999, Jack and Becky built the Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason Medical Center to research diabetes and autoimmune diseases. They also donated to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and various University of Washington programs, including scholarships for black male graduates of Garfield to attend the UW. 

The Benaroyas invested heavily in Jewish causes, too, including Congregation Ezra Bessaroth (where they were married in the original Central District synagogue), the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, and StandWithUs.

“She was a childhood friend of my grandmother Leni LaMarche, growing up in Seattle during the Depression, and she never forgot those humble roots as part of Seattle's early Sephardic community,” StandWithUs NW director Randy Kessler says. “The co-founders and executives of StandWithUs, Roz and Jerry Rothstein, said they were honored to spend time with her every year since meeting her, and always found her exceptionally smart, warm and kind, while always concerned about the newest challenges being faced by the Jewish people. They said they will never forget her. Her legacy is one of caring, kindness, and generosity.”

Becky Benaroya came into the spotlight in 2022 when her gift to the University of Washington for an Israel studies program was returned and redirected to StandWithUs.

“I remember Becky Benaroya for her love of Israel and the Jewish people,” says friend Michael Schuffler, who met the couple at an AIPAC fundraiser. “About 12 years ago, when she became alarmed about a number of anti-Israel speakers and early signs of antisemitism on the UW campus, she decided to take action. Her vision was to have an endowed program on Israel at the UW. This program would teach about modern day Israel, not through the lens of its conflict with the Palestinians, but rather through the lens of it being a country like any other, but with a distinct history, culture, and economy.”

Though Benaroya and those close to her did not speak publicly about the endowment and the eventual return of her $5 million donation, Schuffler recalls Benaroya’s disappointment with the program when it went in a direction she did not envision. 

“It was a sorry situation and a great disappointment to Becky,” he says. “But the experience was what defined Becky. She saw a problem at the UW and attempted to fix it by taking action. Becky was not one to sit on the sidelines, waiting for others to act. She was bold and determined and even though it did not work out, she will be remembered for her generosity and desire to help the Jewish people.”

Kind, humble, and glamorous, Becky Benaroya lived for over a century, giving back to the city that took her family in. In her oral history, she describes the ethos that defined her life, imbued by her grandfather when she was a child: “He never thought that money was important. He always felt that it’s a gift while you’re on this earth. The most important thing is a good name; that’s what you leave when you leave this earth.”

Becky Benaroya leaves behind her children, Donna, Alan, and Larry, and grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Jack preceded her in death in 2012. Before her passing, she split her time between Seattle and Rancho Mirage, California. 

Benaroya leaves not only her family’s philanthropic imprint on Seattle and beyond, but also an ethic and a memory that is fading from view — early and mid-century Jewish life in the Central District, the Ladino-speaking Sephardic experience, and the first-generation ethic and attitude that went on to build some of the city’s most important institutions.

“I think being first generation, you have a different feeling about achieving,” she says in the oral history. “I think that when you inherit, it’s a different kind of feeling. But when you have earned it, and you feel very grateful that you’re here in this country and you have these opportunities, you want to give something back to your community. We’ve always felt this way. The children have heard us talk about it. I think they feel that this is what it’s all about. Why not share?”

Republished with permission from thecholent.substack.com - Seattle’s Jewish Newsletter