Joseph S. Alhadeff

Treasurer

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Joseph Samuel Alhadeff was born in Seattle to Samuel Joseph Alhadeff and Beya (Betty) Policar. His parents spoke Ladino in their home when Joseph was a boy. He attended Garfield High School and the University of Washington. Joseph’s father immigrated from the Island of Rhodes to Seattle in 1906 with his father, mother, seven uncles and aunts and their families, and his grandparents. His paternal grandmother’s maiden name was Surnami. His mother’s family came to Seattle from the island of Marmara, Turkey. Joseph’s grandfather on his mother’s side, Jacob Policar, came to Seattle in 1902 and collected enough money to bring his family over a few years later. His maternal grandfather, together with another Sephardic man, Marco Calvo, were the first two Sephardic Jewish men to arrive in Seattle and helped set up the Sephardic community there. Joseph has worked in real estate for another prominent Sephardic family in Seattle, the Benaroya family, for the past 25 years. He is involved in the Hevra Kadisha, the Sephardic community’s burial organization in Seattle. He is also a board member and past president of the Seattle Sephardic Brotherhood and is a former board member of Congregation Ezra Bessaroth. He and his wife Doreen (formerly Cohen) have two sons.