CS: Thats why I noted that the areas to the east of the I-5 corridor are a world apart from the Seattle Portland metro areas and some of the coastal areas. Several of the college campuses in those areas are hotbeds of BDS. In fact, there is an effort underway in the eastern part of the state of Washington to secede and form a NEW state called Liberty. Part of their manifesto reads as follows:
“A group of coastal elites, one that detests our very way of life, dominates the political system of Washington state. These people view individual political and religous freedoms as just another problem getting in the way of executing their radical social and economic agenda, an agenda that is fundamentally at odds with how we in Eastern Washington desire to live….”
We’ve also traveled extensively in the PNW and entirely agree that outside of Idaho I’ve never encountered a hint of the type of anti-semitism you apparently encountered in the Whitefish/Kalispell area of Montana which I’ve heard is also the home turf for some white supremacy groups (which typically espouse anti-semitic tropes).
When visiting a fish hatchery near Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River, we met a frum young guy wearing a kipah (more MO than yeshivish) who was working on a business startup for an organic/kosher salmon jerky production facility to be based somewhere in the region. I’m not sure exactly what he was expecting to learn from spending time with the federal fisheries biologists but he said he was treated with incredible respect and interest from those he met with throughout the region. While I think the jerky market is already saturated with several good products with good hashgacha, I was impressed by his enthusiasm and positive reception from the locals.