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Leonard Alan Kashner
Leonard Alan Kashner
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Leonard Kashner Obituary
Family members include wife, Beth Kashner, children Anna Kashner (Ron Clark), Zoe Kashner (Mig Greengard), Max Kashner (Kathy Porada), and brother Frank Kashner (Cathy Kashner). Grandchildren include Cleopatra Greengard, Lincoln Kashner, Rafael Greengard, Mia Rose Kashner, Lyla Kashner and Solomon Kashner. Nieces and nephews include Elisabeth Kashner (Jonathan Stern), Megan Kashner (Trina Whittaker), Jon Kashner, Peter Lawrence, and David J Hilsheimer (Joana Hilsheimer) He had many cousins in the United States and Israel.
Lenny was born in New York City on May 18, 1942 and grew up in Mount Vernon, New York. He attended Columbia University where he received a degree in Biology, and a Masters Degree in Teaching. Lenny and Beth married in New York in 1971, and left the city in 1972. They drove across the country with their dogs Yo Yo and Abby and eventually settled in South Seattle where they started their family.
Lenny (Mr. Kashner) taught science for the Seattle Public Schools for 30 years, primarily at South Shore Middle School and Franklin High School. He was a pioneer in teaching computer science, and taught biology his whole career. He influenced the lives of hundreds of young people, as all teachers do. His final professional joy was teaching AP biology at Franklin High School to young people of diverse backgrounds from South Seattle. Many of his students went on to careers in science. With his unique look and unforgettable teaching methods, Lenny was often recognized and warmly greeted by students and their parents when he was out and about.
After he retired he continued to garden, travel, and study Hebrew and Jewish studies. Lenny's last project was a program to bring Hungarian Jewish teens to Seattle to work as counselors at the JCC summer camp. Most of all, Saba enjoyed being involved in the lives of his six grandchildren.
Lenny Kashner was a man who had a profound influence on the lives of his children, grandchildren, students, extended family, and friends in the community.
May his memory be for a blessing.
Donations in his memory can be made to: Equal Opportunity Schools and The Seward Park Audubon Center.
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Sylvia French
April 13, 2025
Mr. Kashner had a huge impact on my life. In 7th grade he taught me how to use a PC, not knowing I would go on to have a 30+ year career in computer software. I know he would have been proud of me. He was kind beyond teaching, and I am so grateful.
Aaron Boujenah
February 9, 2023
Lenny was a defining person in my life, despite us never even meeting. I wanted to go to the US, but I wasn't old enough to become a madrich yet, so I couldn't go to Seattle. He instead organised that I go to a summer camp called Kutz in NY for essentially free. That experience gave me the opportunity to fine-tune my English and drive me towards Judaism and Israel. I felt his impact, as I went to Law school in England and as I later moved to Israel and established a career. His blind trust in me made my life better. That was Lenny Kashner, a man who changed lives for the better and asked nothing in return.
Lenny, you will forever be in my heart and my prayers.
Porada-Kitch Family
February 3, 2023
They say that death leaves a sting no one can heal, and love leaves a memory that no one can steal. If that´s true, then we have an infinity of wonderful memories to hold on to. We wish the entire Kashner family love, peace, reflection as you travel this road. Your dad gave great joy and hope and touched so many lives. He will always be with you. Loved reading the past reflections from his students too.
Belinda Butler-Bell
January 26, 2023
My condolences to the Kashner family.
A child doesn´t care how much you know until they know how much you care. Franklin students - our two sons and their friends - knew how much Mr Kashner cared. He was a great human being and teacher. Our family is blessed to have crossed paths with Mr Kasher. He will always be remembered.
Samuel and Belinda Butler-Bell
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Cam
January 26, 2023
My Condolences to the Kashner family. I was an AP bio Student at Franklin in 2003 and Mr. Kashner made learning fun with his larger than life personality and smile, his ability to quote rap lyrics of the top of his head and his affinity for reaching students that others would've gave up on. The thing I most remember about him was that he held us accountable, which was very much needed in 18 year old seniors heading towards higher education. My twin brother and I are in the picture (right side) of students holding a salmon.
Cam Bell c/o 2003 FHS
Claiborne Bell
January 25, 2023
Mr. Kashner was the kind of teacher they make movies about, an old white teacher making a difference in a school full of brown kids. His super power was that he really cared about his students and wanted the best for them. All schools need more teachers like him.
I am sad he has passed but I am honored to have known him and crossed his path. Thank you to his family for sharing him with all of us. I will forever be telling stories about how he called my mom about me missing class and how he came to my job to tell me to do my home work. He really went above and beyond the call to make a difference.
Thank you Mr. Kashner
Max Kashner
January 11, 2023
When I look back at how I experienced and observed my dad, I come back to the word, `present´ applicable to him across all the ways we define it.
He was always present for me, in the sense that his office hours as my dad were all day, every day. Whether focused on preparing his lesson plans, practicing Hebrew with the tapes his tutor had recorded, or napping - he was ready to focus on me when I showed up, to engage and talk about whatever I had on my mind. He was the most reliable ear, and a sounding board that rarely offered advice, but helped me process my decisions or next steps.
He was present for his students in both relating to them on their level and in creating opportunities for them that could set them up for futures they may not have even been aware were possible. Lenny would learn about where the world was going with technology and science, and come up with ideas that he would turn into big, working programs that could get his students access to those new movements. In his efforts, he was a study in perseverance and advocacy, convincing other busy people to join in his goals and help open the doors he couldn't.
In the early 90's, Lenny recognized the burgeoning biotech industry in Seattle - big companies with a lot of funding, doing new things in life sciences that were starting to change the world. He decided the students at his Southend high school, far away from where the DNA sequencing and billion-dollar deals with pharmaceutical companies were happening, should have access to this new and important industry even if they didn´t have connected parents or live in the neighborhoods where the company leaders did.
He worked doggedly, making connections within the industry, wrote proposals and plans, overcame administrative resistance and red tape, and developed a ceiling-breaking program for his students to get high-school internships at these companies in the center of where things were happening. This led, in some cases, to students finding their future career and setting their goals for education. All the students that participated received invaluable working experience in a professional environment, and access to people and environments that they would not have encountered otherwise.
Lenny was a unique looking man, six-foot four with kinky red hair and extremely casual style. Despite this, or maybe through it, he carried an ineffable confidence founded in simply being present as a human among humans. He was open and interested and would seek out chances to connect and converse with anybody across the spectrum of humanity he encountered, wherever he went.
Once, when we were stuck together in the Northwest Airlines terminal in Minneapolis St. Paul, awaiting a late plane to take us back to Seattle from a trip back East. I was sitting, bored, tired, irritated and as eager to get to Seattle as the other passengers milling around the crowded, unattended gate. I started watching my dad as he wandered around the area, approaching the small groups of passengers with his casual grin and bright eyes. He´d ask them where they were coming from, or where they were headed... then tell them some joke or relate his own status and they would be connected with him. There would be a smile, or a chuckle, and he had somehow improved their mood, even momentarily, before he´d wander off to the next group.
After Lenny's passing, I was talking to Lincoln, my eldest child, about where his Saba was now. We talked about how, although he´s no longer here physically, he´s still present in each of our minds and memories, and in the profound impacts he had on the many, many people he was there for throughout his life - his family, his friends, his students, and his communities.
Raphael Ginsberg
January 11, 2023
I loved spending time at the Kashner's. It was full of family energy. I remember it seeming to me that everyone was in the same room a lot, rather than the kids off on in one room, one parent in another, the other in a third.
I trusted Len. I knew he cared about me. He was always interested in what I was doing and what I thought. And he cared and respected me enough to share his thoughts with me as well, about his students at Franklin or about the importance of heart functionality in bicycle riding, anything. I think he had a lot of respect for kids.
I spent years with Len and Beth driving back and forth on I-5 going to Temple Beth Am from Seward Park. I'm glad that we did that drive in 1980s I-5 traffic. I basically liked religious school, and as a parent of kids in religious school, I see that´s not guaranteed. I think I liked it partly because I drove there with adults whom I trusted and felt safe with.
I've missed him since those days and I will miss him always. Thank you Len for making my childhood better! Love- Raphael
Raphael Ginsberg
January 11, 2023
I loved spending time at the Kashner's. It was full of family energy. I remember it seeming to me that everyone was in the same room a lot, rather than the kids off on in one room, one parent in another, the other in a third.
I trusted Len. I knew he cared about me. He was always interested in what I was doing and what I thought. And he cared and respected me enough to share his thoughts with me as well, about his students at Franklin or about the importance of heart functionality in bicycle riding, anything. I think he had a lot of respect for kids.
I spent years with Len and Beth driving back and forth on I-5 going to Temple Beth Am from Seward Park. I'm glad that we did that drive in 1980s I-5 traffic. I basically liked religious school, and that´s not guaranteed. I think I liked it partly because I drove there with adults whom I trusted and felt safe with.
I've missed him since those days and I will miss him always. Thank you Len for making my childhood better! Love- Raphael
Kati Patnode
January 10, 2023
Mr. Kashner was one of my favorite teachers as he always had a big smile, a great sense of humor, and he made science relatable and fun.
Kati (Diers) Patnode Franklin "99
Tamara Hampton-Hoston
January 10, 2023
Wow! Mr. Kashner was one of my favorite Teachers. He taught my Horticulture class and I became his TA after that because he was so cool. So Sorry to hear of his passing May the love of friends and family carry you through your grief.
Lee Hernandez
January 10, 2023
Mr. Kashner was one of my favorite teachers at Franklin & I will never forget him. Memories I have include how he used to eat soup straight out of the can for lunch & the story he would tell about teaching Sir Mix-A-Lot everything he knows. Leonard is certainly missed as he made a lasting impact on my life. My condolences to his family. May he be soaring w/the angels.
Mike Leavitt
January 10, 2023
I had Mr. Kashner for Biology first period, Fall sophomore year 1990something. I´d just gotten my driver´s license. The last thing I wanted to do was drive to school to sit in science class at 7:45am. But I did - and had a blast - because of Mr. Kashner. Of course the notorious "Hey Hommie" or "Whassup, G?" greetings delivered in a thick New York accent always helped. Honestly, to this day, I can´t really remember much of what we learned in class. I just remember laughing a lot. School was fun. And that´s how I learned to love science. He took us outside. He got us involved. Great teachers who love their job - enough to make their students fall in love with what they´re learning - are hard to come by. I feel lucky to count Mr. Kashner as one of the best I ever had.
Jesse Weil
January 4, 2023
On behalf of myself, as Treasurer of the congregation and of Rabbi Katalin Kelemen, and of all those in Sim Shalom Progressive Congregation in Budapest who knew Lenny, I offer our deepest condolences to his wife and family. We remember Lenny well from the many months he spent in Budapest teaching English at one of the Jewish schools here some 17 or so years ago. He came to our services regularly, and participated in many of our other holidays and events. It was a great joy to have him among us, with his always positive outlook on life and his activist attitude toward improving the world. It was that attitude, plus his wish to help strengthen the growth of Reform Judaism in Hungary which led him to raise money in Seattle to set up scholarships for young Hungarian Jews to come to Seattle to be youth leaders in Jewish summer camps in the Seattle area. He wanted our Reform youth to have that experience, which wasn't available to them here in Hungary. And he wanted the American kids in the camps to have the experience of meeting Jews from Europe, and thereby broaden their view of the world. Not only did Lenny raise money for this project, but he recruited families in Seattle to take in these teenagers to live with them so that their parents could feel confident that this was a safe place to send their beloved children to. And once the kids were there, Lenny organized and led excursions for them so they experienced much more than just Jewish camp life. Many of those young people from here who took advantage of this opportunity have become good members of our Reform community, and some will turn into our next generation of leaders. This program went on for six years, and affected at least a dozen young people.
I'm very happy to be able to flesh out that one sentence in the obituary above. All who knew Lenny here remember him fondly, and are sad to learn that he is no longer with us. But his legacy will go on for decades in the effective lives of the young people he touched, both here and in the U.S.
Jess Weil
Sim Shalom Progressive Congregation
Budapest, Hungary
Laura Purkey McCracken
January 2, 2023
Lenny was a big part of my childhood. I tagged along on so many Kashner family outings to movies, Mariners games at the Kingdome, visits to various parks around Seattle, Friday night services at Temple Beth Am, and of course, the baby animal barn at the King County Fair. He and I even ended up serving on a jury together in the summer of 2004, just before I got married! He was a special guy who loved his family and friends and believed that all students deserved the opportunity to learn and succeed. His impact was profound. My thoughts are with all of you, and I hope the memories of your times together provide comfort during your sadness.
Elizabeth Ogle
January 1, 2023
I did not have Mr. Kashner as a teacher at Franklin however, he knew my passion for photography and gave me a simple assignment to get a printed copy of an old photo of him and his friends on the Columbia University steps. He provided the negative and I happily obliged.
It was a few years later I learned, that photograph hung in the hospital room of his good friend Julie, an actress, who passed away. He had told me she always enjoyed looking at that photograph and it brought her great joy. I still have the email he sent me telling me this story.
It was a lesson he taught me that simple acts of kindness have the ability to bring moments of joy into a person's life even when you learn about it much later.
I continued my education and profession in the photography industry but never forgot that no matter the photography job, big or small, the work I provided was going to be cherished memory for the receiver.
Mr. Kashner, even though you were not my instructor, thank you for being my teacher.
To the Kashner family, my sincere condolences for your loss and gratitude for being able to share.
I am forever a proud Franklin Quaker, c/o 2005.
David Karcsai
January 1, 2023
Boruch Dayan HaEmes!
Todd Beeman
January 1, 2023
Zoe, sorry to read about your dad's passing. His loving energy was always fun to be around.
Becky Brenner
January 1, 2023
Awww. So sorry to hear this. Love to Beth. I first met Len in New York City. We were political activists together at Columbia University and ironically enough we both ended up across the country teaching at Franklin High School. I am sad to hear of his passing and glad that our lives connected twice!!! Sending love to his family.
michael lawson
January 1, 2023
I'm sorry to hear of Len's passing. i worked with him for nearly 24 years at FHS and was always happy when our paths crossed. a wonderful teacher and more importantly, a kind human. The picture above sums him up very well.
Kevin Hanan
December 31, 2022
Rest in Peace Mr. Kashner. You were one of favorite teachers at South Shore Middle School.
Zoë Kashner
December 31, 2022
Lenny was always available and happy to be around his children. With his teacher´s schedule, we had roughly the same hours, and he rarely closed himself away, usually working or reading in the living room or in the dining room. Early childhood memories have me climbing up into his lap, laying my head on his chest, and listening to him talk and talk. He would spend hours on the phone on weekends checking in on our east-coast relatives at twenty-five cents a minute. I remember also, as a young kid, sitting in the car with him as we would drive around on errands. He would be expounding on some subject of interest while he fondled my ear with his right hand. I remember sitting there, feeling close and connected to him, and wondering if I´d ever know as much as him. During middle school, I´d get up early so that we could read The New York Times together with the black early morning sky outside, him with a cup of coffee and me with a mug of hot chocolate. Even in my adulthood we would hold hands walking down the street, while he talked. With grandchildren, especially once they reached toddler age, Saba loved to engage them in activities that mattered to him. Saba took my kids on many adventures on his visits to NYC-Cleo got to go to the Jewish Museum and the Math Museum. It was his idea to send her to Camp Eisner, where she has made her closest friends and feels most herself. And one memory of him with Rafa keeps coming back to me, one from perhaps nine years ago when Saba came to Brooklyn for a Hanukkah visit. Saba was already a pretty slow walker by the time Rafa was 3, so I was a little nervous about letting him take Rafa out alone. Saba wanted to go into Borough Park to go shopping for Hanukkah supplies to bring to preschool for a special presentation of the holiday. Rafa wasn´t much of a talker, so I pinned a note inside his jacket with my contact information in case Saba dropped on the sidewalk in front of Eichler´s Judaica on 13th Avenue. They did make it back hours later with dreidels and gelt for the whole preschool class. Saba had gotten lost on their way back, though, his phone was dead, and Rafa ended up having to pee through a fence by the side of the road. They were both fine and happy, and had a wonderful time presenting the holiday to Rafa´s class together. And while they were out on that special adventure, I´m sure that Saba held Rafa´s hand and was talking to him the entire time.
Anna
December 31, 2022
I think everyone who experienced my father thought of him as a character-a strong personality, a passionate man, someone who liked to learn, and share with anyone that would listen. In some ways he was a very different father to each of his three children, each of us had a unique relationship with him, and distinct stories and memories to share. I was his first born, and I think he was pretty determined to create me in his image. While this certainly caused problems between us, it kind of worked in the end. As a kid, it was fun being his daughter....every weekend the whole family went on adventures to the Pike Place Market, the Ballard Locks and to Mt. Rainier. We took bike rides, road trips, and camped during the summers. One of my favorite memories was when I was about 8 years old and he packed me, Zoe, my best friend Laura and a bunch of his 4H students into his yellow Volkswagen squareback and took us all to the King County fair to work in the baby animal barn. My mom made us official matching T-shirts and the three of us, along with a bunch of urban middle school kids got to spend the day holding baby animals so that the fair goers could pet them.
As you might expect, as I entered my adolescence and attended the middle school where he taught, being Mr. Kashner´s daughter was not as fun. Everyone knew who I was, which as a teen has its pros and cons. When I got in trouble in class my teachers could tell him about what I did 5 minutes later in the staff lounge. I about died from embarrassment when one of the 8th graders dressed up like him for Halloween-what 6th grade girl wants to have a dad that is so unique looking, that he could be a halloween costume? While I mostly suffered through my middle school years, I do think I won the ASB election for treasurer due to name recognition-my slogan being, trust Kash with the Cash. And at a school where fights, and getting beat up was a regular occurrence, I was protected, because no one wanted to mess with Mr. Kashner´s daughter.
My entire adolescence was filled with threats and bribes to get me to do what he wanted and be who he wanted me to be. For those of you that know me now, this might be a surprise, but as a teen I had quite a temper and yelled a lot, mostly at my dad. To his credit, he never raised his voice at me...he just always followed through on his threats. After I slammed my bedroom door one too many times, he took the door off its hinges-a horrible and perfect punishment for a teenage girl. I never did that again! When my friends would spend the night and we would stay up late talking, more than once he followed through on his threat to drive them home if we didn´t go to sleep. And when I threw my clarinet against the wall and broke the mouthpiece in a fit of rage-probably because he wouldn´t let me do anything until I practiced for 30 min, he just calmly told me that I owed him $50 to replace it.
I was easily bribed, and he used this to his advantage to get me to do the things that he loved and wanted for me. I did not want to join the swim team, or play an instrument, or go to summer camp, or go to religious school but if it meant extra time to talk on the phone, or an overnight with a friend, I would do it. One summer he found a 3 week bike trip through WA state and BC for high schoolers that he wanted me to go on. This was a bike trip with one adult and a group of 10 teenagers from around the country where you had to carry all of your gear, do your own meal planning and shopping, plan the route, and camp out or stay in youth hostels. I had no interest in that and refused to go. That was until one day when I really wanted to go to Southcenter mall with my best friend Jenny. His offer was simple...I´ll drive you to the mall if you go on the bike trip. I quickly agreed and that bike trip and the ones that followed became one of the most positive defining experiences of my adolescence. The final bribe came a few years before his stroke. I wanted a ride to Seatac airport on my way to Chile and he said he´d do it ONLY if I went to lunch with a random, very distant Argentinian cousin who was living in Santiago. And of course, I did it.
My dad had a strong sense of what was important to him, and thus should be important to me. He bragged about my bike trips, he was at every single swim meet and band concert, and he loved it when I became a teacher, like him. When I made my own decisions about my life that he didn´t understand or didn´t agree with: like majoring in Women´s Studies, or having a baby in a non traditional way, he wasn´t very nice to me about it, but in the end he accepted me. And I know he was proud when I would overhear him talking on the phone to various relatives and friends, pacing the house, sharing stories of what my siblings and I were up to.
If this eulogy sounds like it´s mostly about me, please know it was always the Lenny show, and I am some of my dad´s best work. I always knew my father loved me. Loving him was a complicated journey for me. I know in his attempt to create me in his image, I got the best parts of him, and those things are what I am passing on to my daughter Lyla...a thirst for learning, a love of nature and adventure, a strong Jewish identity, sticking to a sport no matter your athletic ability, and of course a deep interest in, love for, and commitment to family.
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