Jennifer McLeod and her husband, Jim, of Mercer Island, are the proud parents of the first Jewish baby born in Washington state in 2012. Joeli Beth McLeod was born on New Year’s Day at 9:30 a.m. She was due Jan. 15, but her mother’s doctors determined that little Joeli needed to come early. Everything went fine.

Joeli was just under 20 inches long and weighed 7 pounds, 9 ounces at birth. She joins big brother Eli, 11, at home. Eli, said his mother, is a devoted brother who knows best how to soothe his baby sister.

Joeli counts many Washington state Jewish pioneers on her family tree, including Esther Muscatel, her great-grandmother and matriarch of a large extended family, and a great aunt, Fortuna Calvo, who was the first Shephardic Jew born in Seattle.

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