12/06/2024
Federation’s Campaign for Jewish Needs to Announce Total Dec. 11
ABIGAIL PREISZIG | CJN
Article reprinted with permission from Cleveland Jewish News
Jaffa
The Jewish Federation of Cleveland will close its 2025 Campaign for Jewish Needs with a celebration at 7 p.m. Dec. 11 at the Joseph and Florence Mandel Jewish Day School at 26500 Shaker Blvd. in Beachwood.
The annual event will highlight the community’s accomplishments during this year’s annual fundraising effort on behalf of Jewish Cleveland and the global community, Amir Jaffa, general campaign chair, told the Cleveland Jewish News on Dec. 3. Attendees will be among the first to hear the results of this year’s campaign.
“It’s really for us to come together as a community – so many of the folks that do the campaigning will be there, really to celebrate and obviously to announce the numbers that the campaign was able to raise,” Jaffa, a Beachwood resident, said.
The event will also recognize Ryan Levine with the 2024 Amb. Milton A. and Roslyn Z. Wolf Young Campaigner of the Year Award. The annual award recognizes leadership, dedication and hard work by a young leader on behalf of the Campaign for Jewish Needs.
Levine
In 2022, Levine, a Beachwood resident and congregant of B’nai Jeshurun Congregation in Pepper Pike, served as the Young Leadership Division board chair and has continued to contribute to the Federation as a lay leader and through his ability to get others involved, Jaffa said.
“Ryan proved himself to be a really great campaigner, someone with terrific leadership skills,” he said. “… He just didn’t do it himself and then move on, he was garnering so many different folks to help, with great enthusiasm and dedication.”
The Federation strives to set campaign fundraising records year after year, Jaffa, a congregant of Congregation Zichron Chaim in Cleveland Heights, said.
The 2025 Campaign for Jewish Needs raised more than $2 million during its kickoff on Sept. 8. Last year’s campaign raised $36,355,013 from 11,881 donors representing 9,045 gifts, according to previous CJN reporting and a news release.
“Every dollar helps those in need. The more raised, the more help we could be providing,” Jaffa said. “Our community’s dedication and commitment to the annual campaign enables essential programs and services throughout our community and across the globe to continue addressing so many of their needs, hopefully without interruption, and this year, the needs are incredibly great.”
Those needs “which will be great for the foreseeable future” include Federation allocations toward security and Israel, Jaffa said. This is the second campaign to take place during the war in the Middle East and amid a global rise in antisemitism following the Oct. 7, 2023, surprise attack on Israel by Hamas.
The 2024 campaign supported the Federation’s overseas partnership with Kibbutz Kissufim in Israel as well as local needs like older adult services and education through organizations including Jewish Family Service Association, the Mandel Jewish Community Center of Cleveland and the Maltz Museum, the CJN previously reported.
“Cleveland is an incredibly caring and generous community, and we are so appreciative of the community support,” Jaffa said. “It’s special what Cleveland does as a community … our size and yet the dollars that we’ve raised are pretty substantial and just says a lot about the Cleveland community.”
To contribute to the campaign or register for the Campaign Closing Celebration, visit jewishcleveland.org.
