For college students who grew up going to Jewish overnight camp, becoming a counselor seems like a natural progression to their camp experience. But with college expenses and other career opportunities, some find it difficult to justify spending their summer at camp.

We were there from the start. One year ago tomorrow the war in Ukraine began. Immediately, the Jewish Federation, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) and the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI) and their partners mobilized to deliver lifesaving aid and care for tens of thousands of Jews and their neighbors in and outside of Ukraine.

Synagogues throughout Greater Cleveland are participating in Shabbat for Ukraine Feb. 24 by lighting a third candle to mark one year since the Ukraine crisis began.

Growing up in Beit Shean, Israel, Cleveland’s sister city, Tomer Blise has always felt a strong connection to the Jewish Cleveland community. Tomer’s journey to Cleveland began in fourth grade when her love of books helped her develop confidence and leadership skills. She helped start a volunteer program with a few classmates at the Beit Shean Library helping the library director organize books and create programs for other teens. Each year the group would grow with more and more students and by the time she was in high school, she was one of the leaders of the group. As a high school sophomore, she was invited by the Jewish Federation to Cleveland as part of a delegation from the library which helped teach the method of involving and activating teens through libraries.

The Jewish Federation of Cleveland’s community relations committee is hoping for record-breaking attendance at this year’s 76th Annual Meeting and Sidney Z. Vincent Memorial Lecture with featured speaker, Yotam Polizer, Global CEO of IsraAID.

This week, we had one of the most important discussions that our Federation can have – one that is sadly still needed to have. This week, we met with middle schoolers at Gross Schechter Day School to discuss all that we are doing to help keep them safe.

As we approach the one-year anniversary of the Ukraine war, your Jewish Federation of Cleveland joins our partners at the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) to mark a “Shabbat for Ukrainian Jews” on Friday, February 24.

Elle Henig, manager of international experiences, explains all the programs you can experience in Israel with the Jewish Federation of Cleveland. Israel programs can vary from 10 days to 10 months, and can include anything from sight-seeing, volunteering, or work experience.

The Horvitz YouthAbility Program of Jewish Family Service Association (JFSA), a Federation beneficiary agency, places interns at various businesses and organizations in our community. This internship program is made possible by an endowment gift by the Bobby Fund of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland.