Visiting Israeli cook Bat Zion Yona picked up a piece of Josie Peric's savory, Croatian-style strudel and gave it a taste.

Etty Valinaamat usually opens her home to cook for others. In addition to being a high school baking teacher, she runs a bakery in her hometown of Beit Shean, Israel, where guests are invited to “eat and pray.”

A stone staircase, in disrepair for years, once again provides a second access to the Hebrew Cultural Garden. The tall fountain at the center of the gardens between Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and East Boulevard in Cleveland, dry for years, is working. The plaques at the ends of the spokes of the gardens have been buffed and largely updated.

Donna Yanowitz had never been to the Hebrew Cultural Garden at Rockefeller Park in Cleveland before she was asked to chair the Jewish Federation of Cleveland’s newly formed HCG committee in 2006.

Relentless flooding has devastated southern Louisiana, now a federal disaster area.

Ten college students learned about the importance of having a strong Jewish identity and expressing their passion for Israel at a program July 11 at the Jewish Federation of Cleveland’s Mandel Building in Beachwood.

Over the last decade, supporters of the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement have focused their campaign in the U.S. primarily on college campuses. But the BDS movement appears to be slowing down, according to Jacob Baime, executive director of the Israel on Campus Coalition, causing activists to adapt and shift their strategies.

Meet Cathy. A business-owner, dedicated volunteer, and proud Jewish Clevelander. She is a busy person, who always finds time to help others. When she started working as a literacy tutor when her own children were learning to read, she found a passion. And now, Cathy volunteers with the Jewish Federation of Cleveland’s Public Education Initiative (PEI).

Cheryl Davis volunteers her time bringing together Cleveland’s Jewish and general communities. As Chair of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland’s Community Relations Committee (CRC), she and the committee members work to implement the CRC’s mission – to protect, preserve, and promote a just, democratic, and pluralistic American society, advocate for a strong and secure Israel, and safeguard the rights of Jews in Cleveland and around the globe.