As many were enjoying time off with their families over Memorial Day weekend, dozens of leaders from Jewish federations across North America, including Jewish Federation of Cleveland President Erika Rudin-Luria and vice chair Jeffrey Wild, embarked on a mission to Ethiopia to join a group of 180 Ethiopian Jews making aliyah.

180 Jewish Ethiopians made aliyah to Israel with help from Jewish Federations of North America and the Jewish Federation of Cleveland.

The Jewish Federation of Cleveland held another community briefing with its overseas partners, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and The Jewish Agency for Israel, June 8 as the war in Ukraine passes the 100-day mark.

Northeast Ohioans are beginning to see the street art creations of Tel Aviv-based urban artist Dede Bandaid at various locations around the Cleveland area, with the aim to help heal the local arts community after years of hardship amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

I am writing this on a plane from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to Israel. Jewish Cleveland community leader, Jeffrey Wild, and I traveled to Ethiopia with the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI). The trip was designed to teach us more about the Ethiopian Jewish community’s history and current reality; and allow us to accompany 180 Ethiopians as they made Aliyah as part of Operation Tzur Yisrael Chapter Two to be reunified with family in Israel.

Jewish Cleveland celebrated Israel’s 74th independence day May 5 with a Yom Ha'atzmaut festival full of music and activities outside The Temple-Tifereth Israel and Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage, both in Beachwood.

Our community honored those who lost their lives protecting Israel and civilian victims of terror with a moving Yom Hazikaron ceremony.

Get all the important information you need about Yom Ha'atzmaut, happening on May 5, 2022.

Over 200 people attended the in-person commemoration of Yom Hazikaron, Israel’s Memorial Day for fallen soldiers and victims of terror, May 3 at The Temple-Tifereth Israel in Beachwood, while an additional 100 logged onto the livestream. This is the first time in three years the event has been held in person due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

When I was asked to write this blog post about Yom Hazikaron and my reflections about it as an Israeli, I was very hesitant. How can I put in words a custom you grow up with since childhood? Will I be able to do justice to the many layers and rituals of Yom Hazikaron? I will try to explain it and paint a picture from my own eyes growing up in Israel.