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.

This May, we're celebrating Israel with an outdoor carnival, cleaning up Cleveland's Jewish cemeteries, experiencing camp with hands-on service projects, and more.

The Jewish Federation of Cleveland will celebrate Israel’s 74th Independence Day with Yom Ha’atzmaut May 5 outside at the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage and The Temple-Tifereth Israel, both in Beachwood.

The Jewish Federation of Cleveland’s Yom Hazikaron commemoration will return in person at The Temple-Tifereth Israel in Beachwood May 3 with sirens, memorial prayers, readings, songs, videos and speakers.