Participants on the Cleveland Young Professional Volunteer Mission to Israel spent eight days volunteering across the country, met with Israeli contemporaries to learn more about their lives, and experienced life in Israel post-October 7. Read about some of the participants' experience below:

After the devastation that occurred on October 7, Cleveland immediately stepped up to help the communities impacted by the attacks. Cleveland has since established a partnership with Kibbutz Kissufim, a community in the Gaza envelope that suffered a great deal of damage on October 7. In April, several volunteers from Cleveland traveled to Israel and spent two days helping rebuild Kibbutz Kissufim. Cleveland and Israeli volunteers from our sister community of Beit Shean/Valley of Springs were able to exchange stories, laugh together, and build hope while gardening and cleaning the Kissufim community.

To allow more people to engage in Jewish life and learn more about the current state of Israel, the Jewish Federation of Cleveland took business and civic leaders in Cleveland of various religious faiths to Israel from April 13 through April 16.

We hope to see you at our July events. This month, we are hosting fun and free events for Jewish Cleveland-area college students, two gallery open houses of our current art exhibit from photographer Michal Chelbin, and a community-wide security training on situational awareness.

Last summer, the Jewish Federation of Cleveland’s Cleveland Israel Arts Connection started planning a Roe Green Gallery show of Israeli photographer Michal Chelbin’s works.

Rabbi David Wolpe, Max Webb Rabbi Emeritus of Sinai Temple, recently spoke to our Cleveland community at Federation’s 120th Annual Meeting. During our one-on-one interview with him, he answered questions about being a proud Jew during these difficult times and gave advice about standing up to hate, while providing a message of hope and optimism.

The Jewish Federation of Cleveland today issued the following statement with regard to the withdrawal of Cuyahoga County Council Resolution 2024-0208:

Eight months ago, Shlomo Mantzur was believed to be taken from his home in Kibbutz Kissufim into Gaza during the Hamas surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. His family, including his daughter, Batya Mantzur – who traveled to Cleveland from June 4 to June 6 – still holds out hope of seeing him again.

We hope to see you at our June events. This month, community members can attend a security training from JFC Security, LLC, hear from acclaimed Israeli theatre professionals, and celebrate summer with our Young Leadership Division!

With increasing criticism of Israel in public discourse and on college campuses, Rabbi David Wolpe’s goal in speaking to Jewish communities is to encourage and reinforce support for Israel and urge people to work together.