The Cleveland Israel Arts Connection (CIAC) celebrates experiences that deepen our Jewish identity and share the beauty of Israel with everyone in our community through dance, film, music, literature, theater and the visual arts.

There are two things in my life that define me – my Jewishness and baseball. I was born and raised in Jewish Cleveland and the values of Judaism were instilled in me from a very young age – from synagogue, Sunday School, Jewish Day Camps, BBYO, and activities at the Mandel JCC. Jewish Cleveland is everything to me – as is playing baseball. I’ve put so much into being able to play my entire life, including in college.

Israel's Channel 2 News meets the Beit Shean Masa Israel Teaching Fellows! MITF is on a 10-month post-college volunteer program where exemplary college grads teach English to Israeli students.

Rachel Kraus of Solon has been named the 2017-2018 Roslyn Z. Wolf Cleveland-JDC International Fellow. Established in 2003 by the Jewish Federation of Cleveland, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) and the JDC Entwine Global Jewish Service Corps, the Roslyn Z. Wolf Cleveland-JDC International Fellowship is part of a cohort of 23 young JDC Entwine Global Jewish Service Corps Fellows deployed around the world.

Two years ago, the Jewish Federation of Cleveland began a partnership with the local St. Clair-Superior neighborhood to share successful community development models through entrepreneurship, demographic growth, youth engagement, and more from Cleveland’s sister city - Beit Shean, Israel and the Valley of Springs, the region surrounding Beit Shean.

Cleveland plays a big part in a new exhibit at the Jewish Federation of Cleveland’s Roe Green Gallery.

Although Ben Miller, 13, has studied Israel while attending the Joseph and Florence Mandel Jewish Day School in Beachwood, and anticipated visiting, he likely didn’t imagine his first trip would include his family playing a basketball game with about 10 soldiers from the Israel Defense Forces.

The path of discovering Judaism for Alex Sweeney of Mentor began as a child. “I really didn’t have a Jewish identity; we celebrated some holidays, but it wasn’t anything consistent. My grandfather always talked about being Jewish. I remember learning about the Holocaust, but not thinking that really happened to my people.”

My name is Kendra Kaplan and this summer I've been working at CityKids as part of my Onward Israel internship.

My name is Emily Friedman and I am interning at the startup Daystage.