Prior to his U.N. General Assembly address, Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid met with about 35 leaders from the Jewish Federations of North America and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations Sept. 21, including current and former Clevelanders.

In February 2022, just minutes before men aged 16-60 were banned from evacuating Ukraine, the Jasnogor family crossed into Poland from Lviv. With the help of Jewish Federations and our partners on the ground, the Jasnogors were the last family to make aliyah all together.

The Jewish Federation of Cleveland will kick off the community’s “Israel at 75” celebration series with a performance by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO) on November 12, 2022 at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Concert Hall - Severance Music Center. The IPO has performed in Cleveland only twice before – most recently in 2015.

The Jewish Federation of Cleveland’s 2023 Campaign for Jewish Needs raised a record-breaking $3,710,064 from 1,019 gifts during its Aug. 28 Super Sunday Kickoff.

J. David Heller, immediate past board chair of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland, was chosen to chair the next phase of the Jewish Federations of North America’s emergency campaign for Ukraine aid.

The Cleveland Jewish community welcomed six Teenshinim from the Israeli community of Beit Shean/Valley of Springs in early July – the first delegation from Israel to Cleveland in more than two years. The Teenshinim is a program for high school juniors interested in applying for a year of service in North America or Israel.

Our community heard a briefing on the Ethiopian Jewish community in Israel from Jeffrey J. Wild, Federation vice chair, and Erika B. Rudin-Luria, Federation president.

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.

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.

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.