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.

It is our responsibility to learn from history lest it will repeat itself. This is a lesson that we take very seriously, and that we act on.

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.

For Klementyna Pozniak, this year’s Wolf-JDC International Fellow selected by the Jewish Federation of Cleveland in Beachwood, becoming a fellow in Krakow, Poland, has been a goal of hers for the past seven years.

It is the act of telling and retelling the exodus that allows us and each generation to see ourselves as an undeniable part of our community’s evolving story.

Over 100 people tuned in to hear from representatives from The Jewish Agency for Israel and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee during the Jewish Federation of Cleveland’s April 12 briefing on Ukraine.

The Jewish Federation of Cleveland will host its annual Yom Ha’atzmaut celebration – a festival celebrating Israel’s Independence Day – on Thursday, May 5 at 6 pm outside at the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage and The Temple-Tifereth Israel (2929 Richmond Road in Beachwood). It is free and open to the community.

Our community was given an update on the situation in Ukraine where so many have lost their freedom.

Thirty-two esteemed Cleveland civic leaders recently participated in the Adler Civic Leaders Israel Mission. This biennial mission, launched by Thomas and Joann Adler, was established through an endowment at the Jewish Federation of Cleveland. The purpose is to expose leadership from across Cleveland to Israel’s complexities, and its innovative approaches to economic and community development, education and support of at-risk and disadvantaged populations. The mission also creates opportunities for partnership with fellow travelers and Israeli counterparts.

Following a trip to the Poland-Ukraine border to see the relief efforts, Jewish Federation of Cleveland President Erika B. Rudin-Luria and board chair J. David Heller joined other Cleveland Federation leaders in the United Arab Emirites and Israel for a preplanned mission.