ED WITTENBERG CJN Staff Reporter Rita, a native of Iran who is one of Israel’s most famous female singers, is trying to create a bond between Iranians and Israelis through her music.

On the last Friday before Spring Break, the 8th grade class of Mandel JDS (along with their parents, and the entire school) stood proudly in front of the Israeli flag, singing Hatikvah, Israel’s national anthem. This tradition, commemorating the eighth grade’s upcoming voyage to Israel, has been around for nearly as long as the annual pilgrimage itself.

When former board chairman Michael Siegal of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland asked Erica Starrfield to lead the organization’s marketing and communications committee in 2011, she initially needed some time to think about it.

Ariella Payne of Lakewood found jHUB’s Seder in a Box so helpful last year, she requested More Seder in a Box for Passover this year.

The Cleveland Museum of Art had an additional 13 docents this weekend. On April 17, the eighth grade class of Mandel JDS was tasked with presenting the work of a master painter to an audience filled with parents, siblings, and community members.

After a two-month celebration, Gross Schechter students concluded the Sveta Grinberg Read for Life program. This special program, kindly sponsored by Ida and Mikhail Grinberg in memory of their daughter, Sveta, took our students around the world through literature, tikkun olam (community service) and community programs. During this program, our students read 1,287 books and donated 128 books to the Head Start program.

At Gross Schechter Day School, the Eighth Grade Israel Trip is the culmination of the Schechter experience. After years of study that have helped Schechter students develop a deep love for Israel, provided them with the language skills to speak Hebrew with ease and have deeply rooted them in the history and cultural landscape of the Jewish homeland, Schechter students will bring their studies to life with this extraordinary three-week trip. On this trip, they will connect with other students in Cleveland’s sister city, Beit Shean, they will visit the sites that have been sources of study for years and truly immerse themselves in Israeli culture.

Are you ready for your close up? Come back to school and experience a day in the life of a preschool student at Gross Schechter Day School!

CLEVELAND – An estimated 1,100 Holocaust survivors call Cleveland home. Join our community as we honor these survivors and remember those who perished in the Holocaust at the Jewish Federation of Cleveland and the Kol Israel Foundation’s Yom Hashoah V’Hagvurah on Wednesday, May 4 at 7:00 at Green Road Synagogue, 2437 S. Green Road in Beachwood. This annual event is free and open to the community.