09/26/2025
Jewish Agency for Israel Leader Calls Cleveland ‘Powerhouse of Support’
Article reprinted with permission from Cleveland Jewish News.
by Casey Couch
Yehuda Setton speaks with community members at the Jewish Federation of Cleveland’s Super Sunday Kickoff Event on Sept. 7. Photo / Andrea Hallgren
In his first year as CEO and director general of The Jewish Agency for Israel, Yehuda Setton visited Cleveland to meet with the Jewish Federation of Cleveland leadership, express his gratitude for their support and discuss future partnership initiatives.
“I came to Cleveland because of the extraordinary partnership between The Jewish Agency for Israel and the Jewish Federation of Cleveland,” Setton told the Cleveland Jewish News. “This specific Federation has been a powerhouse of support, not only for Israel, but for the global Jewish community. Together, we have been able to impact millions of Jews around the world through strengthening their identities and mobilizing effective action through emergency services.”
Prior to his role as CEO, Setton served as the COO and chief program officer of The Jewish Agency for Israel for five years, but has been with the organization since 2008. Cleveland has been a central partner to the organization throughout all of his years with the agency, he said.
Setton
“It has been both the hardest and most meaningful and inspiring year of my life,” Setton, who began his term during Rosh Hashanah in 2024, said. “I began my tenure in the midst of an ongoing war, one that may be the most historical crisis of our time in Israel, and we have been able to transform it to a moment of collective action that is changing lives.”
The Jewish Agency for Israel, founded in 1929, serves 65 countries and has had many missions throughout the years, from supporting the establishment of Israel in 1948, to helping Jews in peril find their way to Israel.
According to its mission statement, the organization works to ensure that every Jewish person in the world feels connected to the Jewish community and to Israel. Today, that means supporting Israelis during the war and working to fight back against antisemitism.
“The issue with antisemitism is that on one hand, you need to keep people safe in a physical way, but they should also feel safe and proud about their identity,” Setton said. “So what the Jewish Agency is doing, with the help of the Federation, is being proactive on these issues.”
With the support of Jewish organizations globally, such as the Jewish Federation of Cleveland, The Jewish Agency for Israel has helped more than 22,000 victims of terror during the war, supported 15,000 small businesses in Israel, provided security funds for over 60 countries and brought in 12,000 volunteers to support Israel.
“We are continuing to work on new large-scale initiatives that will have a positive impact on society,” Setton said. “One of them that is already underway is to build 1,000 new houses in the South of Israel and the Negev, to basically send the message that not only do we believe the communities will come back, we believe they will come back bigger and stronger.”
Moving forward, Setton said his goal is to continue to empower Jews and Israelis to feel proud of their identities through the work of the agency. Cleveland, he said, is a proud partner in that work and a city that he said, “I feel safe in.”
“Mainly, I came here to say thank you and to share what we do,” Setton said. “For me, Cleveland is a thought-partner to think about what we should do next together, both in Israel and worldwide. The diversity of the community, their commitment to Israel and to the Jewish people, and the love and support that the Cleveland community has is unbelievable.”
