09/01/2026
Jewish Federation of Cleveland Super Sunday raises $1,806,901 for 2027 Campaign for Jewish Needs
Thank you to everyone who attended Super Sunday Kickoff. We have winning tickets to our raffle that still need to be claimed. If you have the winning ticket to any of the prizes below, please email a photo of your ticket to Leah at lmarkowicz@jewishcleveland.org.
- JoJo's Bar - Jon N.
- JCC Membership - Mitchell F.
- Shaker Rocks - Zohar B.
- Titleist (provided by KeyBank) - Elai
- White Cloud - Adina H.
- Playhouse Square - Eliana B.
- Dance Cleveland - Pam G.
- Luster Mahjong Mats - Emily E.
- Great Lakes Theatre - Emily E.
- Apollo's Fire - Ruth H.
Article reprinted with permission from Cleveland Jewish News
by Martha Sorohan
Aug. 30 was a super Sunday for the Jewish Federation of Cleveland’s Super Sunday, which kicked off the 2027 Campaign for Jewish Needs.
Six hours of telephone solicitations by hundreds of volunteers netted a Super Sunday record $1,806,901 million – topping the $1,700,298 million raised on Super Sunday 2025.
As 4-year-old Quinn Nisenboum watches, Allison Brandon and her father, Jonathon Nisenboum, Super Sunday co-chairs, announce that the event raised $1.8 million for the 2027 Campaign for Jewish Needs. CJN Photo / Martha Sorohan
Despite gray skies and intermittent light showers, Super Sunday registration numbers showed over 1,000 people had come through the gates starting at 10 a.m.
More than telephone calls were happening under the tents that filling the parking lot of the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Building in Beachwood. Face-painting, coloring, basketball hoops, Mr. Jeff the Magician, a bounce house and an East Coast Custard truck were on-site.
Cleveland balloon artist Rainbow Rae of Flower Entertainment said she can create about 100 balloon creations each hour, but had not counted how many she had twisted into shapes for three hours on Sunday afternoon.
“A lot,” she said, nodding to a line of children and parents that stretched to the other end of the tent.
Some teens attending Super Sunday were there to volunteer. Half-a-dozen 14-year-old volunteers from Beatrice Stone Yavne High School in Beachwood and Chaviva High School in Pepper Pike were getting their first foray into fundraising by calling donors. They said that most callers were receptive to donating.
At 4 p.m. it was time for the long-awaited announcement of how much was raised. Super Sunday co-chairs Allison Brandon of University Heights and Jono Nisenboum of Highland Heights stepped to the microphone and announced the grand total from 1,298 pledges and donations amounted to $1,806,901.
“We’re blown away,” they announced. “It’s an amazing start. We’re thrilled.”
This year was Alix and Jono Nisenboums’ first as co-chairs, while it was the second for Allison Brandon, whose mother, Beth Wain Brandon of Pepper Pike, was a former co-chair.
Beth Wain Brandon told the Cleveland Jewish News she followed her late father, Norman Wain, who chaired two campaigns and also was a past chair of the Cleveland Jewish Publication Company Board of Directors.
Beth Wain Brandon said she came up with the idea of a Super Sunday campaign kickoff.
In prior years, she told the CJN, the kickoff event came in the middle of the campaign, which she determined was too late.
“We could make it a community event and raise money early to set a better pace,” she said.
But for 2008, during the country’s economic downturn, Beth Wain Brandon said the annual Campaign for Jewish Needs donations have increased each year. The 2025 campaign raised $38,087,175 and the 2026 campaign raised $39,035,018.
“It’s really not hard to raise money for something you believe in,” Brandon said. “People feel the presence of JFC Security in a time of antisemitism. There’s not one Jewish Clevelander who is not touched by one of our agencies – schools, JCC, Jewish Family Service Association, Bellefaire, Israel. Wherever there are Jews, the Federation is helping.”
Lynn Cohen of Pepper Pike, the 2027 Campaign for Jewish Needs chair and a congregant of Congregation B’nai Jeshurun in Pepper Pike, told the CJN that she is extremely pleased with the Super Sunday donations.
“Great community support,” she said. “Lots of donations and lots of new gifts. And it’s great to see people of all ages having a great time.
“We do a lot of face-to-face solicitations for individual donors and have a smaller scale phone bank. We have many opportunities for people to participate in calling.”
Cohen said the day’s damp weather may have been a blessing in disguise.
When it rains, she said, people tend to stay home, which she believes worked on the campaign’s behalf.
“We had more success because of it,” she said. “We were able to reach more people than usual.”
The 2027 Campaign for Jewish Needs will conclude on Dec. 8.
