Growing up in Beit Shean, Israel, Cleveland’s sister city, Tomer Blise has always felt a strong connection to the Jewish Cleveland community. Tomer’s journey to Cleveland began in fourth grade when her love of books helped her develop confidence and leadership skills. She helped start a volunteer program with a few classmates at the Beit Shean Library helping the library director organize books and create programs for other teens. Each year the group would grow with more and more students and by the time she was in high school, she was one of the leaders of the group. As a high school sophomore, she was invited by the Jewish Federation to Cleveland as part of a delegation from the library which helped teach the method of involving and activating teens through libraries.

The Jewish Federation of Cleveland’s community relations committee is hoping for record-breaking attendance at this year’s 76th Annual Meeting and Sidney Z. Vincent Memorial Lecture with featured speaker, Yotam Polizer, Global CEO of IsraAID.

Elle Henig, manager of international experiences, explains all the programs you can experience in Israel with the Jewish Federation of Cleveland. Israel programs can vary from 10 days to 10 months, and can include anything from sight-seeing, volunteering, or work experience.

Without the tireless efforts of Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver, spiritual leader of The Temple-Tifereth Israel for 46 years, there might not be the State of Israel. His brilliant oratory at the United Nations as chairman of the American Section of the Jewish Agency and his persistent lobbying of key political figures were crucial to the UN passing a measure in November 1947 to partition Palestine and establish a Jewish state. Read a transcript of his speech now:

Bringing Israel to Cleveland: Our community is lucky to host community ShinShinim and Shlichim (Israeli emissaries). These young adults spend the year living in Cleveland, bringing Israeli life and culture to our community. Get to know our 2022-23 group below:

LAVAA, a digital health company in Israel, has hired three Clevelanders who interned with the startup over the summer through the Cleveland Onward Israel program with the Jewish Federation of Cleveland.

We hope to see you at one of our many November events! This month, we're welcoming the world-renowned Israel Philharmonic to Cleveland, celebrating the generosity of our community at 2023 Campaign for Jewish Needs events, volunteering together to make our community stronger, and more!

As the state of Israel approaches its 75th anniversary as an independent state on May 14, 2023, the Jewish Federation of Cleveland is kicking off a yearlong celebration of events with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.

Almost five weeks ago, I walked into the Addis Ababa airport to greet 209 Ethiopian Jews who were about to make aliyah, ending the wait their families had endured for generations – to fulfill the promise of making their way to Jerusalem “delivered on the wings of eagles.” The strength, courage and focus of these men, women, and children were every bit as steadfast as the wings on the airplane that was about to fly four hours to Israel, where their dreams would finally come true.