Participants on the Cleveland Young Professional Volunteer Mission to Israel spent eight days volunteering across the country, met with Israeli contemporaries to learn more about their lives, and experienced life in Israel post-October 7. Read about some of the participants' experience below:

Since October 7, 2023, the lives of all Israelis were changed. But along the sorrow and grief, the nation's strengths have also been revealed. Residents in Beit Shean, Cleveland's sister city, told their own stories of how they're dealing with everything - and how Jewish Cleveland has been with them every step of the way.

The Jewish Federation of Cleveland will host its annual Yom Ha’atzmaut event – a free community celebration of Israel’s Independence Day – on Tuesday, May 14 from 5:30 - 7:30 pm at B’nai Jeshurun Congregation (27501 Fairmount Blvd in Pepper Pike).

A week prior to the five-month anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023 surprise attack on Israel by Hamas, 20 leaders from the Jewish Federation of Cleveland embarked on a mission to the Jewish state.

On Oct. 6, 2023, Kibbutz Kissufim in Israel was an agricultural community home to 318 residents full of dreams. But located just 0.3 miles from the Gaza border, it was one of the communities attacked when Hamas invaded on Oct. 7, 2023.

The Jewish Federation of Cleveland today announced a new partnership with Kibbutz Kissufim, a community in the Gaza Envelope, that was among the 22 locations targeted by the terrorist group Hamas on October 7, 2023. On that day, Hamas attacked Israel and brutally murdered more than 1,200 innocent people in multiple locations near the Gaza border – injuring thousands more and kidnapping over 250 individuals, including Shlomo Mantzur (age 85), who lived on Kibbutz Kissufim. A kibbutz is an intentional community in Israel that focuses on a communal lifestyle.

For 180 days, a 15-foot-tall and 10-foot-wide ribbon displaying the faces of the 240 hostages will be visible outside the Jewish Federation of Cleveland building at 25701 Science Park Drive in Beachwood.

Adi Stern, professor and president of Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem, traveled to Cleveland to join Kathryn Heidemann, president and CEO of the Cleveland Institute of Art, in a conversation Dec. 6 about the war in Israel and the role of an art school in times of crisis.

With each Chanukah candle that we light, we bring light to all who need it.

About 340 women gathered together Nov. 29 in the auditorium of the Mandel Jewish Community Center for the Jewish Federation of Cleveland’s Women IN Philanthropy MaIN Event.