I am writing this on a plane from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to Israel. Jewish Cleveland community leader, Jeffrey Wild, and I traveled to Ethiopia with the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI). The trip was designed to teach us more about the Ethiopian Jewish community’s history and current reality; and allow us to accompany 180 Ethiopians as they made Aliyah as part of Operation Tzur Yisrael Chapter Two to be reunified with family in Israel.

This month, we're welcoming summer with our 118th annual meeting, a do-good volunteer opportunity for all ages, an important community briefing on Ukraine, and more.

When I was asked to write this blog post about Yom Hazikaron and my reflections about it as an Israeli, I was very hesitant. How can I put in words a custom you grow up with since childhood? Will I be able to do justice to the many layers and rituals of Yom Hazikaron? I will try to explain it and paint a picture from my own eyes growing up in Israel.

This May, we're celebrating Israel with an outdoor carnival, cleaning up Cleveland's Jewish cemeteries, experiencing camp with hands-on service projects, and more.

It is our responsibility to learn from history lest it will repeat itself. This is a lesson that we take very seriously, and that we act on.

The Jewish Federation of Cleveland’s Yom Hazikaron commemoration will return in person at The Temple-Tifereth Israel in Beachwood May 3 with sirens, memorial prayers, readings, songs, videos and speakers.

For Klementyna Pozniak, this year’s Wolf-JDC International Fellow selected by the Jewish Federation of Cleveland in Beachwood, becoming a fellow in Krakow, Poland, has been a goal of hers for the past seven years.

It is the act of telling and retelling the exodus that allows us and each generation to see ourselves as an undeniable part of our community’s evolving story.

Over 100 people tuned in to hear from representatives from The Jewish Agency for Israel and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee during the Jewish Federation of Cleveland’s April 12 briefing on Ukraine.

The Jewish Federation of Cleveland will host its annual Yom Ha’atzmaut celebration – a festival celebrating Israel’s Independence Day – on Thursday, May 5 at 6 pm outside at the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage and The Temple-Tifereth Israel (2929 Richmond Road in Beachwood). It is free and open to the community.