08/06/2025
Federation Allocates Additional $1.3M for 2025-26
LYDIA KACALA | CJN
Article reprinted with permission from Cleveland Jewish News
The Jewish Federation of Cleveland’s 2025–2026 allocation budget includes an additional $1.3 million in allocations compared to its 2024 budget of $33,145,329.
Accounting for about $1.4 million in shrinkage and $3.6 million in campaign and collection expenses, a total of $32,983,493 in campaign funds were raised. With $1,041,000 from United Way and $629,336 from prior year collections, $34,653,829 in funds were left to allocate.
Elisabeth Sherman, Federation Allocations Committee chair, told the Cleveland Jewish News the increased amount is a testament to the unity of Cleveland’s Jewish community and its desire to continue its growth through programs available to all community members.
“The increased amount available really speaks to the compassion and commitment of Jewish Clevelanders and allows us to really meet the needs in a better way for more and more of the community,” she said.
Sherman
She said the goal of the distribution of funds is to support all areas of community needs.
“Like anything else, we want to support all the needs of the community, specifically looking at the day schools, older adults, health and human services and all the other agencies really meeting all the needs of the community with security being one of the top priorities given the rise of antisemitism,” Sherman, a resident of Pepper Pike and congregant of Park Synagogue, also in Pepper Pike, said.
In working to “keep the community as safe as possible” following the rise in antisemitism, the Federation increased its security allocation by $250,000, she said. In total, $1,750,000 was allocated to community security this year, compared to its $1,500,000 allocation last year.
“This will continue to allow JFC security, LLC, which is the Federation security (provider), hopefully to keep the Cleveland Jewish community safe, strong and growing and thriving,” Sherman said.
Another priority for the Federation is its support of older adults in Cleveland’s Jewish community.
This year, an extra $510,000 was allocated to older adult services, which were originally allocated to Menorah Park, now King David Health Care Center in Beachwood, to address any gaps identified by the Federation’s Older Adult Task Force, she said. Along with $333,262 being allocated to local agencies in one-time allocations, the funding is going towards Jewish Family Service Association of Cleveland in Pepper Pike, the Mandel Jewish Community Center of Cleveland in Beachwood, and Federation programs. King David is not an agency of Federation as the facility is no longer a not-for-profit.
“Older adults have always been supported by Federation,” she said. “Millions of dollars currently go to different agencies that support older adults, as it has for many, many years, obviously (with) the amount changing,” she said.
In total, $9,860,543 was allocated to local human service needs, which includes the funds allocated to older adult programming. In addition to older adult programming, funds were also allocated to Bellefaire Jewish Children’s Bureau in Shaker Heights, Cleveland Hillel Foundation, Hebrew Shelter Home, a program of JFSA, among other organizations and programs.
The Federation’s overseas program also increased its allocation from 2024. With an additional $522,082, the overseas program will continue supporting “critical projects” in countries across the ocean and Israel-focused projects in Cleveland, she said. In total, $13,416,674 was allocated to the Jewish Federations of North America, American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee Hunger Relief, Jewish Agency for Israel and Cleveland Overseas Projects.
National agencies received a total of $900,356, with organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League in New York City, Hadassah, which is also headquartered in New York City, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society in Silver Spring, Md., Hillel at Miami Univeristy, Hillel at Ohio University and Hillel International in Washington, D.C., and other organizations receiving funding.
A total of $8,676,256 was allocated to education needs in the community, with funds going to @akiva for teens’ Jewish Education Center of Cleveland, Fuchs Mizrachi School in Beachwood, Gross Schechter Day School in Pepper Pike, Hebrew Academy of Cleveland in Cleveland Heights, Joseph and Florence Mandel Jewish Day School in Beachwood, Yeshiva Derech Hatorah, also in Cleveland Heights, and other programs.
Sherman said the allocations process is something that people tend to hear about only in June of each year, but it takes an entire year to go through the process.
“The allocations process, while you only hear about us in June of each year, really is a whole year of deliberate, thoughtful meetings to figure out what’s going on in the agencies, what the needs are, how best to meet the needs working with all the agencies and the wonderful lay leaders that we have that really give of their time and talent to this process,” she said.
Throughout the year, liaisons meet with subdivisions of health and human services, education, overseas and national agencies to continue conversations about what is needed to further support the community, she said.
“Those are ongoing conversations to really partner with the organizations and the agencies to figure out what they need, what’s going on, how we can help and understand how best to meet the needs of the community,” she said. “And then, we come together in both smaller groups and larger groups to try to figure that out.”
Sherman said the Federation’s campaign each year shows how “unbelievably fabulous” the generosity of the Cleveland community is, especially when it comes to supporting community services. She called Cleveland “one of the most caring, if not the most caring and passionate Jewish community in, definitely, the United States.”
“Our community’s generosity in the annual campaign really ensures that the programs and services of our community that we need right now are delivered without interruption for the ongoing (year, and) help us prepare for the future and create critical scale that’s necessary to drive meaningful societal change and provide relief in times of crisis,” she said.
The Federation’s Super Sunday Kickoff for its annual Campaign for Jewish Needs will begin at 10 a.m. Sept. 7 at 25701 Science Park Drive in Beachwood. The next Federation allocation will be announced in June 2026.
