In schools across Greater Cleveland, teachers and administrators face a rapidly changing reality: students are encountering more antisemitism, ignorance, and bias – often without the tools to understand or respond. For many educators, Jewish and non-Jewish alike, that challenge can feel isolating. To help address it, the Jewish Federation of Cleveland launched two initiatives designed to support educators and foster more inclusive school environments: the Education Leaders Summit and the Jewish Teachers Summit.

Despite a 120–103 loss to the Miami Heat on March 25 at Rocket Arena in downtown Cleveland, more than 100 members of the local Jewish community still found plenty to celebrate during Jewish Community Night.

The Jewish Federation of Cleveland, in partnership with the Kol Israel Foundation, will host its annual Yom Hashoah V’Hagvurah commemoration from 6:30 to 8 p.m. April 13 at Congregation Mishkan Or at 26000 Shaker Blvd. in Beachwood.

After joining 39 other Cleveland civic leaders on the first biennial Thomas and Joann Adler Civic Leaders Israel Mission in 2017, Jill Zimon, co-chair of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland’s civil rights mission and former AJC Cleveland president, came up with the idea to visit the South and learn more about Black Americans’ history.

Last week, the Jewish Federation of Cleveland shared an update with our community in response to the recent antisemitic attack on Temple Israel in Detroit. Today, we are following up with ways you can get involved in Jewish Cleveland through an upcoming briefing on the war with Iran, security trainings, and advocacy opportunities.

Members of the Ohio Jewish Caucus gathered at the Mandel Jewish Community Center in Beachwood on March 12 – hours after the attack on Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Mich. – for a community meeting, in which they encouraged constituents to remain vigilant and communicative about their needs in the state.

Jewish Federation of Cleveland’s community relations committee hosted its 2026 Tu B’Shevat Sustainability Celebration on Feb. 5 at Urban Community School in Cleveland, bringing together community members, environmental leaders and partners to honor the Jewish new year for trees through the lens of sustainability and collaboration.

A few weeks after the bloodiest attack on Jews since the Holocaust, a small group of Northeast Ohio leaders traveled to Israel and met with family members desperate for news about loved ones taken hostage to the Gaza Strip by Hamas. In those waning days of October 2023, Israel was still determining who was among the more than 251 hostages, and who had been killed.

Ilana Isakov Katz, vice chair of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland’s board of trustees, said lighting a menorah during Chanukah, gathered with friends and family, “should never be an act of courage.”

Nazi memorabilia, some already attracting bids, is being offered for sale through a local online auction – a move the Jewish Federation of Cleveland’s board chair Jeffrey J. Wild condemned as “abhorrent.”