09/12/2024
Federation’s Campaign for Jewish Needs underway
Father and son duo, Gabe Brown-Ross, 12, and Rabbi Michael Ross, both of Beachwood, contact potential donors at the Jewish Federation of Cleveland’s 2025 Campaign for Jewish Needs third annual Super Sunday Kickoff on Sept. 8 at the Federation’s Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Building in Beachwood. CJN Photo / Abigail Preiszig
ABIGAIL PREISZIG | CJN
Article reprinted with permission from Cleveland Jewish News
More than 1,200 people joined the Jewish Federation of Cleveland in raising $2,610,712 for its annual Campaign for Jewish Needs on Sept. 8 during its Super Sunday Kickoff event.
Last year, the Federation’s campaign launch raised $2,001,805 from 1,048 gifts. This year, the amount was raised from 1,110 gifts.
“It’s really powerful to have this many different people here from all different parts of the Cleveland Jewish community coming together for one cause,” Ryan Levine, event co-chair, told the Cleveland Jewish News outside of the Federation’s Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Building in Beachwood.
The Super Sunday Kickoff event allowed the community to come together, witness their donations at work and hear from beneficiary organizations, Levine, a first-time co-chair alongside his wife, Arica Jacobson, and returning co-chairs, Gabrielle and Yissachar Jerusalem, said.
The Campaign for Jewish Needs, which concludes on Dec. 11, is the Cleveland Jewish community’s annual fundraising campaign that provides money to keep the local Jewish community safe, strong and welcoming, as well as address the needs of the Jewish community around the world, the CJN previously reported.
Throughout the day, volunteers contacted potential donors through calls, texts, email and social media for support. There were also several match opportunities available through the Mandel Match, the Brunswick Challenge and the KeyBank Match, the latter of which was specific to Super Sunday.
“There’s a tremendous sense of community on Super Sunday and it gets us in gear for the whole campaign year,” Jane Lefko, a Beachwood resident who has volunteered to campaign for the Campaign for Jewish Needs with her husband, Jordan Lefko, for “many decades,” told the CJN. “It’s giving for a very important purpose.”
The six-hour event included kosher food, performances from Jewish Family Service Association of Cleveland’s Horvitz YouthAbility program and the Hebrew Academy boys’ choir as well as testimonies from returned volunteers, Izzy Massre and Alex Szaruga, from the Federation’s Cleveland Young Professional Volunteer Mission to Israel in July 2024.
Children’s activities, outdoor games and family friendly activities included Nora the Explorer and her traveling animal show, Bubble Wanda, a bounce house, balloon animals and face painting throughout the afternoon.
Attendees also had a chance to connect with beneficiary organizations including the Maltz Museum, Bellefaire JCB, the Mandel Jewish Community Center of Cleveland, the Jewish Big Brother Big Sister Association, PJ Library, Cleveland Hillel, the National Council of Jewish Women/CLE and jHUB.
“It’s been very rewarding,” Levine, a Beachwood resident, said. “You see how much goes into this – how much effort by the staff, by the community – just to make this all possible and to be here today, to see all these people and see how much it means and hear the stories, it really makes it all come to life.”
He said his hope for the campaign is like in previous years: to raise more money, to get more donors and to have more people engaged.
“If we can do that, it’s been a great campaign,” Levine said.
The Cleveland Jewish News was a media sponsor of the event.
To donate to the 2025 Campaign for Jewish Needs, visit shorturl.at/V4Ls5.
