Maria Mandel was the SS commander of the women's camp at Auschwitz- Birkenau.

Recently, my two housemates and I hosted 20 young Jewish professionals from St. Petersburg, Russia in our home for Shabbat dinner, along with a small number of young Clevelanders.

Passover is synonymous with cleaning, shopping, and cooking. With all of the physical preparations, however, it’s easy to arrive spent and exhausted to the Passover Seder, and lose track of what Passover is really about - the retelling of the miraculous emancipation of our ancestors from Egypt, and the celebration of our transformation from slaves to a self-determining nation of free men and women.

As you may know, France has the largest Jewish population in Europe and the third largest Jewish population in the world. The vast majority are Sephardi and came from North Africa and the Mediterranean region. There has been a Jewish presence in France since the beginning of the Middle Ages. In fact, France was the first country in Europe to emancipate the Jews during the French Revolution.

Are you or someone you know Jewish, single, and living in Cleveland? Check out our newest blog, “Cleveland Yenta Center: Single in the CLE,” written by matchmaking guru, Rachel Heiser!

David Horovitz is a renowned journalist, award-winning author, and Founding Editor of The Times of Israel. He joins us as featured speaker at the 111th Annual Meeting of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland to discuss, “Behind the Headlines: What the American Media is Not Telling Us.”