For more than 20 years, the Jewish Federation of Cleveland has been a partner in helping to build Jewish life in St. Petersburg, Russia, Cleveland’s sister city. Federation’s Overseas Connections Committee (OCC) recently hosted a Capacity Building delegation with all of the directors and associate directors of every major Jewish organization in St. Petersburg.

Greetings from India! Four Jewish Cleveland young leaders are taking an unforgettable journey to explore Jewish life in India with the National Young Leadership Cabinet Study Mission. They, along with more than 100 fellow young leaders from across North America, are visiting India to understand how Judaism endures as a small minority culture in our diaspora communities.

We need your input! Help identify Cleveland’s emerging Jewish leaders for the 2017 Mandel Symposium, one of the premier leadership development programs of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland.

Yana is a young Jewish professional in her twenties living in St. Petersburg, Cleveland’s sister city in Russia. Passionate about helping her community, Yana wanted to do something about the poverty affecting the Jews in her city, but she could hardly raise any funds.

It is the mark of a special relationship where both parties take the time to show support for each other and learn from one another. Last week, the special relationships between Israel and the United States grew even stronger with the visit of three members of Knesset to Cleveland.

This past week I had the honor of traveling with 70 members of The Jewish Federations of North America's (JFNA) National Young Leadership Cabinet on a mission to Berlin and Israel. Together we learned about the past, present and plans for the future of their local Jewish communities and also saw first-hand where our Federation dollars go.href="http://www.jewishcleveland.org/news/blog/inspiring_stories_kick_off_JFNA_GA/">General Assembly.

I grew up in Tomsk, Siberia (formerly part of the Soviet Union). Unlike Cleveland, Tomsk has a very small Jewish community with just one synagogue. Many of the Jews who live here don’t call themselves Jews. Some are scared to reveal this because it brings back memories of anti-Semitism. For others like my parents, it doesn’t mean much because they were raised under the Soviet Union where religion was outlawed. To them, their Jewish identity is not important.

One of my first memorable Federation experiences was when I went on a young adult mission to Israel 11 years ago. I’d never been to Israel. I was hesitant to leave my children but something in me said “just go, it will be worth it.” And, it was! Israel was simply beautiful. It moved me.