In the News

Each year, as we get closer to the High Holy Days, our choir and musicians rehearse at a nearby church while our synagogue is being prepared for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Our music director has a key to the church entrance, and when we arrive for rehearsal, he unlocks the door, turns on the lights, and we get to work. There’s nothing particularly memorable about this routine, which is probably why I have started paying so much attention to it.

Jerusalem Education Institute founder Charlotte Korchak encourages Jews to “wear your Judaism on your sleeve,” to bring it up in conversations as a means of combating antisemitism rampant not only on college campuses, but seeping into elementary classrooms of public schools. “We have to help people understand who we are, our story,” Korchak, who founded the nonprofit less than two years ago to transform how Israel education is taught to the next generation, told a crowd of about 200 people on Aug....

Jennifer Mendelson, who previously held leadership roles at The Temple-Tifereth Israel and Congregation Mishkan Or, will lead the congregation as our next Executive Director   Congregation Mishkan Or, a Beachwood-based Reform Jewish synagogue whose name means “dwelling place of light,” is pleased to announce the appointment of its new Executive Director. Mendelson will serve as the second Executive Director in the synagogue’s history.   Mendelson brings a wealth of over 20 years...

When Jonathon Nisenboum grew up attending the Joseph and Florence Mandel Jewish Day School, his identity and connection to the Cleveland Jewish community existed within the walls of a classroom. It wasn’t until the Highland Heights resident became a father to two young children – a four-year-old daughter and almost two-year-old son – that he started to understand the full scope of programming that Jewish Cleveland offered for young families. Once he did, he described it as “incredible.”

Congregation Mishkan Or congregant Steve Miller of Shaker Heights told the Cleveland Jewish News only two words could accurately sum up the June 28 opening concert of the 2026 American Conference of Cantors and Guild of Temple Musicians Convention in Cleveland: “beyond extraordinary.”

On the eve of America’s 250th birthday, “We the people” prepare to flood America’s suburban neighborhoods, from the mountains to the prairies, with firecrackers, star-spangled swimsuits and the smell of a good, old-fashioned American barbeque. A nation’s semiquincentennial anniversary, after all, must not pass by without a fireworks display.

Following the retirement of Rabbi Robert Nosanchuk at Congregation Mishkan Or in Beachwood, Rabbi Joshua Caruso will assume the role of senior rabbi on July 1 – a role that he called the “single greatest honor of my 28-year career.”

By uniting across different faith traditions to oppose hate, intolerance and violence, our local religious communities in the Cleveland-based Interfaith Group Against Hate hope to serve others with a powerful reminder of our shared humanity and collective responsibility to stand against all forms of bigotry.

Recently, I was invited to participate in a facilitated conversation for Jewish professionals who would be teaching about Israel in different contexts. Before the discussion could even begin, the moderator opened by acknowledging that Israel is a “difficult topic.” In order to have a healthy conversation, he explained, we would need to establish ground rules. We were going to have a conversation about the conversation. I stopped him right there.

There are words I am about to write that I have never written in an article before. I am asking you not to look away. A landmark report was just released by The Civil Commission on October 7 Crimes Against Women and Children, an independent Israeli nonprofit led by Cochav Elkayam-Levy, a 2024 Israel Prize laureate and expert in international law. The report is called Silenced No More: Sexual Terror Unveiled.