Mazel tov to five leaders whose commitment to Jewish life will be recognized at Federation’s 78th Annual Meeting on June 1. Join us as we present the Stanley C. Myers Presidents’ Leadership Award to Matthew L. Adler and Sara Bejar, the Sandra C. Goldstein Young Leadership Award to Arnaud Karsenti and Shoshanna Suzy Wagner, and the Robert Russell Fellowship Award to Amir Gold. Click here to RSVP.

Our Federation hosted a delegation of Israeli Knesset members last week as part of its visit to select communities throughout the U.S. The goal was to increase their understanding of the organized American Jewish community, as well as the depth and breadth of Jewish communal life and the commitment of its members. The delegation met with leadership, students and teens throughout our community in day schools, JCCs, synagogues, the Kosher Food Bank and the Holocaust Memorial Miami Beach. Visitors included Tzachi Hanegbi (Knesset Majority Leader), Meir Cohen (Yesh Atid), Michal Rozin (Meretz), Nachman Shai (Zionist Camp), Revital Swid (Zionist Camp), Josh Shwarcz, Secretary General, The Jewish Agency for Israel, and Rebecca Caspi, JFNA Senior VP for Global Operations, Director General JFNA’s Israel office.

Attention, college students! Apply now to receive up to $5,000 in grants from the Sylvia Tuman Scholarship Program, administered by The Foundation of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation. Students must be enrolled or accepted into an undergraduate or graduate degree program at a college or university in Miami-Dade or Broward counties. Deadline is May 31, so click here for details and to get started.

From bearing witness to the despair of the Holocaust in Poland to joyful celebrations of Independence Day in Israel... That is what 100 Miami high school students are experiencing as part of the Leo Martin March of the Living (MOTL). Created in 1987 by educators and Holocaust survivors in Miami, the program has since expanded to include more than 250,000 youth from all over the world. This year, the students spent Yom HaZikaron (Israel’s Day of Remembrance) in Miami’s partnership city of Yerucham, where they attended a moving ceremony to remember Israel’s fallen soldiers and victims of terror.

This week in history, on May 14, 1948 in Tel Aviv, David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the State of Israel, establishing the first Jewish state in 2,000 years. Nearly 70 years later, Jewish people continue to make aliyah (move) to Israel. In 2016, The Jewish Agency for Israel, a Federation overseas partner, assisted 26,500 people from around the world in immigrating to Israel.