We hope you have been staying warm and dry this week! We wanted to share a few items of news in addition to our upcoming events. 

Yesterday we celebrated Tu B’Shvat, the “new year for trees”. Although it seems strange to us with all of our snow, Tu B’Shvat represents the start of Spring in Israel. We celebrate by planting seeds of hope and renewal. To learn more about Tu B’Shvat, click here.

In response to the memorandum released last Friday by the Trump administration directing Federal Agency executives to review all federal funding allocated to NGOs, Jewish Federations of North American (JFNA) put together an issue brief   outlining its key points and implications. We continue to work with HIAS on the continuation of our refugee work. We’re grateful to those who have donated to our refugee programs to help combat the cuts that have been made; we’ll be highlighting more news and those donors in our monthly update later this month (see below to sign up).

Follow our social media over the weekend for updates on additional hostage releases and updates on the Israel-Hamas ceasefire. Despite lack on mainstream coverage and reports to the contrary from Hamas, there is growing concern about the treatment of the hostages during their captivity. JFNA has more details.

Times of Israel has coverage of President Trump’s plan for rebuild in Gaza, including other Arab countries’ attempts to come up with an alternate plan and response by a number of American rabbis and Jewish celebrities who disapprove of the administration's plan.

The JCA Weekly newsletter is sent out every Friday afternoon, featuring upcoming events and important updates from our leadership. Additionally, we now offer five other newsletters you can subscribe to! Simply click this link and answer a few quick questions to customize your preferences.