Cincinnati Jews Showed Out at the Great American Ballpark
The Jewish Community showed out at the Great American Ballpark for the Reds vs. Kansas City Royals Tuesday, June 2 filling over 550 seats across the stadium. The weather was in the 70s and spirits were high. This event marked the X annual Jewish Community Night at the Reds which was organized by staff of the Mayerson JCC.
Braiding Together Cincinnati’s Jewish & Queer Communities
Walking into the JCC’s Amberley Room for the annual Rainbow Challah Bake, I was quickly and warmly welcomed by everyone there. Some were people I knew, like the event’s organizer, Wyn Garfinkle, and many were not. But whether it was my 100th time meeting someone, or my first, I knew one thing: I was exactly where I was meant to be. The queer and Jewish communities are both spaces that pride themselves on being welcoming of others, no matter their background, and I felt that in the JCC during the event.
Summerfair Continues Amid a Changing Coney Island Landscape
Summerfair looked different this year, but its creative spirit remained intact.
Long associated with the Old Coney grounds, the fine arts and crafts show returned in a more compact form as major changes continue across the property. The former Coney Island site is being transformed into the Farmer Music Center, a $160 million live-entertainment campus operated by a subsidiary of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. With construction reshaping familiar surroundings, this year’s Summerfair occupied a reduced footprint. Even so, the event still drew a good turnout, helped by great weather, shaded walkways, food vedors, and the kind of easily navigated booth arrangement visitors have come to expect.
A Cincinnati Jew in London
Hi American Israelites… It’s been a while. Let me re-introduce myself, if you’ve forgotten: my name is Eliana Garfunkel, I graduated from Sycamore High School in 2021 and since then I’ve been outside the states for my further education. First, I was in Milan then London studying fashion design and now I’m finishing a completely new degree from Royal Holloway University of London in Creative Writing and American Literature (I get why it’s funny). I lived in Surrey, where the university actually is, for the first two years of my degree, but I started to be more religious so I moved to Golders Green to be in the community.
Jewish Federation of Cincinnati Marks 130 Years With $16.1 Million in Giving
The Jewish Federation of Cincinnati held its 130th Annual Meeting on May 20, gathering roughly 300 community members for an evening that blended institutional history and fundraising results.
Board Chair Sherri Symson opened the program with a video narrated by Danielle Minson tracing the organization’s origins to three civic leaders who founded it in Cincinnati’sWest End in 1896. “Wow, 130 years in just five minutes,” Symson remarked after the video concluded. The evening’s framing leaned heavily on continuity: the Federation, Symson noted, had outlasted every individual who built it, which is the measure of any enduring institution.