Friday Five – June 5, 2026
At JewishColumbus we have a bold and audacious goal to become the BEST Jewish community in North America. Friday Five is a way to share how your support makes a great impact possible. Every other week, we are proud to share that impact, community partnership, accomplishments, and our most incredible moments of pride. Thank you for coming along.
JewishColumbus has officially launched a Security Operations Center (SOC), a 24/7 staffed command center that serves as the central hub for security operations across our community. Alarms, threat reports, and calls from law enforcement are routed through one coordinated system with trained professionals ready to respond immediately. This structure allows us to act quickly, consistently, and proactively in support of community safety.
Through this work, JewishColumbus is helping set a standard for what best-in-class community security can look like. We have built a professional security infrastructure designed to support the full range of Jewish life across Central Ohio. We are also connected to regional and national networks, which means we are not just responding to threats; we are staying ahead of them.
We are deeply grateful to our synagogues, agencies, and community members for their continued partnership and collaboration. Our goal is simple: we want everyone to live full, vibrant Jewish lives, and we will ensure you can do so feeling safe and supported.
SEE SOMETHING. SAY SOMETHING.
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What happens when three congregations start creating together? Magic. Make Midrash, a JewishColumbus Innovation Grant partnership between Agudas Achim, Temple Israel, and Tifereth Israel brings Jewish teens in grades 8-12 together to explore their heritage through art, storytelling, and hands-on creativity. From painting and parsha to stop-motion animation and making sufganiyot, these teens aren’t just learning about Jewish texts and values, they’re living them, expressing them, and making them their own.
Make Midrash is proof of what is possible when our community chooses collaboration over competition. Teens who might never have crossed paths are building friendships, strengthening their Jewish identities, and seeing themselves as part of something bigger than any one congregation. This is the Columbus Jewish community we are building together.
In Central Ohio, the Jewish community has never had to stand alone. Across our region, civic leaders, community partners, and neighbors have demonstrated the power of allyship by standing with the Jewish community.
In that spirit, JewishColumbus, on behalf of the Greater Columbus Jewish community, extends sincere appreciation to the Cities of Bexley, Gahanna, and New Albany for issuing proclamations recognizing Jewish American Heritage Month honoring the history, culture, and contributions of Jewish Americans locally and across the nation.
These proclamations are more than symbolic gestures. They reaffirm a commitment to inclusion and help ensure that Jewish voices and experiences are seen, valued, and celebrated.
The work of the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) of JewishColumbus remains essential in cultivating these relationships that strengthen our entire community.
For one Columbus camper, last summer became far more than a few weeks away from home — it became a turning point. Thanks to a needs-based scholarship from JewishColumbus, her parents were able to give Emily* the gift of Camp GUCI, where a once-quiet girl discovered her voice, her confidence, and her people. The transformation that followed was one no classroom or ordinary summer could replicate. She found deep friendship and a sense of belonging in a Jewish community that felt entirely her own. She came home singing Hebrew songs, asking to celebrate Shabbat more often, and already counting the days until next summer.
Emily’s story is the story of hundreds of Columbus children who spend their summers at Jewish camp gaining far more than memories. They gain identity. They gain roots. They gain the foundation upon which a full, meaningful Jewish life is built. Jewish summer camp is one of the most powerful investments we can make in the next generation—in who they become, what they carry forward, and how they will one day shape our community.
*The camper’s name has been changed to ensure anonymity.
Something remarkable is happening in Columbus. More families than ever are seeking out Jewish experiences, forging meaningful connections, and raising their children with a deep sense of who they are and where they belong. That doesn’t happen by accident; it happens because this community shows up, together, with intention and generosity. This is your community. You built this. And right now, we are on the edge of something historic.
By June 30, we have the opportunity to reach a $15M Annual Campaign — not as a number on a page, but as a declaration that the Columbus Jewish Community is alive, growing, and unstoppable. Every gift, at every level, is a vote for the community you want to live in, the one you want your children and grandchildren to inherit. We don’t get there without you. No single organization, no single donor, no single act of generosity does it alone—only together do we become the BEST Jewish community in North America. If you haven’t made your gift yet, now is the moment. Your belonging here matters. Your investment here matters.
Click to see Jewish Joy in action across Columbus.
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