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With a foot in the tech world and another in Jewish culture, the JCC in Palo Alto has transformed itself into a hub for local Israeli expatriates. Located on a sprawling 8.5-acre campus, the place known formally as the Oshman Family Jewish Community Center has done what many mainstream American Jewish institutions are still attempting: attracting American Israelis, numbering in the hundreds of thousands, to programs at a legacy organization.

When we were developing JCC Association’s Statement of Principles in 2012, we knew that if we were to help JCCs and their members lead engaged Jewish lives, then Israel needed to be at the heart of what they do. We didn’t want them to just pay lip service, incorporating Israel into a weeklong focus at some point, but rather to weave its essence throughout their programs, events and activities. But how do you put Israel into the very air of a JCC when so many staff to which that task would fall have never set foot in the land? To that end, JCC Association’s Israel Center, working with Taglit-Birthright and Amazing Israel, our tour provider, put together a trip for young Jewish communal professionals, so that they could experience Israel firsthand and bring it back to their JCCs.

Hundreds are expected to attend this week's opening in Novosibirsk of the Beit Menachem Center. An open-air concert by Israeli musicians will be featured at the opening ceremony of what is being called the largest Jewish community center in Siberia, Russia.

Diego Ornique writes about a new popular new form of Jewish activity in Europe, situated beyond the confines of Jewish buildings, in public or alternative venues such as parks, museums and coffeehouses, the JCC without Walls phenomenon.