May 31, 2002/Sivan 20 5762, Vol. 54, No. 37
Fostering personal connectionsPartnership links Diaspora and Israeli Jews
BARRY COHEN
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 Residents from Barton House in Scottsdale pose with a Hanukkah mural, created by Israeli seniors from Kiryat Malachi and featuring photos and personal greetings. Photo courtesy of Eitan Ben-Ami |
The three Valley residents are fostering personal connections with Israeli citizens.
The Partnership 2000 project is providing the programs to help make these connections a reality.
A program of the Jewish Agency, Partnership 2000 pairs Diaspora cities with communities in Israel. The greater Phoenix area is partnered with Kiryat Malachi and the regional municipality of Hof Ashkelon, a collection of kibbutzim and moshavim near the northern border of Gaza.
The program offers projects geared toward building personal relationships between Israelis and Diaspora Jews, says Eitan Ben-Ami, shaliach (delegate) of the Israel Center of the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix.
"Partnership 2000 is an umbrella for creative ideas to make a connection between (Diaspora and Israeli) seniors, students, young adults, families and professionals.
"We want ... the projects to benefit both sides, so that Israelis can learn about the Jewish community here, and the Jewish community here can learn about the real Israel. Not about the dream, but about the reality," he explains.
One such project is the People to People program that enables Diaspora teens, adults and seniors to connect with their Israeli counterparts and share common interests, he says.
Hannah Adelman links her volunteering at Valley senior homes with the partnership's People to People program.
"I saw a need to go into different homes and conduct Jewish services," says Adelman, a member of Temple Kol Ami of Scotts-dale. Four years ago, she started Al-Tashlicheinu ("don't send us away"), a Valley program that takes her into more than 25 senior homes every month, conducting worship services and holiday programs.
She decided to enhance her work by fostering senior-to-senior connections between the local senior-home residents and Israeli seniors.
"I collected 150 High Holiday cards ... and did not know where to send them," she notes. She contacted Ben-Ami, who handed over the letters to a friend returning to Israel.
"I figured that was the last I would hear about it," notes Adelman.
But then in December, she in turn received a Hanukkah mural made by residents in a retirement home in Kiryat Malachi, Phoenix's Partnership 2000 sister city, filled with photos and personal greetings.
The seniors had presented the mural to Joan Mollen, chairman of both the local federation's Partnership 2000 committee and the Israel Center, while she was visiting Israel for a partnership conference.
To thank them for their effort, Adelman has taken photographs of residents in local senior homes to include in a scrapbook she will present to the Kiryat Malachi seniors.
"I would like to maintain a connection with Kiryat Malachi," adds Adelman.
A starting premise is to have people form a connection, "not just saying, 'well, you're Jewish, so Israel is your home land,' but really relating one person to another," notes Mollen.
She hopes Partnership 2000 will create "a living bridge" to strengthen the link between the Valley's Jewish community and Israel.
Ben-Ami says anyone can bring "creative ideas to the table," like Adelman's letter exchange, to create a personal bond between Israeli and Diaspora Jews.
The five-year-old partnership also encompasses educational and medical programs. One example is the Optical Project.
Valley ophthalmologist Dr. Daniel Feller learned about the project when he was asked by Mollen to donate used eyeglasses to Israelis.
"In Israel, eyeglasses are extremely expensive," he explains. In addition, many Israelis are struggling with glaucoma and diabetes, he notes.
Feller plans to go on a mission to Israel Oct. 17-27 and visit Kiryat Malachi and the Hof Ashkelon region. While there, he will give free eye examinations to seniors and children.
"I will be able to do a fairly complete eye exam and check for glaucoma and diabetes," says Feller.
He will also assess the community's needs, including the number of seniors and the medications and eyeglass and contact lens prescriptions they require.
The Optical Project also intends to set up an eye clinic for visiting Diaspora doctors, furnished with donated equipment from the United States, explains Ben-Ami.
The concept could be expanded to include examining rooms for general practice physicians and dentists, adds Feller.
"I am hoping to find eight or nine Valley doctors who are willing to donate one week a year of their time" to Kiryat Malachi and Hof Ashkelon, he explains.
Valley lawyer David Goldstein has a personal connection to Israel, in part because his 20-year-old son, Noah, studies at Or Sameyach Yeshiva in Jerusalem.
"There is nothing like learning in Israel," explains Goldstein, who only recently became active with local Partnership 2000 efforts. A federation board member, he was asked to serve on a committee, and he chose Partnership 2000.
"I encourage people to go to Israel and take part in the programs and activities there," he says.
On a visit last October, during the Sukkot holiday, he rented an apartment in Jerusalem's Old City. There were parties everywhere, he says, with celebrants dancing, and playing guitars and drums.
"If you are careful and vigilant, Jerusalem is a wonderful place to be," says Goldstein. He has visited four times, and his wife Carol three times.
Revital Lavy, regional director of Partnership 2000, visited the Valley the first weekend in May to meet with representatives from day schools and synagogues and community lay leaders.
"It's my job to determine the needs of Hof Ashkelon and Kiryat Malachi and to set up projects in the United States to meet these needs," she says.
One such program is a Social Workers' Exchange in which Israeli and Diaspora professionals visit one another's communities to etablish a working relationship. The project is designed to help at-risk families suffering from substance abuse, unemployment and stress, Lavy says.
A social workers' group from the United Jewish Communities Western Region - including Phoenix, Tucson, Oakland, Calif., Seattle, Las Vegas and other cities - had planned to visit Israel in May, but the trip was cancelled for security reasons, says Ben-Ami.
Another program featured by Lavy during her visit to the Valley was Building a Jewish World, a partnership educational program for Israeli and Diaspora sixth graders. In the program, participants research one another's identities and exchange their findings via the Internet. Students at the Pardes Jewish Day School, the Phoenix Hebrew Academy and The King David School are slated to take part.
Another project, a pen pal program unveiled at the Yom Ha'Atzmaut event, April 17, has attracted nearly 400 participants, Ben-Ami says.
For information on Partnership 2000, call 602-274-1800, ext. 130 or e-mail eben-ami@jewishphoenix.org.
Contact the writer at barry _cohen@jewishaz.com.