AMBASSADORS OF UNITY FORGE PARTNERSHIP

Sixteen young people from the Beit Shean region and eight from Cleveland had the experience of a lifetime in April, when they participated in Project "Ambassadors of Unity" of Partnership 2000 - Cleveland-Beit Shean Region. Partnership 2000, a project of the Jewish Agency, has been operating in the Beit Shean region for the past six years. It strengthens ties between local residents and the Cleveland Jewish community, fosters regional cooperation between the city of Beit Shean and the settlements of the Beit Shean Regional Council and encourages the region's economic and social growth.

Young people from the city and the kibbutzim and moshavim in the Regional Council were selected to represent Partnership 2000 in an annual youth delegation to Cleveland. During the 8-day visit to Cleveland, Beit Shean's ambassadors stayed at their American counterparts' homes. They learned about the Jewish-American way of life, about the spectrum of Judaism in the US, and about the wide range of services that the Cleveland Jewish community gives its members in education, welfare, assistance to the elderly, etc. Our representatives also met with students and volunteers from the Cleveland community and gave them a summary of the challenges now facing Israeli society in general and the Beit Shean region in particular.

The Israeli ambassadors returned home with their new friends from Cleveland and hosted them in their homes for the Passover seder and the week of the holiday. The Israeli branch of the ambassadors typically contended with issues such as taking responsibility, types of leadership, Jewish and Israeli identity, Jewish-Arab relations, etc. The Clevelanders deeply appreciated the warm hospitality they found in the Beit Shean region and the beauty of the local attractions, such as Mount Gilboa and the archeological excavations.

Members of previous Partnership 2000 youth delegations, the hosting families and Partnership heads Pini Cabalo, Yael Shaltieli and Cleveland's Fran Immerman attended the farewell party. Batya, a teacher and mother from Beit Shean said that, as a daughter in a family of Holocaust survivors, it was touching when her daughter, Mia, said that after the special experience of Project Ambassadors of Unity, she now understands and identifies with the term "Zionism".

Adar 5761 - March 2001