AMBASSADORS OF UNITY: A BEIT SHEAN REGION PERSPECTIVE
by Omri Funaro

I first heard about the A.F.U (Ambassadors For Unity) program whe the teachers put up a pamplet with information about the project, so my best friend and I decided to go and see what it was all about, so we went through the process of refining a 16 person delegation from all the various candidate.

In the aftermath my friend, sadly, did not come through the screening process, and I found myself with 15 other diverse individuals. Now diversity, D-I-V-E-R-S-I-T-Y, thats THE word to define our delegation, wev'e got orthodox jews, traditional jews, secular people and one declared athiest ( your humble servant here ).

These are City people, religious kibbutz people, secular kibbutz people and one lovely moshavnik. So as you probably understand, we all learned a lot about Israeli society as well from this project, and our delegation was truly a good representation of the Bet-Shean area's population.

When we first arrived to Cleveland, the immediate impression was: snow ! For some of our delegation members this was the first snow they've ever seen and touched. The 22 F temprature was soon put in contrast when a tired & "Jet-lagged" delegation arrived at a very warm welcome at the JECC. There Nachama Moskowitz gave us a brief overview of Ohio and Cleveland and our itinerary, and a light lunch as well. That same evening we met with our hosts and we were brought to our new homes (read: BEDS).

After a good night's sleep we were ready to face the U.S. of A.

During our visit we got to meet some of the local youth representing different age groups and sectors of clevelands youth, both jews and non-jews. We went to visit the schools and found out how much real life differs from the "T.V. Image" we get in Israel. The religious pluralism of the jewish community itself was a very new approach to us, which gave us lots of food for thought, the way you k (Jewish day-schools, courses, your amazing JCC) was a pleasure to behold. We had many different assumptions and expectations from the US, since our country is greatly influenced by american fashions and culture, as you probably know.

We had discussions with Jewish students from elemntary schools through college and disscused living as a jew in Israel and abroad, the diffrences, pros and cons of being a minority, and different religious (and non-religious) approaches to being a jew ( is judaism a religion? nationality? none? both?).

The delegation, and our orthodox members especially, learned many new things about reform and conservative congregations and their way of doing things, things we really hadn't heard about at home. We visited schools like Solomon-Shechter, Agnon and the Hebrew Academy which all represent different ways of keeping in touch with your traditions and heritage.

But we didn't just met with our contemporaries, we went on a tour in the Myers Apartments and had nice relaxed conversations wish senior citizens reflecting on life in the U.S. and growing up as a jew during the last century through the main events that shaped our modern history.

Through all these activities we still had the time to spend time with our american hosts and ther families and go and party with them. Some of us went to visit the Rock'n'Roll hall of fame, some us us to the IX center, and we tried to hook together on every chance and just hang out together. After nine days in the states we concluded a fascinating american expirience and got ready to part from cleveland and from our new families, and head back home for the second part of the program. we met with the americans who arrived in Israel an hour before us in the Ben-Gurion airport, We got up on a bus for a two hour ride back home to the Beit-Shan valley, a bunch of weary and jet-lagged, yet cheerful youths.

That very evening, the clevelanders settled in with their hosts and the israelis met their families again.

Good connections that were eshtablished in the states between the two delegations really deepened in Israel, Since we had lots of time with eachother as the whole itinerary was a joint one, I think every one made new friends that are more than just acquaintances, but a connection that, if nurtured, may last a lifetime. I personaly had captivating discussions wabout belief and religion as well as tons of laughs and fond memories I will carrie with me for the rest of my life, yes, It has definatly been a special experience.

A great work has been done by the people of partnership 2000 and the jewish federation, and special thanks go out too Nachama Moskowitz and Sally Klein-Katz for the itinerarys for Cleveland and Israel, respectively, and to Koby Tav, Gdalia Keren and Zvia Shelly who followed this mission and made this program the amazing experience it was.

And to all the other people involved in this project, and of course the families who agreed to host complete strangers in their houses for a whole week, THANK YOU!!

Iyar 5761 - April 2001