June 5, 2003 - Beit She'an delegation learns community building, programming.

Members of the Beit She'an Community Builders Delegation know their city differs from Cleveland in both a demographic and historical sense. However, their visit here earlier this month revealed a more significant connection between the two.

For example, delegation member Zahava Levi likens Cleveland's somewhat successful attempts to restore its ("mistake on the lake") image to Beit She'an's own.

"In a way, our cities are soulmates," says the attractive, bespectacled Levi. "We were down, like your city, but now we're improving our image."

Through its Cleveland/Beit She'an Partnership, the Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland hosted 25 community leaders from the Beit She'an region of Israel. They came to learn about community empowerment, the role of community-based organizations, and the development of programs that can improve community life.

Located in northeastern Israel near the Jordanian border, Beit She'an has been Federation's Partnership 2000 city for the past seven years.

The Beit She'an delegation is comprised of educators, civic, business and professional leaders between the ages of 30 and 55. All of them live in the city or in the surrounding kibbutzim and moshavim, and all are volunteers within their community. Their weeklong seminar in Cleveland is part of a yearlong volunteer leadership development program. As part of this program, the Community Builders develop projects for needs they identify in the region. The delegation's work is partially funded through the Federation Campaign for Jewish Needs.

The five delegates this reporter met with were a little weary from a week of activity, but they were also excited to return home and implement what they learned. "We look forward to being lay leaders within our community," says Moshe Gilad, a loquacious father of three who lives on Kibbutz Sde-Nachum in Beit She'an.

The week included meetings with leaders of both the general and Jewish communities. The delegation sat down with, among others, Federation past president Albert Ratner, Steven Minter of the Cleveland Foundation, and his wife, Dolly, and Fran Immerman, chair of Cleveland's Partnership 2000 Steering Committee. They also visited five Jewish day schools and took a tour of several of Cleveland's Jewish neighborhoods.

The visit to the schools, including Fuchs Mizrachi and Gross Schechter Day School, exposed participants to the challenges of full-time Jewish education in the Diaspora. The immersion of students in all things Israeli came as a surprise to the group, admits delegate Levi.

Intensive Hebrew classes and Israeli song and dance made her feel like she was at home. "The students displayed such passion for the Jewish state," she says. "We can learn from them how to be more patriotic."

Immerman and Beit She'an Valley Community Foundation co-chair Arthur J. Naperstak helped the group understand non-profit organizations and the role of lay leadership in building a civil society. Levi was particularly impressed, she says, with Dolly Minter, who has been involved in the formation of small, community-based foundations.

The theme of the week, Levi adds, was that significant change comes not from government, but from the people. Meeting Clevelanders who took it upon themselves to better the city made an impression on the delegation. "Change must come from the heart-that is the most important thing we learned," she says.

Forging connections is one way to create change, Gilad maintains. As Beit She'an has successfully connected with Cleveland, he stresses the importance of connecting his city to the surrounding kibbutzim, "to look at Beit She'an as one whole community." Group members often use the term "Beit She'an Valley" to encompass both the region and the city.

There is not much of a connection today, Gilad admits, but the delegation has numerous projects in the offing to create dialogue between both areas:

On Nov. 28 of last year, two terrorists killed six Israelis and injured 43 at the Likud polling station in Beit She'an. In response, Community Builders created Ezrat Nashim, a support group for women who have suffered loss during the intifada.

The MESHIK Project, a community dental clinic that provides treatment to the needy while offering an educational program about the importance of dental care. One of its objectives is to have three functioning dental clinics in the city and region by September.

The idea of cooperation also fuels the proposed Children's Dialogue Project, where volunteers throughout Beit She'an will be recruited to talk with schoolchildren about the security situation. Another goal of the delegation is to improve the "low image" Beit She'an has among some of its younger citizens, says group leader Koka Ronen. "Many people who leave for the army don't come back."

By connecting with young Beit She'an residents before they go to the army, Community Builders believe they will return home when their tour of duty is over. One proposed project will establish a regional dialogue group for 12th-graders to prepare them for "Year 13," a pre-army year of community service.

The "Year 13 Project," says father of three Yanki Weiss, will allow teens to meet other young people from the region who are also choosing to give of themselves to their community and country.

Ronen hopes these programs empower the community, allowing it to become more self-sufficient. "We must deal with our own problems," she says.

Weiss plans to bring what he learned in Cleveland even closer to home. "We have to start the process of change within our families so as to bring even more people into the circle."

Reprinted with permission from The Cleveland Jewish News .

Sivan 5763 - June 2003