One of the main emphases at Partnership 2000 is people-to-people connections. We believe that personal connections are the key to strengthening the connection between Jews in the Diaspora to Jews in Israel and to the Jewish Identity of both. Many connections developed during the last few years, mostly between schools and specific classes. Some programs had children pen-pal each other and some met via videoconferences. Some even hosted their friends from Cleveland when they arrived in the Beit Shean Region.

Cleveland Congregation Bnai Jeshurun's Rabbi Steve Weiss and chair of the Congregation's Israel Action Committee Yael Cohen wished to establish "community connections", and thus a new kind of connection through the Partnership. Recognizing that there are similarities between the Israeli kibbutz and the American Jewish congregation, wide-ranging potential to all the populations within each communal entity were dreamed of in this new kind of connection.

Following a successful visit of families from Congregation Bnai Jeshurun from Cleveland to the Beit Shean Region in August 2004, the idea arose of gathering adults from the Region to meet regularly with members of Bnai Jeshurun via videoconference on Jewish issues that interest both sides. When Tirat Zvi was suggested as the partner, Yael recalled their sausage factory and thus the title for a series of five videoconferenced sessions became "From Herzl to McDonald's". Mark Robinson, who has been an integral part of Partnership 2000 programs in the Region in the past, was brought in to bring the Bnai Jeshurun idea to fruition.

Yael Cohen wrote about the meetings:

"We began talking about this project in the early weeks of March and it is thrilling to have actually started.

From my perspective, this project resulted from concerns about the misunderstandings and misconceptions that the various sectors have about each other, within Israel, and between Israeli and American Jews. Misunderstandings and misconceptions that are essentially dangerous and non-productive.

The Kibbutz HaDati Movement and the Conservative Movement fall squarely at the heart of the issue. As two communities within Judaism who bring with them a strong belief system, commitment to tradition and a life in modernity, who could better bridge the gap of understanding in Jewish religious life?

As a person who has the privilege of weaving between American and Israeli societies, and between the diverse communities within these two groups, a number of issues became evident. While most people are caring, and the majority are well meaning, there is a substantial lack of knowledge, and lack of connectedness that is essential not only in uniting the Jewish communities within and between our two countries, but in presenting a united front to the world at large."

For the 20 participants from both communities, the course, and the listserv set up for ongoing conversations, became "a gateway, an opportunity to set aside fallacies, fears, errors in judgment and mistaken beliefs". It tempered "emotions arising from conflicting ideas and ideologies".

To Yael, "Our ties to each other are and always have been the key to our physical and spiritual survival. They can only come through educating ourselves about each other, taking the mystery out of the equation, and forging relationships through respect and understanding."