Partnership 2000 of the Jewish Agency sponsored a program in which 14 Adults from our region, who studied together Leadership & Judaism all year, have just returned from Washington, where their goals were to get to know the Jewish Community, meet their parallel group & represent our area.

Their program continues here for the rest of the year.
"…This was certainly a pure "Taglit" visit for Israelis as we discovered the Jewish world outside of Israel" - member of the Melton/Gandel delegation from Beit Shemesh, March '08 in Washington DC.

The Community Emissary in DC, Gilad Golani writes:
"Last week we hosted a pioneer project, the first one of its kind to enable students in a Florence Melton Adult Mini-School site in the US and a Gandel/Melton Israel class from our partner community to come together and study Jewish text, engage in dialogue and examine in a pluralistic manner a variety of important issues that face both communities.

The delegation from Greater Washington's partner community Beit Shemesh/Mate Yehuda included a group of fourteen people with very diverse backgrounds, from liberal secular Kibutzniks from Tzora to Dati'im from Ramat Beit Shemesh.  They all participate in a weekly education and Leadership program in Israel that parallels Washington's Melton program. 

One of the major insights we gained during this week is that study of Jewish theological concepts as they unfold in the Bible, together with contemporary Israeli texts and leadership concepts, provide a great platform for dialogue between Israelis and Jews in North America.

During the week the group not only had the opportunity to meet and study with their counterparts on the Melton program, but also to explore first-hand the Jewish Community in the Washington area, participate in "Conversation Israel" at our annual Israel Expo and meet the Partnership 2000 Committee.

They also met and toured facilities with leaders of several Jewish agencies on the Rockville "campus" and visited four synagogues representing different ideological streams of Judaism.

A panel discussion with rabbis from each movement led to an open and lively discussion of issues in Israel and the American Jewish community.

The connection between our communities was made apparent when tragedy struck in Israel during our week together.  We were informed about the terrible terrorist attack in Merkaz Harav, where a young cousin of one of the delegation members was wounded.

The group was deeply moved during Kabalat Shabbat services at Kesher Israel in Georgetown when prayers were recited and the names of the dead and wounded in the yeshiva were read.

This program offered our two communities the opportunity to begin a dialogue between Israel and the Diaspora in an open, trans-denominational, intellectually stimulating environment.

We hope to send a reciprocal delegation from Washington next year to continue this valuable connection."  

If you would like to be on the Partnership 2000 mailing list to hear about all our activities, Email: mybeitshemesh@jafi.org