Delegates on bus #4 visiting the Residential Home Beit Uri , Givat Hamore, Afula

In November about 4,000 Jews from mainly North America came to Israel for the General Assembly and celebrated a rededication to Partnership 2000.

The Partnership 2000 International Conference was held on Sunday November 16, 2003 the day of the official opening night ceremony for the GA. An intensive day of meetings, lectures, discussions and workshops was followed by leaders of the Jewish Agency and of Partnership 2000 joining together in the signing of the Mission and Vision statement in a commitment to ensure "one united and thriving Jewish people with a strong vibrant Jewish and democratic Israel at its center... Partnership 2000 is entering its second decade of unprecedented success as the flagship platform for partnership and relationships between Israelis and world Jewish communities". To read more about this new vision statement and about the GA go to www.partner.org.il/news/news-0311-vision.html .

P2K day gave P2K volunteers and professionals from both sides of the Ocean an opportunity to meet and discuss relevant issues for all of the Partnership programs. The GA setting allowed for different Partnership Programs to learn from one another what works, where there are similar problems, and how other partnerships have addressed the problems.

Delegations entering the Israel Convention Center on the evening of November 16, 2003 to attend the opening ceremony of the GA passed through the P2K hall which was filled with uniquely designed booths representing the 40 partnership 2000 programs throughout Israel. Afula-Gilboa/SNEC was represented by a beautiful and interesting display which included the Adisia Ethiopian traditional embroidery project in Afula and the Coexistence project in Gilboa.

In conjunction with the GA in Jerusalem the week of November 16, 2003, more than 200 people from SNEC Jewish Communities visited in Afula-Gilboa in several missions: The World House Interfaith Mission led by Jerry Fischer, Executive Director of the Jewish Federation of Eastern Connecticut; the mission from Stamford and Greenwich Federations which visited before the GA on Nov 12 & 13, 2003; and the large SNEC mission which visited Afula-Gilboa on Nov 19, 20, 2003. The SNEC mission included enough participants to have four buses traveling various routes in Afula-Gilboa so that our visitors from SNEC could get to know the Afula-Gilboa area for the first time or to learn more about P2k programs for those that were on return visits.

Members of the Board of Trustees for the Harold Grinspoon Foundation were also among the visitors hosted in Afula-Gilboa in conjunction with the GA.

This was a great time for our Partnership. It was the largest group of visitors from SNEC that we have hosted at one time. All of us in Afula-Gilboa, volunteers, staff, and local officials felt a swell of appreciation, pride and familial warmth for the opportunity to connect and share.

The SNEC contigent divided into four groups, each visiting different agencies in the Afula-Gilboa area.

One of the more popular sites for SNEC visitors as well as other delegations from across the United States is a visit to the viewpoint on Moshav Ram On on the Seam Line. From this point visitors receive a comprehensive explaination of the security problems and of the fence within the Gilboa region. To read in more detail about the SNEC delegation visit go to: articles by Tracy Sullivan in The Jewish Ledger at: http://www.jewishledger.com . (click on archives, then advanced search and then either Tracy Sullivan, author, dates Nov. 25 & Dec. 5, 2003.

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