Four teachers from SNEC communities, two from Providence and two from Western Connecticut together with Anne Shulman, SNEC coordinator of the Teachers' Exchange and Larry Katz from the Providence Bureau of Jewish Education spent four full days in Afula-Gilboa with the teachers from Afula-Gilboa who had participated in the project seminar which was held in the summer in Providence RI.

All of the teachers felt that the time spent here was very worthwhile. Experiencing and learning on an intimate basis with their hosts and fellow teachers and the opportunity to get to know Afula and Gilboa was an inspiring experience.

There were tears and hugs at the parting dinner hosted by one of the teachers parents who live in Afula. We hope that the energy and connections will continue to bloom and bring about a fruitful development of this program.

Michal Olshak, English Teacher, at Ner Habilboa school in Gan Ner, Gilboa Regional Council wrote about her experience with the Teachers' Exchange Program:

A week of intensive work as well as some most enjoyable social meetings has just finished. It is an opportunity to reflect on a wonderful program in which teachers from Afula Gilboa work parallel to teachers from RI and Connecticut. The program in the frame of "Partnership 2000" involves building and strengthening the connection between pupils and teachers from the communities of Afula Gilboa and RI/Connecticut by creating a mutual curriculum. The project of creating this curriculum was started last July (2003) while the Israeli teachers were visiting RI. Ever since, we have maintained a warm and strong connection which is significant both on the personal level as well as through our pupils. We, the Israeli teachers went through an exciting experience, getting to know the differences and difficulties deriving from being Jews in the U.S.A. We were exposed to the complexity of trying to keep your tradition in a country…This exposure made us realize the importance of the bond between us, the Israeli teachers and our American colleagues.

Understanding our mutual need for a stronger bonding led us in the first stage of creating the mutual curriculum. As soon as we got back to Israel we shared our experiences with our pupils and communities and started teaching according to the curriculum. The pupils were and are enthusiastic as we are to maintain the connection and have already created some personal connections. The parallel teaching of the same subjects, stories and songs contributes a lot to this connection. This December we had the privilege of exposing the American teachers to our lives, schools and pupils. In a most exciting visit we met again, to continue the next stage of the curriculum. This time the American teachers had a chance to visit our schools, teach in our classes and meet our pupils. This experience was a dream come true! The American teachers could actually tell our pupils about their personal friends who are students in their classrooms, and talk and teach in our classes since we all learned the same things. This visit added a stronger significance and meaning to the connection. Now, when the excitement is gone, we are going back to teaching our interesting mutual topics and to keeping the warm and tight bond.

For both side's sake and needs, we want this bond to last forever!

Anne Shulman wrote:

The reunion of the teachers from Rhode Island and Connecticut with their counterparts from the Ramot and Gan Ner schools captured the essence of the Educators Exchange Program and the "Living Bridge" connection. The bonding and sharing, on both the personal and professional levels ensure the long-term success of the relationships. The Americans learned much about the Afula/Gilboa through tours and workshops, but undoubtedly, the highlight of the experience was the visits to the classrooms, meeting, teaching, and just having fun with the students. Gifts, pictures, letters, and hugs were exchanged. We all wished that our time together could have been longer.

  Tevet 5764 - January 2004