1. Shana Tova and Millenium Sameach

Now that the November Megamission, Steering Committee meeting, GA and visit to the Central NJ and Delaware communities, and Chanukah holidays are behind us, it’s time to prepare for a new year of P2K activities. I expect that 2000 will be a good year for the partnership, providing we all get past the Y2K bug in one piece.

There is a lot of news to catch up on; the following items are not in any particular sequence:

2. Megamission Visit to the Region

All who were there will agree that the visit of the Megamission to the region in November was a huge success. I would like to thank Monica, Shmuel, all the professional staff and volunteers from Arad/Tamar, as well as the UJC staff in Israel, for all the hard work they put into making that success. May we continue to move from strength to strength, with another success for the March megamission.

3. Visit to GA and Communities

I had the pleasure of accompanying Alex Vered, Ofir Cohen, Vivian Griss from Arad, and Yehudit Tamir from Kibbutz Ein Gedi to the UJC General Assembly in Atlanta and to the communities of Central NJ and Wilmington, DE in November. The trip was very educational for all of us, and it helped to solidify the personal friendships between members of the communities as the basis of the partnership.

We would like to thank again all those who took time to show us their communities. Special thanks goes out to Heidi Weinberg and her husband, Steve, for hosting the group in Scotch Plains; and also to Leslie Newman and her husband for hosting the dinner party in our honor in Wilmington. I’m sure that I speak for my friends from the region when I say that the entire experience was wonderful.

4. Electronic Newsletter

The Israel Department of the Jewish Agency has been sending out a Partnership 2000 electronic newsletter to a growing list of email addresses since the first year of the P2K project. The newsletter gives short blurbs and hypertext links to articles posted on the P2K web site (www.partner.org.il). We have posted a number of articles on the Arad/Tamar page of the site over the past year.

We are now ready, with the department’s help and support, to take the next step and produce a newsletter that is dedicated to the region and NJ/DE Cluster, using the same format already being used by the Israel Department. The first issue should reach you some time in January 2000. The purpose of the newsletter is to keep the partner constituents informed of what is happening in the region on a more extensive format (including pictures) than this "P2K Update" format.

5. Special Gifts

The book binding equipment that was purchased with a special donation from the Northern NJ federation has been installed at the Milev Lelev Center for the Handicapped in Arad. A group of clients are learning how to use the equipment, which will eventually provide income for the club.

Also, two stone chess tables and chairs, gift of Mr. and Mrs. David Burns and family from the Middlesex federation have been installed in the public park near the Inbar Hotel. The chess tables are especially appropriate for the large population of immigrants from the FSU who live in the neighborhood.

Details and pictures of these and other special gifts will be featured in the electronic newsletter.

6. OTZMA Volunteers Arrive in Arad

Jennifer Goldstein and David Schwartz from the Southern NJ federation and Shiri Berger from the Northern NJ federation began their 3-month “community service track” in the framework of Project Otzma on December 14, 1999. Each of the three "Otzmaniks" has four or five volunteer assignments.

More about their impressions of the Arad community and how they like the experience in the electronic newsletter.

7. Solomon Scheachter Neshama Program

On December 14, Monica, Shmuel and I met with Rabbi David Ebstein to work out details of the Neshama Program, which will bring a group of six to eight 18-year-olds to Arad for two weeks in March 2000. The group will do volunteer work and will have planned encounters with a group of 12th graders from the region.

The group will sleep at the Absorption Center or the Youth Hostel, will have a lot lunch every day at WUJS, and will be adopted by a number of families from the Shira Hadasha Conservative Congregation for home hospitality.

8. Kefiada

Recruitment of volunteers from the communities for Kefiada counselors should be beginning in the near future. The Jewish Agency materials were forwarded to Bernie Cohen at the Atlantic/Cape May federation. Bernie informs me that Nancy Schultz will be in charge of the recruitment process again this year. Good luck, Nancy!

9. Volunteer Makes Aliya

I met Judy Soicher, a former volunteer from Monmouth County, last week at the Milev Lelev Day Center for the Handicapped, where she volunteered last March. She told me that she had just completed the purchase of an apartment in Arad as a foothold in Israel for her eventual Aliya. It was certainly gratifying to see how the volunteer experience in Arad can have such a positive impact.

10. Community Leadership Project

Monica has held three recruitment meetings for a new Young Leadership group with residents of Arad/Tamar, ages 25 to 45. So far 18 residents have expressed interest in participating in the group. The group will begin to meet on a regular basis in January 2000, with hopes of attracting more participants in the first few months of operation.

In the meantime, the veteran group of community activists has met 3 times with a professional consultant in the past two months. I intent to gather feedback from the members of this group in the next few weeks.

11. Economic Development Unit

Topaz Carmi reports that there has been progress in recent months on a number of projects that the EDU has had in the pipeline:

• A new company, "SALI Technologies," will be moving to Arad, creating tens of new jobs.
• A teacher’s seminar will open in Arad, in the framework of the Etgar-Sivan College.
• A second company, "Alamet," a subcontractor for the magnesium plant at the Dead Sea Works, will locate its facility in Arad.

In addition, the EDU has submitted a request in December to the Chief Scientist’s office to fund a feasibility study to establish a plant for the production of energy from recycled household wastes.

12. Arad Technological Incubator

Topaz Carmi submitted to the Chief Scientist’s office 5 project proposals in November in her effort to save the incubator from closing. They included:

• A project related to magnesium
• A project (from Ben Gurion University) for digitally capturing and re-mastering old and damaged photographs.
• A project for development of medical equipment to be used in rehabilitation institutes and weight-training gyms.
• A project related to Orthopedics
• A micro-electronics project related to batteries and energy cells

Topaz informs me that while the projects were well received by the Chief Scientist’s office, she was told that the ministry is committed to closing four incubators nation wide. The mayor, she says, will continue until the very end to use whatever means he has on a political level to save the incubator.

13. Net Friends Program

Bertha Pistarov informs me that there are 4 schools from Arad paired with 5 schools from the cluster communities so far this year. They are:

• Ofarim School with a school in Monmouth County (Judy Rothfeld)
• Halamish School with Solomon Scheachter of W. Orange (5th grade)
• Ulpana Girl’s High School with Solomon Scheachter of W. Orange
• Levaot School (2nd grade) with Wilmington, DE school (1st grade)
• Levaot School (5th grade) with Temple Emmanuel school, Central NJ

Tevet 5760 - January 2000