The winter session of the Joint Steering Committee recently took place in the Beit Shemesh-Yehuda Plains region. Attending the session were representatives of the four communities, heads of local governments and local volunteers from Beit Shemesh and Yehuda Plains.

Every six months, the Steering Committee of Partnership 2000 meets to discuss the common agenda of the four communities. The function of the Committee is to assess the challenges facing each community and to select those programs which will most successfully meet those challenges. This last meeting of the Steering Committee was topped off by the dedication ceremony of the Partnership 2000 Grove which marked ten years since the establishment of the Partnership between Beit Shemesh-Yehuda Plains and the Jewish communities of Washington and South Africa.

The Committee's discussions centered on the three Subcommittees that make up the Partnership: the Gesher LeKesher Subcommittee, the Education, Welfare and Community Subcommittee, and the Subcommittee for Economic Development. In addition to reports on existing programs, there were policy meetings and discussions of new programs.

The Committee for Economic Development proudly reported on the success of the Beit Shemesh Jewish Rock and Soul Music Festival which took place on the Intermediate Days of Succot. In addition, an update was provided on the development of cycling tourism and infrastructure which is another project that the Committee is working on. It hopes to transform the region into the "Cycling Capital of Israel". The recent "First Cross-Yehuda Race", which was supported by the Jewish Agency's Partnership 2000, was part of this effort. Participants in the Committee meeting visited "Tsubike", a new adventure cycling park at Kibbutz Tsuba, where they met members of the regional Cycling Forum of Partnership 2000.

  
The Gesher LeKesher Committee presented a review of its various existing projects, as well as a number of new ones which will add new members to the circles of participants in the region and abroad. Among them is the new Betsavta program for youth which was initiated this year and brought together some 30 youth from the four communities for a joint program in South Africa and Israel. There is also the Community Leadership program which began about one year ago and which involves a core group of local volunteers and volunteers from abroad in community activity.

  
The discussion of the activities of the Education, Welfare and Community Committee focused on new projects for the coming year. Local organizations presented programs for adults and programs for the prevention of violence. As part of the assessment of these projects, the participants were taken on a tour in which they were able to get an idea of the potential of each project. The tour encompassed a variety of sectors of the local community, both with respect to the type of population and with respect to need, and the participants were clearly moved and impressed by what they saw.

The climax of the current session was the official tree-planting ceremony which marked a decade since the establishment of the Beit Shemesh-Yehuda Plains-Washington-South Africa Partnership 2000. This praiseworthy initiative was the result of a cooperative effort on the part of the Jewish Agency, Partnership 2000, the Beit Shemesh Municipality, the Mateh Yehuda Regional Council and the Soreq Lachish Drainage Authority.

  
Attending the ceremony were representatives of the Partnership communities, representatives of the organizations supporting the project, dozens of residents of Beit Shemesh and Yehuda Plains - both young and old - who have been active in Partnership 2000 over the years and program graduates. The ceremony dedicated the Partnership 2000 Grove, which is located off Highway 38 near the grove of eucalyptus trees and the Yeramot River.

"The Partnership 2000 Grove symbolizes the ties between the communities of Beit Shemesh-Yehuda Plains and the Jewish communities in Washington and South Africa. Our Partnership is similar in many ways to the Grove. A decade ago, when Partnership 2000 was founded, the seed of the Partnership was planted - today, we are witness to its deep roots, as well as the fruits it has borne. We are now on the brink of a new decade and hope that it will be even more productive and filled with activity." -Meir Malka, representative of the Beit Shemesh Municipality and veteran volunteer in Project 2000.

The goal is that each of the hundreds of participants who come to the region each year from Washington and South Africa will visit the Grove and plant a tree. Over the years, it will become a small corner of nature symbolizing the living bridge between the four communities.

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