Thirteen residents of Beit Shemesh-Yehuda Plains this week completed the Community Leadership course of Partnership 2000 and the Jewish Agency.

For the past eight months, the participants, aged 30-45, have been meeting to discuss community leadership, Judaism, Zionism and ties with the Diaspora. Simultaneous with the course in Israel, two groups met in the Partnership communities in Washington and South Africa. The climax of the program was the meeting between the three leadership groups which took place in South Africa and in Israel last July.

During the training course, the participants drew up a number of community initiatives which will be implemented in Beit Shemesh and Yehuda Plains, some of them in partnership with local organizations.

The course's concluding ceremony took place this week. The Chairman of Beit Shemesh Partnership 2000, Ilan Geal-Dor, congratulated the participants and awarded them with graduation certificates from Partnership 2000 and the Jewish Agency.