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On November 7th, Partnership 2000 Beit Shemesh Mateh Yehuda - Washington - South Africa of the Jewish Agency, hosted a special mission from DC.

JWRP = Jewish Women's Renaissance Project consisting mostly of unaffiliated 1st timers in Israel.
Lori Palatnik, the program director describes the days events:

"The DC group had a special afternoon and evening planned, as they traveled to their Federation sponsored Partnership 2000 project in Beit Shemesh. 

There they received a beautiful tour of the region and then a special visit to a Teen Center that was in a converted bomb shelter.  This center does outreach to Ethiopian teens who are living below the poverty line.  Our women helped plant flowers in a new garden outside the center.

Inside, the teens had prepared a fun presentation, a take-off on "American Idol" with judges and performers.  Our women also participated, both as judges and back-up singers and had the best time.  Our women presented the center with new soccer balls, soccer shirts and arts and crafts.

Then we went to a women's holistic wellness center (run by Dina Guedallia) where local women had prepared Ethiopian (Liora Samuel) and Moroccan (Tzvia Weill) food for us for dinner.  Delicious! 

Then one of the Ethiopian women (Yehudit Shpringer) sang for us and told the story of traveling for weeks on her mother's back as they reached Sudan to be airlifted to Israel.  She said they never lost hope, and lived on prayer.

Then she taught us all how to do African dances-- it was a unique and joyous experience, which helped link the DC women to the good work their local Federation is doing in Israel."

Enjoy the Videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z21E6e4phts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bY_ZWAQaLc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ImPQg5X_8s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDADbKp4WSw