On July 7 twenty women from Greater Washington came to visit Partnership Partnership2Gether of the Jewish Agency - Beit Shemesh - Mateh Yehuda - Washington - South Africa as part of the Jewish Women's Renaissance Project, sponsored by Yeshivat Aish Hatorah and the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington. JWRP is similar to a birthright trip. It offers subsidized trips to Israel for Jewish women so they can rediscover their Jewish roots and Jewish values and continue their journey when they get back home.  Because this group was from Washington they chose to spend half a day in our region.

The women first went on a bus tour of Beit Shemesh with Harley Stark of the International Relations Department in Beit Shemesh. After the tour they went to the Pisgot HaSheva Matnas and met in the dance studio with two stunning women, Gitty Porgis from the Belz Hassidic community and Yehudit Mekonen Springer from the Ethiopian community. Gitty and Yehudit are both performing artists who have submitted proposals to the Regional Roundtable of Israel 15. Gitty is a dancer who is opening a school for dance and movement for Hassidic women and Yehudit is a singer, teacher and dance instructor and plans to create an Ethiopian Festival for women. The women told their personal stories, which were fascinating and then performed for the women. The highlight was when Gitty invited the JWRP women to dance with her using movement she had taught them.

After the inspiring visit with the performers, the women moved on to learn about the Ethiopian National Project and met with teenager girls at the Yalma center where they had a balloon making activity and explanation about the center. The girls and the women hit if off and had a fun time getting to know each other. Gideon Vennor, Partnership Director, gave an overview of the Partnership and our role in connecting the Jewish communities of Washington and South Africa with Beit Shemesh and Mateh Yehuda.

The evening ended up with a delicious Kurdish meal at the home of Lilly Aziz on Moshav Zachariya. Lilly told about her family history as founders of her moshav and  also told about her great experiences as a member of the ethnic cooks delegation to Washington. Brenda Ganot of Partnership Partnership 2Gether explained the history of the women's empowerment program. A great time was had by all!