Reported  by Hila Elhayany, Education Coordinator, Partnership 2000, Hadera-Eiron-SE Consortium

It was an exciting evening at the "Museum of the Jewish People"  in Tel Aviv. The exhibit 'Discovering Values' was opened, presenting pictures taken by students in Jacksonville Florida and Pardes Hanna, Israel, during the 2009-2010 school year, who took part in the Partnership 2000 sponsored "Jewish Lens" program. These pictures represented a variety of topics - from Jewish objects to Jewish values such as mutual responsibility, torah studies and heritage. The pictures were taken by students from the Alonim School in Pardes Hana, Gottlieb School and Ahavat Chessed School in Jacksonville Florida.

The Jewish Lens program is based on a series of photographs taken by the photographer Zion Ozeri, who visited and photographed for many years Jewish communities around the world. This program operates in many schools in the US and in Israel, many sponsored by Federations and Partnership 2000 of the Jewish Agency for Israel.

During the year, the students deal with many topics in Jewish identity and Jewish Peoplehood through the medium of photography, and become photographers themselves - they document Jewish values, community and tradition through their own eyes.

Through Partnership 2000, living bridge aspects are added to the program, connecting the students on both sides of the ocean by way of joint lessons, viewing and discussing each other's photos and creating joint exhibits. The program creates meaningful connections between the students and the educators.
This school year, two schools in Israel participate one in Pardes Hana and the other in Hadera, and four schools in the USA - in Jacksonville and Pinellas County Florida.

The opening ceremony for the exhibit was exciting and festive. It was attended by Jewish Lens staff and teachers from USA and Israel, Zion Ozeri, the program founder, Nisim Matalon, the CEO of "Karev Foundation for Involvement in Education"- the Karev Foundation is the program operator in Israel, Partnership 2000 staff, Tova Horowitz, principal of Alonim School in Pardes Hana, and many principals, teachers and students.

The speakers pointed out the importance of creating living bridges between the students through the medium of photography, the fascinating connection between the students in Israel and USA, all around Jewish issues and the final products of this exhibit - these are the best testaments to the goals achieved.

The exhibit 'Discovering Values' will be shown at the Museum of the Jewish People throughout the year.

Partnership 2000 is a flagship program of the Israel Department in the Jewish Agency, whose purpose in to create meaningful people to people connections between Jewish communities in Israel and throughout the world. There are 46 partnerships. We belong to the Hadera - Eiron - Southeast Consortium, connecting 5 communities in Israel and 8 communities in Florida, Tennessee and North Carolina. The Partnership has been in operation since 2001 and operates a wide variety of programs in all the communities.