Milwaukee/Tiberias - On Thursday, December 18th, students from the two partnering schools, MJDS in Milwaukee and ORT Bema'aleh in Tiberias, met for their annual video conference for Chanukah as part of the Partnership 2000 Education Bridge program.

At 4 pm Israeli time and 8 am American time, a total of eighty 7th graders from both schools met through a live video connection for a 45 minute Chanukah celebration. The students were very excited and could hardly wait for the celebration to start. During the Chanukah celebration students lit the candles of the Chanukiah. The first candle was lit with a blessing, but the other candles were lit after the students dedicated the candle to something. During the preparations for the video conference, the students were asked to bring up ideas for the dedications of the candles.

The MJDS students dedicated the candles to life, family, freedom (including the ability to be Jewish in public), Israel, peace, the soldiers in Iraq, those who died on September 11, 2001 (and the brave men and women who tried to save people), and the strength of Gilad Shalit.  The ORT 7th grade students dedicated the candles to the soldiers in the Israeli army, Gilad Shalit, the Jews in the Diaspora, the relations between the two communities, their education, their future, and peace. Between dedications the students introduced themselves in small groups of up to 5 students.

An hour and a half later, ten eighth grade students from MJDS and 15 eighth grade students from ORT BeMa'aleh Tiberias met for their Chanukah celebration. After lighting the first candle with a blessing, these students also dedicated candles to different subjects. On the MJDS side they dedicated their candles to family, soldiers in Iraq, the partnership with ORT, peace in Israel, having enough food, Gilad Shalit, and peace in the world. The ORT students dedicated their candles to friendship, Gilat Shalit, family, peace, Sderot, the rain, and the meeting with the MJDS students in May.

All this would have been impossible without the help of the principals, teachers and staff from both schools; on the MJDS side, Judy Miller, Brian King, and Charlie Sherman, and on the ORT BeMa'aleh side, Anat Torgeman, Jonathan Post, Sofie Golan and Avivit Elnekave.

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