We were visited by master puppeteer, Yael Erlich at the end of March.

She was greeted by the community at a kabbalat shabbat at Temple Israel on the 27th and remained in the community through April 1.

Yael normally does a Puppet performance on her visits to communities, but because she was not able to bring an assistant this time and also because of the timing of various school Spring vacations, we thought it best for her to have several workshops in the community.

Although disappointed, she really went well beyond that to connect with every one of her groups in a enthusiastic manner and met many different people in doing so. Over her four day visit she met with various school-age groups and adapted each workshop according to their ability. She was wonderful with the kids, very flexible, engaging, and passionate in her artistry. All the kids interacted with her and made some unique puppets.

She works with everyday materials like wire and masking tape. She met with the Chadash Hebrew School students, preschoolers in the JCC and students at Lippman in Akron .

Bonnie Manello was her chaperone and shopping assistant, and we are grateful for her help. Yael was also able to squeeze in a visit to the Kimono as Art show at the Canton Museum of Art and was very impressed and surprised by the level of Kuboto's craft. For part of her residency here, Albert Ben Shloosh who is the Director of the Akko Alternative Theater Festival and also the lay leader of the Partnership's Arts Task Force, came to observe Ms.Erlich's work.
 
Yael had amazing levels of experience that we just tapped into the very tip of. She has used puppetry as therapy in a female prison population and had been trained to use puppetry for therapy with others.

She heads a school of puppetry at the Western Galilee College . We wish that everyone had had a chance to meet and work with her, but that is almost always the case with our visits from Israel . Some photos from her visit were posted on the Jewish Canton Website, and thanks again to Karen Phillippi for her great media service.

Four professors from area colleges are to visit Israel this summer for a Partnership course at the Western Galilee College and begin to explore building relationships between the WGC and higher educational institutions here. Rabbi John Spitzer in his position at Walsh University has been instrumental in helping to organize the local colleges' participants' preparations.

Walsh hosted an informational dinner for those that are traveling this summer. Also in attendance were Greg and Janet Luntz, Cheri Spitzer, Ed Buxbaum and Martha Lottman.

One of the messages that came out of the dinner was the importance of the Professors to visit the Ghetto Fighters House Museum , and meet Tamir Porter, our former Shaliach here and now head of overseas missions for the museum.

We made a great impact in our presentations, I believe, on the importance of looking at Israel with fresh eyes, to see the cultural and educational landscape and to take advantage of the time there for some tourism too.