Article by Jan Goldstein, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Omaha.
People are always asking me about the Federation's Partnership with Israel program and having just returned from our annual stateside Partnership meetings in Austin, Texas along with Ellie Batt, Lisa Epstein, Kim Goldberg and Zoe Riekes, it's a great opportunity to talk about it. Every year our Partnership leadership meets once in Israel and once in the states. The purpose of these meetings is to evaluate our projects and budgets and make strategic decisions on how we go about accomplishing the two primary goals of Partnership; creating people-to-people relationships that foster a shared Jewish identity and helping to develop the Western Galilee region in northern Israel.
The Partnership program is now in its 13th year, our Bar Mitzvah year. The expansiveness of our programs is a reflection of what we are accomplishing. At these meetings in Austin, the Partnership collectively allocated $600,000 for projects in 2010.
There are many programs in Partnership. These diverse projects touch on areas like helping children at risk and young people with disabilities, supporting the Western Galilee Hospital, providing interactive musical education and twinning programs, supporting food distribution programs in Akko and creating dialogue between Israeli Jewish, Muslim and Christian students. Each of these has the potential of affecting the lives of our local community members and donors by putting a face on Israel and creating Jewish Peoplehood through what we call a Living Bridge.
In thirteen years, our consortium communities in the U.S. have collectively invested more than ten million dollars into projects, programs and emergency needs in our region. Together, we have made a significant impact in Israel, exemplified by the new Emergency Services underground unit at the Western Galilee Hospital in Nahariya.
The need for the new underground unit became apparent during the 2006 war that saw the Western Galilee region and its hospital take direct hits from katusha rockets fired from Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon. The underground unit became possible by our consortium advocating and investing in the hospital. Because of our initial investment and effort, the hospital also received funding from the National Israel Emergency Campaign and these dollars were used to leverage more money directly from the Israeli government. All totaled, over twenty five million dollars have been invested into infrastructure for the Western Galilee Hospital that serves all the residents of the region. This is an important point, as one of the criteria we look for in programs we fund is whether we can leverage additional funding from the Israeli government, non-governmental organizations and individual Israeli philanthropists.
For 13 years, Partnership has focused on developing connections between American and Israeli Jews. It is very exciting for Omaha as our own Zoe Riekes, who recently stepped down as Partnership Consortium Chair, has agreed to become Chair of the newest Partnership endeavor, the Budapest Connection. This new tri-lateral Partnership with Budapest adds another dimension by connecting us directly to those whose families suffered through seventy years of Holocaust and Communism and are just now discovering their Jewish selves.
As our Partnership programming expands to include Budapest, we have heard from our American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) partner about the impact that this new Budapest connection is having. We are bringing Israeli, American and Hungarian kids together at the JDC Sarvas International Summer Camp outside of Budapest. This camp lets teens tap into their Jewish passion by creating friendships with other Jewish teens and becoming actively part of a diverse and meaningful global Jewish community.
The integration of American, Israeli and Budapest teens helps them become young leaders in their respective communities. Particularly in Budapest, many of these kids come from parents who did not know they were Jewish and have just recently discovered their Jewish heritage. It is through these camps that many of these teens learn about Jewish holidays and practices. They are often crying out to be part of the Jewish world and do not know where to start. By sharing these experiences with other Jewish teens, they are able to have a stronger Jewish foundation and can make future decisions regarding their Jewish identity.
The American and Israeli teens also grow by seeing Judaism through the eyes of others struggling to be Jewish. They begin to see themselves as part of the global Jewish community and get excited as they start to define their roles as Jews.
We learned what the JDC & the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI) are doing in the Budapest Jewish Community to create attractive programs for the younger and unaffiliated. With events like "Judaism without Walls," where Jewish holidays and topics are discussed through conversation, music, theater and literature in a casual, non-threatening caf? environment, a street festival called "Judafest" that includes Israeli and Jewish movies, music and food and a weekend of learning called "Limmud." All of these are organized and driven by young volunteers. Programs like these, that we already invest in through our campaign dollars, become a springboard for more Partnership projects.
The Austin meetings were invigorating. After 13 years, this new Budapest connection is revitalizing long time volunteers and building new connections. We are creating opportunities for supplemental funding to help build our Jewish world. Partnership's success is dependant upon getting people involved, creating projects and really "doing" something. One of the things that makes Partnership special is that there are multiple access points for people to get involved.
Partnership is exciting. We invite you to get involved. If you want to get involved or just want information, please contact our Federation offices. And the next time a group from Israel comes to visit, offer to house them, the next chance you have to go to Israel and visit the Partnership area and projects that we support, take it! Partnership is waiting for you, are you ready?