The Lehigh Valley and the Yoav region in Israel share a lot in common: a dynamic "living bridge" through Partnership 2000 (P2K); a mixed landscape of agriculture, industry, and high-tech; a Jewish population estimated at about 8,000; and a name and geographic boundaries you will not find on a map. Yoav and the LV Jewish Community also share many of the same challenges, such as how to foster a strong Jewish identity in our young people and to nurture a love of Judaism and Israel, how to care and provide services for the growing elderly population, how to provide educational and social activities for our children after school and in the summer when both parents work outside of the home, how to improve the safety of our roadways for drivers, bikers, and pedestrians; and how to discourage high-risk behaviors among our teens.
Under the leadership of the Jewish Federation of the Lehigh Valley (JFLV), the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI), Partnereship 2000 is a special initiative aimed at promoting connections between Diaspora communities and Israeli society. Through P2K, the LV has developed strong personal, communal, and professional bonds with our friends, partners, and colleagues in Yoav. The LV/Yoav Partnership, which began in 2002, reached its five-year milestone this year, offering an opportunity to review the successes and challenges to date and, with the culmination of some multi-year projects, to re-evaluate the Partnership's mission, define its direction and goals for the next 3 to 5 years, and identify successful programs that should continue and develop new project ideas that will continue to expand and strengthen the relationship and interactions between our two communities.
In mid-October, nine members of the LV P2K Steering Committee spent four days in Israel participating in intensive meetings with their Yoav counterparts and touring the region and neighboring communities. The group conducted a productive series of evaluation and planning meetings, laid the foundation for future cooperative projects, reunited with our Yoav "family," and established new friendships over food, wine, music, and a bottomless cup of Israeli hospitality.
Our visit began with hellos, hugs, reunions, introductions, and (of course!) food. Nine hours of presentations and discussion on our first day in Yoav culminated in a joyous reunion with Yoav residents who have visited the Lehigh Valley, including many of the teens (and their families) who spent a summer in the LV working as counselors at Camp JCC and living with host families, as well as scholars who have participated in Project Yachad’s Spring Adult Education program over the past five years. The festivities included a delicious dinner, welcoming remarks from our own JFLV President Bobby Hammel (who participated in the P2K discussion sessions and toured the region with steering committee members) and Rany Tranin, Mayor of the Yoav Regional Council who recently became Co-Chair of the Israel Department of JAFI and is the Past-Chair of Yoav P2K steering committee. The group later enjoyed a moving musical performance by Yoav’s Asif Trio, who came to the Lehigh Valley in 2005 and performed at Mayfair and the Jewish Day School and other venues under the auspices of P2K.
The group celebrated Shabbat with the many Yoav families who graciously home hosted us throughout our visit to Yoav.
During our stay we visited several communities, speaking with residents, seeing and hearing about the results of successful educational, cultural, and humanitarian projects funded by JFLV and P2K. We gained a first-hand view of the challenges and hardships facing Yoav's neighboring villages and towns, situated along the Gaza border, which face regular rocket attacks and infiltrations and suffer the physical, psychological, and economic consequences. We listened as a member of the Knesset spoke about the ongoing struggle and hope for peace.
Strengthening our partnership
Our journey began with a series of meetings aimed at understanding how our regions and communities are similar and how they differ, how the Partnership has impacted and benefited our communities and what challenges lie ahead. Finally, we reviewed which programs have worked and which have not, identifying which should be continued, perhaps with modifications, and brainstorming in break-out groups to propose and develop ideas for new joint projects.
As our visit and meetings progressed, we learned to overcome communication issues based on language and cultural differences as we spoke openly and passionately about what the Partnership has meant to our communities and how we can work together to make it even better and enable it to impact more people. Invaluable for their hands-on efforts to facilitate our discussions and help us reach our goals were JAFI representatives Uri Bar-Ner and our regional partnership manager, Benzi Sella. Offering inspiration and support and taking time from their busy schedules to sit in on some of the sessions were Andrea Arbel, Director of Partnerships for JAFI, and Orit Braun, Director of Partnerships, Southern Region, Israel Department.
The Lehigh Valley contingent, led by Mark Goldstein, JFLV Executive Director, and Carolyn Katwan, JFLV Assistant Executive Director/P2K Coordinator, included P2K Co-Chairs Jan and Glenn Ehrich, Chair-Elect Vicki Glaser, founding Co-Chairs Jill and Jeff Blinder, and P2K's newest committee member, Bobbi Needle. This group represented the larger LV P2K Steering Committee, which includes Laurie Berson, Regina Brenner, Barry Halper, Marianne Philips, Alison Post, Amy and Richard Morse, Mary and Alan Salinger and Shari Spark.
Included among the professional staff and volunteers that comprise the Yoav steering committee are a few faces that would be familiar in the Lehigh Valley. These include two young adults who have each spent a summer in the Valley helping to coordinate the activities of the Yoav teen counselors-Tamir Gur, now a graduate student, and Ayala Geni, who recently returned to Israel after four months in the U.S. Also on the Yoav committee are Ariel Hurwitz and Zvi Keren, who have both come to the Valley to make scholarly presentations for Project Yachad.
On our second day in Yoav, after a working breakfast, the group boarded a bus to depart for Negba, a kibbutz community in Yoav that is within the range of the newer generation of Kassam rockets. Negba's Security Officer proudly took us inside two of the recently refurbished bomb shelters-one above ground and one below ground-rebuilt with funds raised as part of the JFLV's Israel Emergency Campaign (IEC). Abu Ilan, a member of the Israeli Knesset and a resident of Negba met with the group and offered the community's thanks for the Lehigh Valley's assistance in the shelter reconstruction project.
We continued on to say that "a picture speaks a thousand words." Sderot, though not located in but rather neighboring the Yoav region, has become a household name, as it sits along the border from the Gaza Strip and has been the target of frequent, if not daily rocket attacks. Two scenes in particular are clearly engraved in our memories. First was a visit to the Police Station and "Red Alert" command Center in Sderot where we viewed a stockpile of Kassam rockets that had fallen in and around Sderot over the past 2 to 3 months. They are collected, labeled, and piled on shelves about 8 feet high. When they begin to overflow the allocated space they are hauled away by the truckload to another location. Since 2000, more than 5,000 Kassam rockets have been fired at Sderot and the surrounding area from Gaza.
We then climbed a steep hillside to stand at the edge of the town, behind us the homes, schools, and playgrounds of Sderot, and in front of and below us the dividing wall and a view into Gaza. Above us, starkly white against the bright blue sky, hovered the tethered blimp Israel keeps aloft to monitor activity along the border. We listened intently as a young Israeli military officer in charge of security for the region and responsible for sounding the alarm to warn of a rocket attack spoke to us about the strength and resolve of the Sderot residents, which include his own parents, wife, and young children.
Lunch at Café Yael, a restaurant/coffee house in Sderot sponsored by the "Coffee to Go" company and intended to provide employment for at-risk teens ages 15-18, included an opportunity to speak with members of Afikim B'Negev. This is a religious educational group committed to strengthening the Sderot community by encouraging residents to remain despite rising unemployment and economic hardships. It provides educational programs, social welfare, and community activities. About 140 Afikim B'Negev families from all over Israel now reside in Sderot.
Our final stop of the day was at Moshav Nativ Ha Assera, another community that borders the Gaza Strip. It has constructed a wall at the end of the Moshav that faces Gaza-- both for added protection and also to block the view of the barbed wire fence and somber gray dividing wall that separates it from Gaza. The community has painted the inside of the inner wall with an attractive design of green and blue filled arches to enhance the landscape. Susie, a member of the Moshav, spoke to us about the enduring spirit of the community, even when "the absurd becomes everyday life."
“Not a house stands empty and the Moshav is currently enjoying a baby boom,” Susie told us.
Our second day of travel took us to the Soreq Caves near Beit Shemesh, with its stunning display of stalactites and stalagmites. We continued on to Kibbutz Tsuba, which, like many kibbutzim in the area, is reinventing itself as a tourist destination, with an onsite winery, hotel accommodations and restaurant for travelers arriving by car, bus, bicycle, or on foot; its provides housing to students attending the NFTY yearcourse program. We traveled from Kibbutz Tsuba to the Arab community in Yoav, where we visited with the patriarch of the Al Azzi family who, together with his sons and their families, lives in the village -- two clusters of houses adjoined by their farm fields. Our final stop of the day was in Moshav Nahala, where we enjoyed afternoon tea with our gracious hosts Etti and Issael Cohen. Etti was in the Lehigh Valley in the spring as part of Project Yachad's Adult Education program, where she gave presentations on Yeminite cooking and the Yemenite wedding ceremony.
Our visit culminated with a final day of meetings in which we discussed future projects and jointly affirmed our new vision statement. With hugs, tears, and "l'hitraots" all around (not goodbye, but a promise to meet again), the committees concluded their task and parted ways with friendships strengthened and new bonds formed and a renewed commitment to build on five years of successful partnership and bring the spirit of P2K back to our communities in Yoav and in the Lehigh Valley and expand and strengthen the living bridge that brings us together as one family.