Part I:  Gen Y and Partnership – Framing the Issues

Rabbi Reuven Greenvald facilitated the session and opened with a brief overview of the generational shift:  engaged Jews under the age of 40 are involved in Jewish purpose and social justice – but are less concerned about external threats to Jews and to Israel:  “How DO we shift to talk about Israel, and with Israelis?”  “How can Partnership help drive this?”

Miriam Rosenzweig, heads up Detroit Federation’s innovative model – NEXTGen Detroit presented main characteristics of Gen X, Gen Y and their connection to Jewish community and Israel.

• Gen X – born 1965 – 1976; 51 million – Shaped by secular factors
  • The Jewish frame: eat a bagel, feel Jewish

• Gen Y/Millenials – born 1997 – 1998; 75 million — grew up with the internet
  • The Jewish frame:  Taglit Birthright – helped/harmed relationship to Israel

• Bottom line for ACTION:
  • It’s not about us – it’s about THEM
  • We need to focus on how to make folks feel PART of the community – it needs to be our job to build the community

Detroit model presented:- Detroit has a vital Partnership with Central Galilee; it’s connection to NEXTGen takes shape as focusing on pre- and post-Birthright activities; connect Birthright participants to the Partnership region; ‘Detroiters in Israel’ is live – the Federation maintains this program with their local rep in Israel who lives in the Partnership region in Israel.

Part II – The Newest Gen Y Programs Out There

This section of our session was designed as an opportunity to learn about and to shape some new Partnership programs designed specifically for Gen Y’s.  The programs presented are pooling together resources from existing JAFI & other major programs to present new opportunities building on the Partnership platform.

Part III – Community Continuum Models for Engaging Gen Y

The session went on to present community and Partnership models that go beyond great programs and have designed a continuum of programs and opportunities for Gen Y’s to connect.

• Southeast Consortium –Hadera Eiron Partnership

The partnership region offers High School teacher-led programs that focus on Jewish identity, providing a great feeder system for those who participate in mifgash, in hosting Consortium young people and members who come to Israel, and generating Israelis who come to summer camps in the Consortium.

The participants of the young leadership in Hadera-Eiron and their educators also connect with the US counterparts through the Global Day of Learning.  This provides a breeding ground for those who come to the US as shlichim as well!

• Detroit, Ann Arbor and Grand Rapids – P2G Partners in Central Galilee

A work in progress that grew into a continuum.

Each summer, over 80 kids come from the Partnership region come to the Detroit area to spend a week in Summer Camp, hosted by families in Michigan.  This evolved into a partnership regional connection with Israeli and Michigan kids.

The programs that feed into the continuum:  Detroiters in Israel, Teen Leadership – a 5-year program, Counselor in Training program, and Teen Mission programs, Young Adult Forum – all coming together through Partnership and relationships to build engagement.

1.            The Eilat-Eilot-Toronto Partnership which has been supporting the development of Renewable Energy sources in the southernmost region of Israel for five years. Their comprehensive regional development approach has grown to address the region’s transport and logistics infrastructure, ways to grow the population, and the development of marine biology and bio-technology.

2.            The BeitShemesh – Mateh Yehuda – Washington DC –South Africa Partnership has decided to turn the challenge of strained relations between Haredim and others in the region into an opportunity for both Israel engagement in Greater Washington and community building in BeitShemesh.  The concept presented was the utilization of P2G as the platform to embrace macro challenges in Israeli society through adult education.  This venture is being built based on a financial model of a micro venture philanthropy of funds committed by pax and matched by the Federation – and including a mini-allocations process of awarding grants on topics like Ethnic diversity and Pluralism.

Discussion explored challenging questions of how do Partnerships balance economic development agendas with developing interpersonal connections and an intimate understanding of Israeli/North American society (Mifgashim) agendas.  The participants shared that this takes on different shapes in different North American partner communities, reflecting both the nature of the community’s historical investment, the profile of the local community and other critical variables.

The session ended with the summary that what we help shape today will be the joint memory of the people tomorrow.

We go up to Israel’s Northeastern border for our Sivan Up2Date, as we highlight the Beit Shean-Valley of Springs – Cleveland Partnership.  Following an in depth vision process, the Partnership has been implementing a new strategic approach designed to engage Cleveland’s Israel experience programs with Israelis in the Partnership region while developing new people-to-people programs based on the Partnership’s community development programming, which aims to empower the region. We encourage you to review the Partnership’s succinct summary of activities – lively in content as it is in “look and feel”.

Special Focus – Adults and Community-Wide Programming:

• Ethnic cooks brought the scents of the Partnership and Israel to Cleveland for Israel’s 65^th Independence Day.
• Cleveland’s Yom HaZikaron ceremony featured stories of fallen soldiers from the region; this was a product of interviews conducted by the Partnership’s Young Leadership group.
• Personnel from the Cleveland’s JCC, the matnasim (local community centers) in Beit Shean and the Valley of Springs took part in a joint professional seminar in the region.
• Congregants from Reform, Conservative and Orthodox synagogues in Cleveland are set to take part in a pluralistic Jewish learning experience led by scholars from the Maaleh HaGilboa Yeshiva.
• Cleveland’s Israel Film Festival featured short documentaries of Beit Shean personalities.

Special Focus – Engaging Youth and Young Adults:

• P2G & MASA: For Purim, the Partnership sent “Mishloach Manot” to Cleveland Masa participants in Israel.
• Birthright participants engaged with local residents through a taste of their ethnic kitchen.
• Ambassadors for Unity – the Partnership’s youth leadership group recently went to Cleveland where it took part in a seminar with its parallel leadership group. The two groups, numbering over 40 young leaders, are jointly producing a photo exhibition, “Jewish Youth in Israel and the US – different perspectives”.
• School twinning programs are expanding to include the Keshet Yonatan Beit Shean with Anshei Chessed Fairmount Temple; ORT Beit Shean with Gross Schechter Cleveland; and Kibbutz Sde Eliyahu with Agnon.
• March of the Living from Ohio visited the Partnership region for the first time.
• Coming Up – Onward Israel and MASA ITF: Cleveland’s “Onward Israel” Summer Interns will spend time in Beit Shean, and in the Fall Beit Shean is looking forward to hosting 15 volunteers who will bolster local pupils’ English language skills on the MASA Israel Teaching Fellows program.

For those of you who couldn’t make it to our “Partner2Secure the Jewish Future” Symposium, you’re invited to read about it in the Jewish Agency Voices blog, or view an interview (Hebrew) with our special guest, Israeli Rapper “Subliminal”.

Wishing you a Happy Shavuot holiday filled with study and introspection. We invite you to download our study sheet on the meaning of “Tikkun”/Repair on Shavuot).

Chodesh Tov,

Andrea

26 members of the Professional Advisory Committee from SPBC, led by the Jewish Federation’s CEO Mr Matt Levin, visited Kiryat Bialik, their sister city within the Jewish Agency’s Partnership 2Gether, as part of their Israel journey.  

Cindy Nimhauser, former president of the Federation, and some of the other participants have been to KB several times before; for others, this was their first visit to Israel.

KB Mayor, Mr Eli Dukorski, met the group at Beit Yad LaBanim (city memorial) where they held a short ceremony and laid a wreath in honor of KB’s fallen soldiers. Mr Dukorski told them about the city and said that the Partnership has become a true friendship between the two communities, one that survives difficult times as well as good ones. Also joined in greeting the group, Dr. Miri Harel, P2G steering committee chair in KB; Eshel Fram, Partnership director for JAFI; Karni Ballas and Ami Reuven, municipality officials and active members in the Partnership framework.

The group visited a few locations in KB which the Federation supports, such as an after school facility for young children of needy families, and ENP’s (Ethiopian National Project) youth center. To conclude the visit, participants dispersed to homes of residents for some coffee, cake, and a friendly chat. This was a wonderful opportunity to meet Israelis in person and get a quick taste of their daily lives. After 10 years of Partnership, many SPBC residents now think of KB as their home in Israel.

As in previous years, the March of the Living delegation from SPBC visited Kiryat Bialik, its sister city within the Jewish Agency’s Partnership 2Gether, on Yom HaZikaron (Israel’s Memorial Day). This unique, intense day, followed by Yom HaAtzmaut, is a powerful experience for the teens who had just visited the death camps in Poland and can now understand better the meaning of Revival.

This year’s delegation included 50 youths and 11 adults, among them three Holocaust survivors. KB’s Head of Education, Mr. Ami Reuven, and ORT-Bialik Principal, Mr. Rami Porat, welcomed them to the city and noted the tight, ongoing bonds between the two communities. Teens and adults were all hosted by local families. They participated in the city’s main ceremony in the evening and in ORT high school ceremony the next day, the latter being dedicated to fallen school graduates and joined by bereaved families. Finally, the delegation and hosts met with Effi Talbi, teacher at ORT high school, who told them his fascinating story of being captured, as an IDF soldier, by terrorists during the 1^st Lebanon War.

The encounter was very meaningful for both sides; however, some of the students remarked that it was too short for them to really get to know each other. They recommended extending the visit in the future by at least one more night.

Delegation representatives lay the World Jewry wreath at high school ceremony

Noted Israeli hip-hop artist, Subliminal, meets with Partnership2Gether's (L to R) Ravit Ohayon and Andrea Arbel

More than 100 North American Jewish leaders will gather in Newark, New Jersey on May 5-6 to discuss how young members in their communities can better strengthen their ties with Israel. The conference, titled “Partner2Secure the Jewish Future”, is convened by The Jewish Agency’s Partership2Gether program.

At the conference, Hebrew hip-hop sensation Subliminal (aka Kobi Shimoni) will perform on stage and lead a workshop on his unique musical method that weaves Jewish texts into hip-hop lyrics to engage young fans with issues relevant to modern day Israel.

Subliminal attributed his participation in The Jewish Agency conference to the importance of connecting Jews around the world and to strengthening their connection to the State of Israel. Shimoni will engage in discussions with the participating educators and community leaders and will present the lyrics to several of his songs which reflect on issues unique to Israeli society. These include “God Almighty when will it end?”, a song about the Holocaust and “60 Years” which became the official anthem for the State of Israel’s sixtieth Independence celebrations.

Partnership2Gether (P2G) is The Jewish Agency’s platform that fosters person-to-person relationships among Jews by pairing Jewish communities in the Diaspora with “sister” communities in Israel. Currently, more than 350,000 Jews in 550 communities worldwide participate in P2Gprograms. These partnerships are comprised of professional and community delegation exchanges, participation in Jewish summer camps, volunteer projects, school twinning, and joint economic development activities.

The conference in Newark will feature two tracks: a two-day symposium on community engagement and a one-day professional meeting for educators affiliated with Partnership2Gether’s International School Twinning Network, which includes some 500 formal and informal schools. The symposium will offer sessions on how to: build a continuum of engagement for young adults; how to engage the 30-45 year old population; and how to engage synagogues and how to make the most out of new partnerships and networking; among other topics.

In addition to the workshop led by Subliminal, the school twinning track will examine best practices for the use of technology in education, new curricula for impactful bar and bat mitzvahs; and the Holocaust as a connective agent for Diaspora and Israeli schoolchildren, to name just a few.

Andrea Arbel, the Director of The Jewish Agency’s Partnerships Unit said “One of The Jewish Agency’s central objectives it to connect Jews from around the world to the State of Israel, to the Jewish people and to their own Jewish identities,” Arbel said. “We believe that a discussion of Shimoni’s (Subliminal) lyrics can enliven the Israeli and Jewish story and allow the creation of a dialogue with an influential Israeli with whom young American Jews can identify, in their own language. It is The Jewish Agency’s intention that the American educators participating in the conference will return to their schools and will integrate Subliminal’s lyrics into their educational programming next year.”

Dear Partnership2Gether Family,

As we welcome the month of Iyar, highlighted by Memorial Day, Israel Independence Day and Jerusalem Day, our Monthly Up2Date takes us to the Modiin – Rochester Partnership or as they would say “Family”.  I know that our P2G Family extends  our support to those families who have lost their loved ones in Israel’s war and terror attacks. And as celebrated in Israel’s national calendar, in the same breath we welcome in Israel’s 65 birthday.

The Modiin-Maccabim-Reut Municipality, situated in central Israel, numbers 85,000 residents, with Rochester, New York’s Jewish population estimated at 20,000. When the Partnership was founded almost a decade ago, Jewish Federation of Rochester President Lawrence Fine challenged the steering committee with the question, “what does it mean to be a Jew in the 21^st century?” Since then the Partnership has striven to address this through its programs. The Partnership bases itself solely on “People-to-People” programs which emphasizes Jewish identity in both communities.

Jewish Identity for the 30-45 age group: This target population is a challenge for all federations to engage. The Ramim Leadership Seminar was designed to inspire and engage this age group in both communities. “Ramim” is a joint study group focusing on Jewish Identity and Israel-Diaspora relations, designed to result in social entrepreneurship and community involvement. A great example is Limor Rubin, a Ramim graduate who initiated  the “Israeli Community Center”, a local Jewish study group in Modiin, in concert with the Rochester JCC. The eclectic group has hosted lecturers ranging from Israeli comedienne Noya Mandel to Mordechai Bar Or, Director of the Kolot Beit Midrash. In Rochester, many of the participants had little or no previous connection with Federation, and today are a committed to the local Jewish community, Federation and Israel.

Youth Connections: The Partnership’s Educational Bridge project builds relationships between pupils and teachers – read about the recent Purim delegation from Rochester to Modiin in the Educators’ Blog. The “Friends Across the Sea” curriculum gives elementary school pupils in Modiin a taste of the pluralistic Jewish experience in the Diaspora – and through that a better understanding of themselves; the Partnership has turned the program into a multi-year experience from grades 5-8. This year the Partnership added another school twinning program as the Modiin Municipality sent a seven-pupil delegation to Rochester during Chanuka. The Journey for Identity is a three week summer educational experience which takes participants to Modiin and Rochester, as well as to Poland.

The Partnership boasts a highly committed core leadership group: Rochester Steering Committee Co-Chair Dr. Ricki Birnbaum is the founder and director of Effective Literacy Methods, which develops and tests early literacy programs used in school districts throughout the United States. Israeli Partnership Co-Chair Omri Knoller is Vice President RD&E at Elbit Systems.

Please see below some recent features on P2G:

• A great blog from our innovative Western Galilee-Hillel Alternative Spring Break Program.
• http://ejewishphilanthropy.com/p2g-israels-finest-building-bridges-to-help-the-jewish-people/
• http://ejewishphilanthropy.com/partnership2gether-an-invaluable-tool-for-jewish-federation-campaigns/
• Move Over Netanyahu: For Nine Days Wash U Grad ‘Runs’ Israel; Running the Length of Israel for Charity

Chodesh Tov & Happy 65th Birthday to the State of Israel,

Andrea

How do we make sure that American Jews continue to support their local Jewish federation campaigns?

Partnership2Gether (an initiative of The Jewish Agency for Israel), is an essential tool to Jewish federations. In this “me generation”, the Partnership can play a role in strengthening community members’ emotional ties to their own Jewish identity, to Israel and to their own communities and campaigns. In essence, Partnership2Gether creates a pathway for individual involvement.

Read full article on eJewishPhilanthropy website