Israel Center in Action

This post is dedicated to the dedicated — our Israel Center professional team which is working so hard and so effectively. Its members strive to make sure that our community is thriving, they grow some of the new communal leaders, maintain and develop the vibrant living bridges with our overseas partners, are our eyes and ears in Israel, and serve our community with a sense of shlichut (mission) even if they are not all shlichim (emissaries from Israel).

Toda (Thank you) to: Anais, Atara, Bar, Heather, Justine, Karen, Leah, Michal, Matan, Moshe, Noga, Omer, Randi, Rozi, Sapir, and Shayanne.

During the weeks leading to Super Sunday, our team was very busy in engaging hundreds of individuals and families into our Federation troops. Here are only some highlights:

20 Merchavim High School students spent 10 days in our community. They were hosted by Golda Och Academy, visited many GMW agencies, encountered countless people, and accumulated experiences for a lifetime. The guests and hosts are now all part of our extended family.
The Diller Teen Fellows, cohort 6, celebrated a wonderful graduation ceremony. All 7 cohorts (some 140 families) were asked to take part in Super Sunday, #GivingTuesday, and other GMW volunteer and philanthropic opportunities. Their counterparts in Israel (an additional 140 families) are doing the same. Metro LeZion rocks.
The Rishonim (young emissaries) are invested in their hectic, unique, non-stop efforts to energize our community, recruit their host families, and involve the hundreds of children and teens that they are in touch with. The teen/college student session of Super Sunday was full of this energy and spirit. Toda to them for who they are and for the year of service that they give to us.
Our flagship program, the Peoplehood Project, cohort 3, is on its way. During Super Sunday, the participants on both sides of the ocean met with each other for the first time. Like always in such encounters, the spark was ignited, the eternal flame of engagement was lit, and the enhanced involvement of 22 new families in our community is now in evidence.
Our P2G Yoga instructors gave classes at both locations on Super Sunday. Our Ofakim/Merchavim director, Doron Rubin, was visiting our community and shared the flavor of the Negev. The Gesher teen program was launched. Three new City Council members in Ofakim are young leaders who were developed and participated in our activities. We are showcasing the connections and bringing the power and magic of “partnership together” to the larger community.
Our outreach effort to area college students, in collaboration with the Community Relations Committee of Greater MetroWest, is growing and deepening. We were very proud to elect a student board, to see many participants in our Talk Israel Retreat, and in attendance at Super Sunday. Next year we are planning to have a full time shaliach for our GMW campuses.
Our Israel-based team is monitoring more than 100 projects and programs in Israel and Ukraine. Its members are also maintaining 7 regional partnerships, hosting 6 different missions in February, screening and proposing the 2014-15 set of projects, recruiting and training our next cohort of shlichim and rishonim, and putting GMW and Ness on the map of the Negev as a major player.
2 Israeli madrichim (counselors) spent Hanukkah Seminar with our partnered community of Cherkassy, bringing with them the smells and tastes of Jewish peoplehood. This is the first year that we did this, and the hope is to make it a tradition. Toda to Hila and Tamir for dreaming and pioneering it.
The third annual community-wide Yom Ha’atzmaut Concert, featuring the internationally renowned Idan Reichel Project, is set for May 5. We are already busy organizing, building awareness, and raising funds to enable this high-end performance and use it as a community builder.
The Ethiopian Israeli community of Ramat Eliyahu is more successfully integrating into mainstream Israeli society thanks to variety of projects under Atzmaut and Atzmaut Plus, our GMW flagship initiatives. Toda to Rabbi Joel Soffin and the Jewish Helping hands Foundation for working with us, Jewish hand-in-hand, in the neighborhood.
Our winter Taglit (Birthright) bus is leaving soon. Registration for our two summer buses is on its way. The scary, grim, immigration officer at Newark Airport found it hard to understand what the purpose of my stay as a shaliach is in GMW. After some unsuccessful attempts on my behalf to explain he told me proudly with half smile: “Now I understand, you are recruiting for Birthright.” Nice acknowledgment of this strategic initiative.