November 18, 2010 / 11 Kislev 5771

Partnership 2000 (P2K) continued to build upon its renewed vision and plan for the future at the General Assembly (GA) of the Jewish Federations of North America in New Orleans in early November.

P2K, an international platform for strengthening Jewish identity and Peoplehood,
connects 550 Jewish communities across the globe with 45 regions in Israel.  Initially, P2K was Israel focused, responding to the needs of Israeli society. Today, 15 years later, P2K raises the consciousness of both Israelis and overseas Jewry to their sense of belonging to a Jewish people, to their communal responsibility, and to their Jewish identity through a myriad of diverse programs.
 
The well-attended GA workshop titled, “Scaling Success Program,” included a panel discussion featuring speakers who shared different P2K perspectives. The panelists included:

• Andrea Arbel, Director of the Partnership Division, Jewish Agency for Israel, who gave a general overview of how P2K serves as an International Platform for Strengthening Jewish Peoplehood; 
• Raya Strauss Ben Dror, P2K International Co-Chair and Co-Chair of the Northern New-Jersey-Nahariya Partnership, who shared personal examples of programming in these partnerships that engages different populations, different communal organizations, and ultimately has created a network of ties between the partnership communities;  
• Jane Gelman, President of the World Confederation of Jewish Community Centers (WCJCC) and former P2K Co-Chair, demonstrated how the P2K and WCJCC platforms have joined together in creative ways to engage the international constituencies of both organizations;
• Lisa Liser, P2K Co-Chair  of the Metrowest-Ofakim-Merchavim Partnership spoke about the year-long renewal process that her partnership completed, and how it created changed in “how” and “what” is being done in Partnership and how it transformed into a leading Jewish peoplehood partnership.

The panel was facilitated by Max Kleinman, Federation Executive of the United Jewish Communities of Metrowest New Jersey.

A P2K Post-GA Meeting was also held in New Orleans dedicated to “Advancing the Partnership Vision.”  This meeting included an educational session and hands-on exercises to learn about the Partnership vision tools.  These tools have been specially devised to assist partnerships advance along the strategic directions of the new vision.  The Partnership mifgash was facilitated by Becky Sobelman Stern, Vice President of Strategic Planning in JFNA.

The New Orleans meetings only underscored P2k's commitment to revitalize ongoing engagement between Jewish communities across the globe. 

"What these sessions did was raise the Jewish polity’s consciousness regarding P2K's strategic new direction. This was an effective and meaningful way for our partners and the Jewish community outside of Israel to better understand how to use P2K as an agent for communal engagement and strengthening their own communities," said Arbel.