From the bomb shelter which currently serves as a makeshift community center and synagogue for Ethiopian Olim in Arad, Benny Adonani talks to delegates from the New Jersey and Delaware Cluster, tied to the Arad-Tamar region through the Partnership 2000 program. He is explaining the problems facing his community.

Benny is a true pioneer for all Ethiopians in Israel. He came to Israel from Egypt via the Sudan 32 years ago as one of the first eight Ethiopian Olim. He quickly established himself in Israeli society, becoming a driver for the Egged Bus Company in 1968. He subsequently helped found the first organization for Ethiopian Jews in Israel.

Today, Adonani heads a community in need. Without a synagogue or community center they desire they lack a focal point. A community center would provide a framework to help with general social and family problems. If they were able to build a center it could be used by all members of the community, including the elderly who often feel isolated in their new surroundings, and the women, who could use it as a base to do handicrafts and supplement their income.

But as the community's rabbi, Shai Avraham, explains, it is the youth who are the main concern of the older olim. "With the short school day," he explains, there is no framework for the young people." The community needs help from Partnership 2000 with things that the municipality just can't provide. Rabbi Avraham came to Israel during Operation Moses, and was one of the first Ethiopian immigrants to be ordained as a rabbi in Israel.

However, Adonani, a cheerful and charismatic figure, is keen to stress the successes of the Ethiopian community across the country. In the 15 years since Israel mounted Operations Moses and Solomon to bring the Ethiopian Jews to Israel, they have come a long way, having integrated well in the universities and the army.

Just how Partnership 2000 will be able to help the Ethiopian community in Arad is not yet clear. But a very important part of the New Jersey-Delaware delegates' trip is to determine where Partnership 2000 can make the greatest impact.

The mission was instrumental in building personal relationships between community leaders in Israel and in the Diaspora, as a starting point for personal contact on a broader scale. As New Jersey-Delaware Partnership 2000 Cluster Co-Chair Gerry Flanzbaum said, "through Partnership 2000 the community has a heightened awareness of its Israel connection . Individual contact is very important".

Inside the comfortable home of one of the Olim families delegates sample a traditional dish - Ethiopian bread with a spicy dip. Benny tells the group how he can personally chart his family back through seven generations. His family tradition holds that they were among those who traveled to Ethiopia by way of the Red Sea after being exiled 2000 years ago.

The concept of the Ethiopian community being brought, en masse, home to Israel after such a long time puts into context the importance of relations between Israel and the Diaspora. Delegates experienced first hand that there is a united world Jewish community, a concept central to the ideals of Partnership 2000.