1. Rain, Snow, Sleet and Hail
The month of January gave us a record amount of all of the above here in Israel. Monica, Shmuel and I were all snowed-in on Friday, January 28. All the precipitation was good news for Israel’s biggest puddle, a.k.a. the Sea of Galilee, which hit a record low point by the end of December, and was drying up faster than the Dead Sea. Still, the rain and snow was too little - too late, and our drought situation will be no better this year.
Commentary: The only secure long-term solution for Israel’s water needs for the 21st century is massive investment in desalination. Our politicians have been dragging their feet regarding this issue for the last 10 years. Perhaps handing over the source-springs of the Jordan River to Syria in exchange for peace will lead to Israel’s turning to the Mediterranean Sea and its brackish aquifers for its fresh water supply.
2. Upcoming events in March 2000
March is an exceptionally full month for P2K in Arad-Tamar. Here is what we have to look forward to:
01.03 - Trials for the Arad-Tamar Bowling Team. 50 kids will bowl a game at the Golden Tulip Hotel’s lanes as a one-time event. The top scorers will chosen to form a team that will practice with the goal of sending representatives to the Maccabia games this coming summer together with NJ/DE cluster kids.
06-08.03 - Mega Mission II in the region. Arrangements are being finalized to ensure that this mission will be just as successful as the first one that visited the region in November 1999.
09.03 - The three NJ participants in Project Otzma leave Arad. The three "Otzmaniks," Jessica Aronson, Shiri Berger, and David Schwartz have been a tremendous resource in the 10 weeks they have been in Arad, volunteering to help in any way possible, well beyond the call of duty. We’ve been lucky to have such dedicated future leaders of their communities with us. They will be joining the megamission buses on March 7. Jessica will be going to the Sar-el volunteer program of the IDF, and Shiri and David will be studying at the Pardes Institute in Jerusalem for the next phase of the Otzma Program.
12-24.03 - The Neshama Program from the NJ Solomon Scheachter High School visits Arad. Eight twelfth graders from NJ will do volunteer work in the morning hours and join with other twelfth graders from Arad for a variety of experiential get-togethers in the evenings with the goal of establishing bonds and enhancing the living bridge between the communities. Ilan Shtam, a teacher at the Arad high school was chosen as the coordinator in Arad for this program and he has build a program of events to make the experience in Arad memorable. The group will also participate in the Purim celebrations in Arad on March 21.
14.03 - Dr. Martin Markowitz, Dean of the Rutgers University International Business Program, will visit the region in preparation for initiating an exchange program of business students that will perform study/research projects that can potentially benefit the economic development of the region. Ed Gilberg, Director of the NJ/Israel Chamber of Commerce, will accompany Dr. Markowitz.
20.03 - Seth Gopin, the Director of Global Programs at Rutgers University, will visit the region as an orientation and fact-finding trip that will hopefully lead to more student exchange programs in cooperation with the Ben Gurion University of the Negev in Beer Sheva. He will visit a number of potential student placement sites in the region for students from a wide variety of academic departments at Rutgers, before going on to the Ofakim-Merchavim region partnered with Metrowest. He will meet with the officials of Ben Gurion University to advance these potential exchanges on Thursday, March 23.
27.03 - The Arad Musical Conservatory will host the first-ever national convention of percussionists in Israel. This is an outgrowth of the visit to Israel last July by Delaware Governor Thomas R. Carper. Among the governor’s delegation that visited the region on July 11-12, was Harvey Price, who teaches music at the University of Delaware. Harvey is now returning with a group of 17 students of percussion to tour Israel. The director of the Arad Conservatory, Yitzhak Spiel organized the convention, with the group from Delaware as the guests of honor. Performances and master classes will be given as part of the day’s program. The guests from Delaware will stay overnight in Arad with home hospitality, and spend the next day touring the region.
30.03 - The Arad String Ensemble leaves for a tour of performances in the NJ/DE cluster communities. The group of 13 kids and 6 adults will be in the US for 17 days prior to the Passover holiday. Toni Young planned the trip from the cluster side, and Shmulik Kaplan from the region side. A highlight planned for the group is observing a rehearsal of the Philadelphia Philharmonic Orchestra followed by the actual performance. The entire trip will be videotaped and edited into a documentary film by the Arad Communications Center.
3. Electronic Newsletter
The first electronic newsletter fully dedicated to news from the Arad/Tamar - NJ/DE Partnership was sent out to an e-mail list of some 200 names in January. Unfortunately, it has recently come to my attention that not everyone on the distribution list actually received the transmission. I will forward the newsletter again to all those on my email list, in case you did not get it the first time. I would appreciate receiving your comments and feedback on the newsletter.
This is a very important first effort that is meant to be used by all the federations to help increase the awareness of their constituencies to Partnership 2000 in the region, and to help recruit more lay leaders to take an active role in the partnership. The articles and pictures in the newsletter can be reprinted by the local Jewish newspapers, the federations can forward the newsletter electronically to their own email lists, and those federations that have internet web sites can add links to the newsletter site.
4. Bus for Beit Gil-ad
The bus and adaptive equipment for the Beit Gil-ad Center of the Elderly in Arad has been ordered, thanks to the matching gift of the NJ/DE cluster communities. We will post pictures of the bus on the Internet electronic newsletter when it arrives and is put into service.
6. Subcommittee Meeting Minutes and Status Reports
We have just concluded a round of subcommittee meetings in the region with refreshed list of committee members as mandated by the Steering Committee in November. Monica Zelingher will be distributing the minutes to the meetings in English to the members of the steering committee in the near future, as well as an updated roster of subcommittee members. The meetings held were:
Jan. 11 - Living Bridge
Feb. 02 - Coordination Forum
Feb. 15 - Education and Community
Feb. 23 - Living Bridge
In addition, Monica will be distributing the English translations of the 1999 end-of-year status report of the P2K projects and of the Arad-Tamar EDU in the near future.
Adar Bet 5760 - March 2000