A high level of camaraderie was evident as a 16-member delegation from the Arad and Tamar regions of Israel paid a whirlwind visit to Central New Jersey last week, meeting with the staffs of local Jewish agencies and a synagogue, before going on to visit other communities in the state.

All are participants in Partnership 2000, an initiative of the Jewish Agency for Israel that links the Jewish Federation of Central New Jersey and 11 other Jewish federations in New Jersey and Delaware with the two Negev communities. On the first day of their trip they met in Monmouth County with the entire NJ-Delaware P2K Committee, headed by David Mulgrum, and the federation leaders.

As volunteers or staff members, the delegates work with “P2K” projects for children, teenagers, the elderly, the handicapped, and the area’s large immigrant population.

Among the visitors were Moty Brill, the mayor of Arad, and Dov Litvinoff, the head of the Tamar Regional Council, both former chairs of the group, now serving as ex-officio members under the new chairs, lay volunteers Neri Erely and Yehoyakim Gavish.

Stanley Stone, executive vice president of the Central federation, welcomed that evolution. “It’s very important that there be open lines of dialogue but that this be an independent, volunteer effort,” he said.

Mulgrum was pleased with the get-together — the first steering committee meeting in the United States, though individual members had visited before — and the first with the Israeli side led by lay leaders.

“With so many cluster members in different places, the Israelis had to spread themselves out over the state, but coming together like that was very productive,” he said. The visitors, he said, had been intrigued to see for themselves the work being done by the agencies, like Jewish Family Service of Central New Jersey, in the different areas. “They were really surprised by what they saw — perhaps because they hadn’t realized that we also have many of the same problems here that they have, and that there are people here who need help,” said Stone.

“These are terrific people,” Canadian-born Mimi Avishai said of her colleagues. A resident of Arad and a cochair of the Living Bridge program for teens, she said, “They all care about helping people, and they really want to help each other.”

That spirit apparently carried over to their connections with local leaders. Stone said Avishai commented at the end of the trip that the group had learned a lot about how NJ communities function and ways in which the two sides of the partnership can expand their connections. “Our objective clearly was to broaden their reach beyond the federation leadership to the agency leaders, and that was achieved,” he said.

Asked what they hoped to accomplish on their one-week visit to New Jersey, volunteer Yaakov Laks replied, “Many small things.”

Some of their goals were not so small — like the potential for business connections discussed with Andrea Yonah, executive director of the Trenton-based New Jersey-Israel Commission. But most were subtle — like getting to know on their home ground the Americans who have visited them in Israel and their counterparts in local organizations.

Those Americans included Tom Beck, JFS executive director, and Richard Corman, executive director of the JCC of Central New Jersey. The following morning the Israelis spent time at Congregation Beth Israel in Scotch Plains, talking with Rabbi George Nudell and with Conrad Nadell, chair of the congregation’s Israel Support Committee.

Nadell described to the Israelis the committee’s programs, including the three Shop Israel events held at the JCC to boost Israeli commerce, and the recent Israeli Food Festival held at Beth Israel, which showcased food products and wines.

He described the community’s participation in the Salute to Israel Parade in Manhattan — the largest one of its kind in the world — and the banners the participants will be carrying this year, on Sunday, June 4, with the theme “Going up to Jerusalem.” The Israelis listened with nods and smiles at this show of support. “I’ve seen it,” said Motty Krotman, head of the partnership’s education committee, who studied in the United States.

The visitors and their hosts talked about possible linkages between Beth Israel and the congregation Avishai belongs to in Arad and other ways of forging bonds. Neri Erely, cochair of the P2K steering committee, described an annual archaeological program, in which visitors from abroad dig for artifacts and explore the region. He also inquired about other areas of potential partnership, such as dealing with environmental problems, and ways to implement post-traumatic stress treatment of the kind the Israelis have learned to provide in the past six years with the escalation of terrorism and which is needed by an increasing numbers of American soldiers returning from Iraq.

Talking later that day at the JCC with Yonah of the NJ-Israel Commission, they heard about the work of the organization, which was established in 1989 to foster bilateral trade and economic development. With her notes in English, but speaking fluent Hebrew, Yonah laid out the numerous current and potential links between Israel and New Jersey, including the new International Center for Terror Medicine in New Brunswick.

“We share a passion for research, development, and innovation,” she told the group.

For all their camaraderie, the Israelis’ views were as varied as their attire, which ranged from suits to denim, and from basic black to bright colors.

Laks — or Lakshi, as his colleagues called him — had come a few days earlier to stay with Marilyn and Gerry Flanzbaum of Warren, a couple with whom he became friends during their visits to Israel. Laks, an expert in desert agriculture, said he was shaken by the high intermarriage rate among American Jews. “I’m a different person than I was last week,” he said. “I was told that 40 percent of marriages are with someone who’s not Jewish. At that rate, if nothing is done to change the course of events, we will face a second Shoa, one with no bloodshed. But perhaps that can still be avoided.”

Some of his colleagues strongly disagreed with that statement, not because they rejected his pessimism but because they felt it wasn’t their place to judge American Jewry. Others said the topic was totally appropriate to their dialogue. A heated debate ensued, and then quite amicably they got ready to go together to their next appointment.

Nehama Gibor, a member of the P2K steering committee, said, “When we make connections like these with Jews here, we bring them a little taste of Israel and maybe give them a reason to come visit us, and get the ‘feeling of home.’”

Bringing together Jews from Israel and the Diaspora was one of the Jewish Agency’s goals when it set up the P2K program, she said. “The more people come to visit Israel, that makes the connection stronger, and maybe eventually that can stop assimilation in the United States.”

“Or in Israel,” one of her companions added.

©2006 New Jersey Jewish News