For years Boston's Jewish moms have been giving a few hours a week to fellow mothers in need of guidance, a helping hand, or just a friend who can be a maternal mentor. Now they're training moms from Haifa to do the same thing.

"Visiting Moms" is a Jewish Family & Children's Service program now in its 16th year. It's one of the agency's flagship programs, says Debbie Whitehill, who directs the Visiting Moms. "We live in a time where many women are struggling with issues that women and families have never had to deal with," she says. "If we can help give children a better start through helping moms be the kind of moms they want to be, then that is a good thing. Helping fellow mothers is a mitzvah and we can view this as tikkun olam, helping the world one person at a time." This is especially true now, she adds, as mothers face the difficult balance between career and family. Talking with their Visiting Moms about these choices helps alleviate the stress for many working moms.

Thanks to a generous donation from Combined Jewish Philanthropies (CJP), and a partnership between JF&CS and CJP's Boston-Haifa Connection, the Visiting Moms program is being modeled in Haifa by volunteer moms. During the last week, several of these Israeli volunteers spent time with their Boston counterparts to gain a sense of how this remarkably successful program can be mirrored in Israel.

What the volunteer moms from both sides of the ocean are discovering is that, whether they're helping out moms who are Orthodox or secular, poor or rich, black or white, Arab or Jewish, the Haifa visiting mothers and Boston mothers share common challenges.

"Our main goal is to teach needy mothers and to learn from them what is being done in Boston," says Karen Doryoseph, Director of the Boston-Haifa Connection and one-time Haifa resident. "We must raise questions and create an open dialogue between visiting mothers, needy mothers, Haifa mothers and Boston mothers. These are ways we can build an even stronger relationship between the Boston Jewish community and her sister city, Haifa. The greater goal is not only supporting Israel economically, but spiritually and socially as well."

"In communicating with the other mothers from Boston, we talk about the families we visit, and we also talk about our own families, our own lives," said Michal Amrani, one of the Visiting Moms from Haifa. "We have become friends."

Kislev 5765 - December 2004