Jewish Federation of Cincinnati

Israeli Chronicles — Connecting Israel & Cincinnati

With spring’s arrival, I found hyssop—in Hebrew za’atar—growing wild in my backyard here in Cincinnati. It is a soft green connection between my life in Israel and my new life here as the community Shlicha (emissary) from Israel in Cincinnati.

For the last five years we, my family and I, lived on a moshav called Hofit, close to Netanya; it is beautiful, quiet; it overlooks the sea. It too has plenty of fresh herbs growing around.

I want to share Netanya with all of you just as I already want to share Cincinnati with people back home. Amazingly, through a program you may already know, called Partnership2Gether, or P2G, both sides can learn about, and from, each other. Cincinnati-Netanya’s P2G steering committee meets once a year, “one family in two homes,” half live in Cincinnati and half in Netanya. Every project has organizations on both sides that work together to make the project happen; each program also has an American and an Israeli champion from the P2G committee, which the Federation helps fund through the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI).

P2G is busy with five ongoing programs this summer, and people have already started arriving!

1. The Mayerson JCC “Camp at the J” Israel counselors, Lea Fisher and Shahar Cohen, arrived last week from Netanya; they specialize in bringing Israel alive for children.
2. Eight Tzofim participants—Israeli Scouts—arrived on June 19 as campers at Camp Friedlander for two weeks, hosted by families from Beth Adam. This is the 13th and final year of this program: it was the brainchild of local Cincinnatian Alan Brown, who has been instrumental in its success ever since. Because Camp Friedlander is not a Jewish camp, these Israeli scouts have a chance to meet over 1,000 American Boy Scouts who typically have never met a Jewish person, much less an Israeli.
3. The Israeli Scouts (Tzofim) Friendship Caravan, also known locally as the “singing scouts,” is coming to town for a show at the J. July 1st, 6:30 pm, and will perform all around town to Jewish and Non-Jewish crowd.
4. The Holocaust Educators Exchange, comprised of a local delegation and one from Israel, arrives July 8. They will learn from each other and local institutions how the Holocaust is taught—differently—in each country. Traveling from Cincinnati to Poland to Israel will be a part of that learning.
5. Lastly, a Taglit-Birthright Israel trip will do a “reverse” exchange, or mifgash. In other words, a Cincinnati-based group toured Israel this January with a group from Netanya on a Taglit-Birthright Israel trip; now those from Netanya, who showed the Cincinnatians their country and their city, are coming here on August 24 to visit us.

The Jewish Federation of Cincinnati, alongside important community partners, of course also steers, implements, and/or helps fund non-P2G projects that connect Israel with Cincinnati, such as my role as shlicha, the two 18-year-old Israelis who come each year for a year as Friends of Israel or Chaverim m’Israel, and the Israelity speaker series, which is bringing beautiful Israeli singers Noa (Achinoam Nini) with special guest Mira Awad this Sunday (June 28).  And there is more.
 
The most recent professional exchange was a set of social workers from Jewish Family Services and Netanya learning from and visiting each other.

Finally, as of today we have 97 high school Israel travel grant recipients and 33 post-high school travel grant recipients who will travel to Israel this summer (see CincyJourneys.org).  Now that is a busy summer!

I am lucky to see up close the strength of the bond between our two communities, Cincinnati and Netanya. It is moving how engaged the communities are and how personal connections have been created; there are so many ideas for new initiatives and new people who get involved.

I look forward to all of it, and look forward to meeting some of you at these events. Perhaps we can find ways to create bridges between us made of spices, our Judaism, our children, or simply made of talking about this wonderfully full summer.