Yehudit (Judith) Ogorinsky, Vered Otmy, Ada
Bouganim, and Saraleh
Haitman will travel to the US on January 31st, first visiting Phoenix from February 1st to 5th, Tucson from February 1st to 12th, and Seattle from February 10th to 15th. TTheir visit is part of the People-to-People program of the partnership, a way for Jews in these 3 American cities to interact personally with Israelis in our Partnership region. They will teach art at Jewish schools and synagogues, in synagues with adults, and talk about their life experiences, art in Israel and the partnership in their region as they visit these three cities. They also will see art in these three communities and interact with local Jewish artists there.
Yehudit,from Moshav Kochav Michael, is a well-known artist specializing in mosaics. She made aliya from Minneapolis 40 years ago. Her work can be seen at www.mosaico.co.il .
Vered, from Moshav Geha, specializes in paper mache. Her work can be seen at www.veredotmy.com. A
Ada , from Nitzan, studied to be an art teacher and now designs sets for special events including B'nai Mitva, weddings, etc.
Sarale, also from Moshav Geha, was an art teacher for many years in south-central Israel, taught teachers how to teach art, and also taught film and communication at Sapir College in Sderot.
Kiryat Malachi & Hof Ashkelon in ISRAEL, in partnership with TIPS - Tucson, Seattle & Phoenix in the U.S. Working together, to make a difference.
Introduction
TIPS is one of more than 45 partnerships developed by the Jewish Agency for Israel to help world Jewish communities connect to Israel as partners working together and not in the traditional donor-recipient relationship. The Jewish Federations of Tucson, Phoenix, and Seattle form the TIPS partnership, which works with Kiryat Malachi and the rural region of Hof Ashkelon. Several Jewish Federations in California also have a relationship with those two areas through the Western Region Network.
Kiryat Malachi is an immigrant town of about 23,000 people, located an hour’s drive from both Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Today more than 25% of the town is from Ethiopia. Hof Ashkelon is a rural district of stretching from just north of the Gaza Strip to south of Ashdod with 13,500 residents in 19 moshavim and kibbutzim and a “temporary” town of Gaza émigrés. The communities closest to Gaza have often been targets of mortars, missiles, and even land attacks.
The Israeli and American members of the joint steering committee decided in 2006 to place the emphasis of their core budget funds on teenagers in order to change the image of the region and to instill in them a pride for their home communities.
The teens themselves created the programs that are now being implemented, which include a first ever regional sports league, a performing arts program in cooperation with the national “happening” - Festival B'Shekel, youth leadership regional clubs, leadership taught through sports, and teen work groups renovating public areas.
The remaining 1/3 of the budget is for exchanges and interaction of people in the 3 US and 2 Israeli communities. Programs include a joint teen trip for the summer of 2009, teen counselor exchanges, an apartment in Kiryat Malachi for Americans volunteering in the town, school e-mail exchanges and visits, and an art contest and a calendar featuring the winning entries.P2K is not just a list of wonderful projects. We work together to help promote the values of volunteerism, accountability, empowerment, cooperation, and mutuality, as well as the creation of lifelong friendships. Members of our communities are invited to participate.
For more information, contact Adam Tennen in Phoenix (480 634 4900 x 1102), Moshe Babel-Pour in Tucson (520-299-3000 x191), and Dina Tanners in Seattle (tanners47@yahoo.com).