The Ethnic Dinner was a very emotional farewell party which summed up the two visits. The parents of the Israeli pupils prepared ethnic food and one of the parents, offered their home.
Looking around at the happy/sad faces at this party, made us realise that cultural differences can easily be overcome and it takes the right education to make people understand that with tolerance and knowledge, prejudices are easily put aside.
Steering Committee Delegation.
The largest SA IUA Partnership 2000 delegation to attend steering committee meetings in the Beit Shemesh/Adulam region came in June, 2002. The delegation comprised lay leaders ( three new chairperson for P2K) from Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban, and included the National Chairman, Director General of the SA IUA, the National Coordinator, the Director of the IUA, Western Province and the current Keren Hayesod Representative in South Africa.
The programme included visits on site, and evening functions. One of the high lights, was an ethnic dinner and get together with the women who participate in the Women’s Empowerment Programme, sponsored by the Women’s Zionist Organisation of South Africa as over and above P2K funding. A video of this evening has been produced and will be widely shown.
Another interesting visit was to the Roglit Day Care Centre, another over and above project, which was funded by the IUA, The Ministry of Labour and Welfare and the Mateh Yehudah Regional Council.
During the tour of the various sites, the delegation was escorted by three volunteers from the Border Police in the region and a great connection between these three soldiers and the delegation was established. The SA IUA is looking in SA for donations for equipment which this patrol is lacking, and hopefully, they will shortly be supplied with torches, a computer and other security equipment. We required military escort as the day before, a suicide bomber was caught in the region of the Roglit Day Care Centre.
The meetings were very fruitful and a decision was taken to have a lead project that would concentrate on Youth. The programme for this lead project will be evolved during the coming months and in Oct/Nov 2002, the budget and the plans for implementing this major project will be authorised.
The Holocaust Tour:
As a result of the success of this wonderful educational, People to People project, there were 50 applicants from five cities (including one from East London) for the tour. However, we only had 27 slots for SA and 25 for Israel, due to budget restraints. The group from SA will arrive on August 4th for a pre-Poland seminar at Yad V’Shem and will be hosted by their counterparts in Beit Shemesh/Adulam. They depart for Poland on August 7th and return on 14th. This time, they will not spend the last weekend in Israel, but due to the security situation will return to SA the following day.
They will be accompanied by five Israeli and three South African teachers, a physician, two guides, two security officers, and a coordinator. Strictly kosher food is brought from Israel. One of the guides, the “architect” of the programme will lead the delegation for the fourth time.
Madrichim for Machanot – December 2002
For the fourth consecutive year, we are planning to send 8-10 madrichim from our region to SA to assist in the summer machanot. The madrichim from Israel make an impact and are very much in demand by the various Youth Movements. They are chosen for their experience in hadrachah, knowledge of English, live in the region and must be 18 and older. We have had several demobolised soldiers and some waiting to be conscripted.
We are hoping to interview perspective madrichim immediately after the Augtust vacations and the candidates will attend a pre-machaneh seminar.
Teachers’ Exchange Programme and Wine Growers’ Visit.
We are planning to send a group of teachers as part of the reciprocal programme started in 2001, when 14 teachers from Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and Port Elizabeth spent 14 days in the region on a special educational seminar. The contact between the South African and Israeli teachers led to a few programmes that will being implemented in South Africa.
We hope to send a group of teachers from Beit Shemesh/Adulam to spend two weeks in SA – hopefully after the chagim.
The fourth delegation of wine growers to the Cape to meet and interact with the SA wine growers, is being planned for later this year. They will include people who own Bed/Breakfast accommodation on the wine route, in order to learn about tourism and servicing visitors.
Business is also conducted as the local wine growers purchase stainless steel wine making equipment from the SA manufacturers.
An invitation to the SA wine growers and Bed/Breakfast owners to visit Israel in 2003, will be extended, and hopefully the invitation will be accepted.
We started with four wineries in the region and today there are over 15.
The project received assistance from P2K during the first years of our involvement. The assistance was made available for infrastructure, training and marketing. Today, there is no funding other than assistance for the delegations and hospitality in SA.
The opening festival of the Grape Harvest will be celebrated at Ein Hemed on July 29th and this will be the first of many events and festivals in the region.
Volunteering:
Cheryl Unterslak, wife of the Durban and incoming P2K National Chairman, remained after the Steering Committee programmes to volunteer her services in Beit Shemesh. Cheryl was one of the teachers on the previous Holocaust tour and on the Teachers’ Seminar in December 2001.
Cheryl, before training to be a teacher, qualified and worked as an architect and her skills made it possible for her to teach English and to paint, single handed, a magnificent mural on the walls of the new Science and Technology building in Beit Shemesh. She also painted murals in one of the Nursery Schools in Beit Shemesh.
The Mayor of Beit Shemesh, Mr. Dani Vaknin, said of Cheryl that she is a “n’shamah from South Africa”
Reported by Miriam (Mickey) Blumberg.