Boston and Haifa: One Connection at a Time
By Matt Lebovic
Jewish Agency for Israel
Boston's Jewish community has a 50-percent share in Haifa, the Israeli city's mayor told two-dozen Bostonians last week. In Haifa for the joint-steering committee meetings of Combined Jewish Philanthropies' (CJP) Boston-Haifa Connection, local leaders continued to strengthen the sister-city connection, one relationship at a time.
"This connection is the right way to see the relationship between Israel and the Diaspora," said Haifa Mayor Yona Yahav. "It's the right way for Jewish people around the world to get involved in the build-up of our homeland."
Yahav was referring to 18 years of programs and exchanges between Boston and Haifa, a partnership that engages dozens of schools, synagogues and social agencies in both cities. Haifa leaders said the Connection proved particularly strong during this summer's month-long rocket attacks on Haifa by Hizballah.
"The biggest accomplishment of the Connection was the number of phone calls and Emails sent from Bostonians to Haifaim," said Gadi Sassower, the partnership's Haifa-based chair. "No other community in the US has something like Boston does with Haifa." The personal relationships built through the Connection illustrate the program's success even more compellingly than the nearly $10 million raised by Boston's Jewish community for Haifa during this summer's crisis, Sassower added.
During a series of meetings and presentations last week, the Connection's various subcommittees briefed each other on recent progress and charted a course for the coming months. Among the Connections 100-plus projects in Haifa and Boston, several accomplishments were heralded with special enthusiasm.
The Shiluvim ("Integration") program has earned the respect and participation of Israeli government agencies including the Ministry of Welfare and Haifa's municipality. The program includes a host of employment, education and healthcare projects designed to empower Haifa's Ethiopian community, a group facing special challenges to successful absorption.
"The program has made a remarkable impact on the lives of Ethiopian families in Haifa," said Nancy K. Kaufman, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council, which oversees the program. "We've worked with the Haifa municipality to hire fourteen Ethiopian leaders to coordinate our projects. This 'integration' philosophy of leadership marks a new stage for all of us. There's been an enormous change of attitude and tremendous progress."
The Boston-Haifa Connection's school partnerships also received tremendous "buzz" last week. Through exchanges, videoconferences and the Internet, high schools students in the sister cities have forged lasting relationships and strengthened their sense of Jewish identity, said Hava Kuhmrich, a Connection "school-to-school" volunteer in Haifa.
"The language between the youth of Haifa and Boston has proven to be Judaism and friendship," Kuhmrich said. "Haifa's students have learned about the diversity and strength of Jewish life in Boston, and Boston's students have learned about Israel's place in their Judaism. This is a true exchange and partnership."
The Boston-Haifa Connection will continue to flourish as long as people on both sides of the partnership care about building relationships, said Chester Black, the Connection's Boston-based chair. "We are working to increase volunteerism in both cities and make more connections on all levels," Black said. "We're only limited by the number of people who want to get involved. If the vision and the people are there, the funds will come."
