Married to Nitzan and mother of 3, Shimrit lives in Pardes-Hanna Karkur. After being a summer Shlicha in Richmond, VA, more than 20 years ago, Shimrit returned to P2G as Programs Coordinator and quicly felt home with friends and family in Israel and in our Jewish communities. Most of the time you can find her hiking or going down from cliffs.
Our Programs
One2One English
The Partnership2Gether One2One English Program was designed to increase abilities and confidence in speaking, reading and writing English for school-age children in grades 6-12 in the Hadera-Eiron Region of Israel. Each student is assigned an educator from one of our Southeast Consortium communities for eight one-on-one sessions. Each educator is responsible for planning lessons for their students based on the student’s current English level. Since the program began in July 2020, we have personally connected 15 American educators with over 50 Israeli middle and high school students.
Young Adults-L2G
"The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been," Henry Kissinger once said. However, for those emerging into the adult environment so strongly referred to as "the real world,"we find that some are a little apprehensive about what that means. This program offers a joint leadership study program consisting of groups of young professional adults in each community and across communities. The program takes advantage of current communication technology to engage Israelis and American paired together for a Hevruta (one on one learning sessions) through texts about their Jewish heritage and identity and their responsibilities as Jews to their own community and to the worldwide Jewish community. The program's highlight event is a face-to-face meeting in a retreat format for a joint study weekend experience.
Class2Class Connections
Jewish Educators in our Southeast Communities have the opportunity to make classroom connections with Israeli educators for the purpose of engaging students in peer-to-peer connections. Classrooms have exchanged New Year's cards, classroom bio books and some have even created programs together such as joint Science Fairs. The possibilities are endless for these connections and depend upon the initiative of the classroom educators.
Youth Summer Experience
This project establishes a living bridge between youth from the region and youth from the Partnership communities. Youth from Hadera-Eiron, graduates of the Be'tzavta - Youth Leadership program, after a selection process and additional training, travel to the communities and take part in activities such as assistant counselors at the local summer day camps, Tikkun Olam programming, leadership or philanthropy activities and more. The Israeli teens are hosted in families with same-age teens in the community. The Israeli teens learn firsthand about Jewish life in the US Southeast Communities and form connections and friendships for life.
Tikkun Olam
Tikun Olam is a unique summer experience in Israel for both American and Israeli teens. American teens travel to Israel and are hosted in Israeli families in the Hadera-Eiron Region. The framework of this experience is a joint trip which includes traveling in Israel with emphasis on home hospitality, getting to know the region and exposure to various places and projects in the country. The joint experience of discovering Israel together plants seeds for a connection to Israel, strengthens Jewish identity and develops strong personal relations between the participants.
Get Connected!
Nashville
The Get Connected! Program is designed to provide Nashville's post B'nai Mitzvah students with a connection to a deeper sense of their Judaism, their peers in the Nashville community and to Israel and its people. Get Connected! offers a six session educational program followed by a 12 day experience in Israel. In addition to a meaningful experience touring Israel, the program includes 5 days together with Israeli teens from the Hadera Eiron Region, traveling together and being hosted in the family homes of their peers.
Be'tzavta - Youth Leadership
The B'Tzavta Youth Leadership Program is a unique program creating a social network giving the Partnership a strong grip in the educational field while managing to engage and bring awareness to high school teens on the issue of the Global Jewish World. The program, in Israel, includes 80-100 students in 9th-10th grade and their educators from different schools with different socio-economic and religious backgrounds.
Educators' Exchange
The Educator Exchange Program has been running for the last 20 years - one year in Israel, the following year in the United States. This is a reciprocal face-to-face experience, creating an educational living bridge, providing professional exposure and mutual learning for educators from Israel and the Southeast Communities. Over the years, numerous schools, classes and educators have been involved in cooperative relationships through our Partnership Educational Programs.
Professionals' Exchange
Our Southeast Communities, in cooperation with Israel, create exchange programs based on interest from community constituents. We have engaged artists from both sides of the ocean to create joint art exhibits. We have hosted runners from our Southeast Consortium Communities that, "2Gether" with their Hadera-Eiron counterparts, participated in the Jerusalem marathon. We have hosted firefighters in our communities and in Israel and we have hosted medical professionals who shared their knowledge and became better acquainted with their peers under the auspices of the Hillel Yaffe Medical Center.
Art and Cultural Exchange Program
Cultural Arts Programs are another way we join members of our communities around a particular point of interest and widen the circle of participants to connect people. The exhibitions are created with an artistic Jewish perspective. Our diverse environment, language, symbols, customs and other cultural differences foster an intercultural space that serves as a fascinating foundation for discussion, interpretation, shared experience and creation.
Minds in Motion (MIM)
Minds in Motion is a dancing project with the Richmond Ballet teaching the same routine of a dance to two different schools in our region...a Jewish school and a Muslim school. Six classes of 4th graders learn to perform a story through dance and movement (guided by the US dance teachers, Kathrine and Alex, and Israeli pianists). After eight days of practice in their own schools, all the kids and teachers meet twice for final rehearsals and performances in both schools. They get to know each other through ice breaking activities and dancing together in one final show. They learn about co-existence in the region while seeds of tolerance are being planted in their young minds.
Hosting Delegations
When community delegations and community guests visit in the Hadera-Eiron Region, our Israeli staff members create personal itineraries for their visits - including visits to local sites, programs with local Partnership members and visits with schools and teens. These special programs and events are organized for congregational trips and even Birthright trips from the Southeast communities, as well.