• About Partnership 2000 (P2K)
• Kiryat Malachi / Hof Ashkelon – Our Partnership Region
• Volunteer Apartment & Opportunities in Israel
• Monthly Tzedakah Projects You Can Do
• Partnership 2000 Newsletter
• Download the Brochure

Making a Difference --Six Tons of Books

In the fall of 2002, Norm Chapman of Bellevue and his wife Isabella participated in a mission to Israel sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle. During the trip, they visited an elementary school English class in the town of Kiryat Malachi and were shocked to see the children had no English books to read other than their textbooks. Determined to rectify that problem, the Chapmans began gathering children’s English books from Seattle area Jewish schools and synagogues. In the five years since they began, Norm and Isabella have sent more than 32,000 books to 30 centers, including eight elementary schools, four secondary schools, two public libraries, a gifted program for youth, and the science center in our sister region of Kiryat Malachi and Hof Ashkelon. The 454 shipments weighed over 13,500 pounds and have benefitted thousands of students. When Dina Tanners, Seattle chair of the TIPS Partnership (Tucson, Israel, Phoenix and Seattle) visits the schools and libraries in the region, she hears comments such as the following:

“ The youth at our high school have turned into avid English readers because of the books you have sent. One boy cannot wait for the arrival of a new shipment to see if the latest Anamorphs has arrived.”

“ My students love going to the English library room each week to sit and look at books. They each were given a book (of which we got multiple copies). It was the first English book any of them had had in their homes.”

“ We now have over 2,000 books in English at our regional library. High school students often come to check out books to use for school reports and are delighted that we have such a good selection.”

“ Although our regional gifted program for upper elementary youth focuses on science, I am using the books you have sent to “sneak” in English through the back door. The children think it is a treat to be able to take out several English books each week to read at home, and their parents love it!”

“ We can definitely see a difference in test scores in the youth that regularly read the books you have sent us.”

Although books are expensive in Israel, when several Israeli teachers heard about the need for children’s Hebrew books in Seattle, they began to gather books for us. Already 50 pounds of children’s Hebrew books have been delivered to two Seattle day schools and more will be collected to bring back this summer.

Michal Ardening, a teacher at Hofim Elementary School at Kibbutz Yad Mordechai, said that without our endeavors, her school would not have enough English books, so the least they can do is send some Hebrew books to us! It is nice to have such a partnership, with the books going in both directions—to Kiryat Malachi and Hof Ashkelon in Israel and to the youth here in the Seattle area.

For more information on these books or if you are traveling to Israel and can bring some Hebrew books back here, please email Dina or email Norm Chapman.

Partnership 2000 [P2K] began in 1995 as an attempt by the Jewish Agency and the United Jewish Appeal [now the United Jewish Communities] to help the Jewish communities of the world to connect to Israel in a new and different way—not as donor and recipient but as partners who would face and try to solve problems together. Communities in the Diaspora were connected to regions in Israel like the town of Kiryat Malachi and the rural area of Hof Ashkelon with the Western Region of the U.S. with the expectation that a real relationship could be formed and that specific projects would be implemented that would benefit the residents in these depressed areas of Israel.

Many meetings were held to develop the partnership. Today, quarterly meetings are held—two in Israel and two in the U.S. each year, with representatives from the various areas sitting down together to find the best ways to carry out their mutual goals.

The fifteen communities in the Western U.S. that form the Western Region Consortium include Seattle, Portland, Tucson, Phoenix, East Bay, Long Beach, Orange County, Palm Springs, Ventura, San Jose, Sacramento, Las Vegas, Albuquerque, Salt Lake City, and El Paso. Visit http://www.jewishagency.org/JewishAgency/English/Israel/Partnerships/Regions/Malachi/Tipps for updates and information on the exciting programs our cities are implementing.

Seattle has a Partnership 2000 Committee that meets to discuss how we as a community can connect with Israel. If you are interested in being more involved, please e-mail the TIPS chair, Dina, or call 206-774-2212.

The region of Kiryat Malachi/Hof Ashkelon is a distressed area and not an easy place to live. Located about an hour SSE of Tel Aviv and also an hour’s drive from Jerusalem, Kiryat Malachi was established in 1951 with new immigrants from Morocco, Romania and other countries including Yemen, Tunisia, Iran and Turkey. The immigrants first lived in tents and worked in the menial, low-paying jobs. Slowly, many of them bettered themselves, and many also left town. Those that remained were joined by waves of immigrants in the 1970s from Georgia and Buchara, and in the 1990s from the FSU and more than 3500 from Ethiopia. 40% of the entire population of 22,000 arrived in Israel since 1990. Many of the new immigrants and many of the veterans are unfortunately living in poverty, and 50% of the entire population is on the welfare roles.

Hof Ashkelon is a rural district of 19 moshavim and kibbutzim stretching from the border with Gaza to almost the city of Ashdod (excluding Ashkelon). It has always been primarily an agricultural region, but the crisis in agriculture starting in 1985 when the cost of farming became greater than the income derived from it has driven many of the farmers out of the field. Some moshavim have been hit very hard, and the shadow of economic downturn hangs over them. About 9,000 people live in this region.

The Western Consortium of P2K has a budget of about $400,000 to support projects in the region. Funding decisions are decided jointly by U.S. and Israeli members of the P2K steering committee at the annual budget meeting. Projects funded are in the realms of education, welfare, leadership and empowerment, and the “Living Bridge” connection, which helps develop exchanges between the U.S. and Israel.

In addition, many federations make supplemental contributions to projects. For example, Seattle helped fund an after-hours medical clinic in Kiryat Malachi and a preventative dental clinic in Hof Ashkelon. A man in Seattle has helped collect over 11,000 easy English books for schools and libraries in the region as well as pre-school toys for a special education program.

P2K is not just a list of wonderful projects. We work together to help promote the values of volunteerism, accountability, empowerment, cooperation, and mutuality.

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Through the Western Region Consortium, Seattle Jewish Community members have the opportunity to spend time in Israel living and volunteering in our partnership communities of Kiryat Malachi/Hof Ashkelon. More information is available by downloading the FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS and LIST OF VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES. If you’re interested in this opportunity, please e-mail p2k@jewishinseattle.org, call Amy at (206) 774-2212 or call Dina at (206) 963-4344.

My husband Howard Cockerham and I are volunteering for the 5th summer in Kiryat Malachi and are staying in the large 3-bedroom volunteer apartment together with a volunteer from Tucson. Carol and Bob Maslan are in Israel too and took a day to come to this area to see the projects the sites and projects that our Federation supports in Kiryat Malachi and Hof Ashkelon. They also saw two libaries that have had their English sections well-stocked thanks to the collection of books by Norm Chapman. If anyone wants more information on volunteering, they can contact me via email after we return home the end of this month.

--Dina Tanners

You can help our Partnership 2000 communities from home by taking part in monthly tzedakah projects. Contact us at p2k@jewishinseattle.org or 206-774-2212 for more information.

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