A
Letter about Afula from Harold Berman,
Federation Director
January 18, 2008
Dear Community
Members:
I want to share with you a wonderful new
development with our sister city of Afula.
Through the Federation's Anna P. Housen Israel
Desk, we have helped fund and create a new
partnership between Heritage Academy and the
Oren School in Afula.
Heritage Academy middle schools students are
learning together with their peers in Afula,
sharing a curriculum centered around the Bar/Bat
Mitzvah. Our students will be videoconferencing
several times this year with the Afula students,
engaging in separate and on-line learning in
between the videoconferences, and culminating
with a visit next year to Israel by the Heritage
students to meet the Afula students.
The first videoconference took place last month
on the first night of Hannukah. Channel 40
provided excellent coverage, which is now on
YouTube. Below is the link to the Channel 40
piece on YouTube:
We
can all be proud of the wonderful work of our
students, of our Federation and of our
community. In this 60th year of Israel's
existence as a Jewish State, there is no better
time to strengthen our connection to Israel.
Many of you receive our weekly e-mails about
Israel-related events in the community. (If you
are not receiving them, please let us know.)
Please mark your calendars for May, 18. We
will be presenting Hoop it up for Israel
- a special celebration of Israel's 60th
birthday at the Basketball Hall of Fame.
With activities for every age and interest, we
will be featuring two of Macabbi Tel Aviv's most
famous players - Tal Brody and Micki Berkovitch.
Congressman Richard Neal and Israel Consul
General Nadav Tamir will also be in attendance.
We hope you will join us for this one-of-a-kind
experience.
Harold Berman
Executive Director
Jewish Federation of Western Massachusetts
1160 Dickinson Street
Springfield, MA 01108
phone: 413-737-4313 x139
