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The Charlotte Jewish News - February 2006 - Page 5
September and November Missions to Hadera
By Sue Littauer, Jewish
Federation Campaign Director
As the primary staff person
for Partnership 2000, I had the
distinct pleasure of leading two
missions to Israel in the fall of
2005. As I hope you are aware,
for the past four years, our fed
eration has been involved in a
partnership consortium with
seven communities in the south
east and the Hadera-Eiron
region of Israel. Because our Sue Littauer (far right) with the women
federation is the largest cohtrib- forum participants.
utor to the consortium, and
because we are the largest com
munity involved, we felt that
going forward we wanted to carve
out our own identity. Thus, we
began a process of negotiations
with the Jewish Agency to embark
on our own partnership with a
community in Israel.
On September 5, Roz and Ivan
Cooper, Ellen Goldstein, Kevin
Ziman and I arrived in Israel and
spent two and a half days meeting
with officials, and visiting pro
grams, community centers and
schools in the area. Each mission
participant had his own area of
expertise and was able to assist in
the analysis of which community
would be the best match for
Charlotte. In Hadera we visited a
matinas (community center), a
magnet high school for Sciences
and the Arts, the Technoda (a sci
ence enrichment program serving
10.000 students), an Ethiopian
I Youth Village housing 152 boys
I from broken homes, a Chabad
■ Soup Kitchen, and a tutoring
program which assists Kavkazi
high school students to succeed
at higher performance levels.
A visit to Katzir-Harish
brought each of us on the mis
sion a renewed sense of pur
pose as we experienced a com
munity clearly in need. Harish,
a community of 350 families,
was built as a buffer to the
90.000 Arabs living on the
other side of the Green Line,
just 5 kilometers away. The gov
ernment hopes to attract 50,000
families to this area. Currently,
there is a town hall, a kinder
garten, a small Orthodox commu
nity, and for the most part Kavkazi
and Ethiopian new immigrants
seeking employment with no pub
lic transportation to take them to
jobs. Katzir, a beautiful communi
ty of 1,050 families, provides the
schools for the area, and is a mid
dle class self-sufficient communi
ty-
After much discussion, it was
decided that our recommendation
would be to partner with the city
of Hadera, and to encourage our
P2K consortium to bring the com
munity of Harish-Katzir into its
future plans. Also, individual proj
ects in Harish will be considered
as mentoring opportunities for the
Charlotte-Hadera partnership.
(Continued on page 13)
Here to Serve
By Emily Patrick, Accounting
Manager, Jewish Federation of
Greater Charlotte
In January 2005, when I was
offered the position of Accounting
Manager for the Federation, I hes
itated. I am not Jewish. Surely this
was not the right job for me. But I
was assured that religion was not
an issue, and I am happy that I
accepted this marvelous job.
Another quandary presented
itself when United Jewish
Communities sponsored a mission
to Israel for Financial and
Technology Professionals from
Federations across the US. Surely
1 would not qualify, UJC missions
must be only for Jews, I thought.
Again, I was wrong. So in
September 2005 I left for my first
visit to Israel.
In seven very fast paced days, I
learned more about that tiny little
country than I ever imagined I
could.
I was able to experience Jewish
culture, history, landscape, and
people in a way that was extreme
ly moving. I truly did not expect
-to have my eyes opened in quite
so many ways.
We visited many historical sites
like the Old City and the Western
Wall in Jerusalem and several
Christian sites around Tiberias. It
was quite breathtaking to be in the
presence of structures and villages
that I have studied in Sunday
school at church. It made the
Bible stories so much more real.
We experience natural wonders
like the Golan Heights and the
Negev. It is amazing what is con
tained in the small borders of this
place. It definitely made me real
ize there was a higher being that
created such a place with all the
beauty and harshness and bounty
all wrapped up in a tiny package.
We also got to visit with
Jewish-Israeli and Arab-Israeli
families and got to talk with them
about Jewish-Palestinian rela
tions. It was such a different expe
rience than what I have gotten on
the evening news here at home.
These families and our amazing,
very knowledgeable tour guide
were able to answer so many
questions, many that we didn’t
even know we had. This was prob
ably the most eye opening part of
the trip. This conflict runs so deep
and has so many facets, it seems
almost unsolvable.
As we visited with several of
the organizations the Federation
supports, I felt so proud to be able
to do my small part to make the
lives of these people better and to
promote the importance of Israel
all over the world. I am so glad I
got to experience Israel as a liv
ing, ever-changing organism
instead of just a drawing on a
map. I hope these missions contin
ue for all people, Jews and non-
Jews alike. I think they are crucial
to really understanding the politi
cal, religious, environmental and
cultural issues that surround Israel
and Jews around the world.
I firmly believe God’s purpose
for me this past year was that I be
made more clearly aware of the
importance of Israel and its peo
ple. As a Christian, I am called to
seiwe. I am privileged that I have
been put in a position to serve this
way. ^
POSITION AVAILABLE
The Jewish Federation of Greater Charlotte is currently
seeking to hire an Outreach Director.
The Outreach Director’s responsibilities include promoting
Federation’s mission and goals through events, programs, and
community-wide engagements in an effort to cultivate
Federation’s donor and leadership base.
Strengths must include strong organizational skills, ease in
a fast-paced working environment, and an enthusiastic, friend
ly and dynamic personality. Candidates must demonstrate both
an ability to work closely with others in a team environment
and personal self-motivation.
Qualified candidates must have a Bachelor’s degree, basic
computer skills, and a minimum of 1 -3 years experience work
ing in a Jewish community
and/or non-profit environment.
Interested candidates should
direct inquiries and resumes to
info@jewishcharlotte.org.
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