"Top Gifts" Mission Enjoys Sunny Ashkelon Winter

Michael Elman (Baltimore) and Alan Marcus (Ashkelon).

The "Top Gifts Mission to Israel and Poland" was in Ashkelon on the 9th and 10th of November as part of a hectic 10 day trip with a non-stop program full of action, excitement and highlight events.

Top Gifts Mission to Israel and Poland -Nov 2008

Michael Lapidus Park (Park Baltimore)

On 9th November, the Top Gifts Mission delegates attended the 13th Memorial Ceremony for the late Yitzhak Rabin, for the 3rd year running. After the ceremony the Mission enjoyed dinner at the home of Shmuel and Leah Pivo, long-time Ashkelon residents.

Anat Weinstein Berkovitz - spokeswoman, Ashkelon Municipality, and Maia Hoffman - Director of Delegations and Special Projects.

After dinner, Levi Shafran talked about his experiences as a pilot, flying one of the planes involved in Operation Solomon - a 36 hour non-stop airlift operation transporting Ethiopian Jews to Israel in 1991, and showed a short documentary that left many in tears.

LEAP (Ladies Ethiopian Art Project) embroidery was on sale and mission participants were treated to a short talk by ENP Director Dr. Negist Mengesha.

The next morning began with a security briefing from Avi Dichter, and continued with visits to PACT and other projects funded by the Jewish community of Baltimore and the Ashkelon-Baltimore Partnership. The highlight of the morning was the visit to The Michael Lapidus (Park Baltimore) and the Lyn Stacie Getz Playground. Many of the TOP GIFTS participants also took part in building the Park and the Lyn Stacie Getz Playground, almost a year ago, and were excited to see the green and lush park, and all the playground equipment, all looking its best on that sunny Monday.

Nissim Suissa- Director of Environment, Ashkelon Municipality; with Sigal Ariely

Mission participants admired the ceramic and mosaic plaques made by the Pant-Futrovsky Family Mission, now mounted on a wall in the park, and then made their own hands-on contribution to the Park.

Half the group painted a protective laquer finish on the Exodus ship and the other half helped make the mosaics on the seating.

The tired but happy group took a break for a picnic lunch and a talk by Ashkelon's David Ariel, who came to Israel as a 15 year old illegal immigrant on the ship Exodus.

Suzi Eigenstein translating for David Ariel - Exodus survivor

See more photos of the "Top Gifts Mission" in Ashkelon on the Ashkelon-Baltimore Partnership online album webpage.

( http://picasaweb.google.com/nikirose/TOPGIFTS910Nov08# )

The intrepid Mission participants left Ashkelon and continued southwards for a desert experience. Two more days of the Mission remain....... Nicole

We Love Reading! (Bookworms in the making)

At long last, our reading encouragement project is up and running, full steam ahead. This project aims to instill a love of reading in primary school children, to teach them reading skills and awaken their desire to read, in the face of competing challenges such as tv and video games. The project is funded bythe Bruce Sholk family of Baltimore in honor of their son Henry's barmitzvah, and the partnership.

A steering committee headed by Levi Shafran and Moshe Yanai, and comprising educators, librarians, book-loving students and literature teachers, has drawn up the guidelines for this project. The coordinator for the project is Vered Ida Shlauzer, a specialist in the field of reading encouragement and author of "The Magic Within the Story- Raising Children who love to Read".

The first stage of the project will concentrate on 3rd-6th graders. Classes participating in the project will choose 6 books from a list of about 40 "must reads" drawn up by the steering committee. Each child will read each of these 6 books over the course of the year. The school library will receive a copy of each of the 40 books on the list.

Vered Ida Shlauzer "This is an invaluable opportunity to instill a love of reading in our young children that will serve them well throughout their lives. We thank the Sholk family and the partnership for making this happen!" (Vered's Hebrew website: http://www.sipurim-po.co.il/index_files/vered.htm ) Nicole

Shinshinim are on their way

It's time to say Goodbye and Good luck to our "Shinshinim" (Young Emissaries), Tal and Liron.

Together with Huppit Bartov who is on a visit to Ashkelon, we gathered in the Mayor's office for a farewell meeting. Everyone wished Tal and Liron good luck on their mission to Baltimore. They are about to face a challenging year but, knowing them and the Baltimore Jewish community, I know they will have the experience of a lifetime.

Nessia Tova !

See also: http://ashkelonblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/ashkelons-first-shinshinim-to-baltimore.html Nicole

CCCD Mission visits Ashkelon

Today we had lunch at the Holiday Inn in Ashkelon with the 130 members of the "UJC Campaign Chairmen & Directors Mission", who had just visited Sderot. I also brought along Alan & Ilana Marcus, Nicole and another seven English-speaking Ashkelonians who each sat at one of the tables to chat with the mission participants. Avi Dichter spoke about the security situation, the return of our two prisoners, and the strong connection between Israel and Jewish communities overseas. Nachman Shai was there, and Levi Shafran popped in to say hello. Above right in the white shirt is Eli Goldshmit, head of Beit Canada absorption center in Barnea, talking to a group of mission participants. It was lovely to see Janis, Linda, & Rachel again. Nicole

CCC&D CCCD

June-July Visits

Recent visitors from Baltimore:

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Steve Gevarter spent a day with us, together with his son David. They were on a trip to Israel with Chizuk Amona. The first picture shows all of us at lunch - Steve & David Gevarter, Mayor Roni, Deputy Mayor Levi, Dr Alan Marcus, and myself. The second picture shows David Gevarter - trying out Mayor Roni's seat for size.... who knows?!

Later that day the whole Chizuk Amona group came to Ashkelon for a few hours, visited Park Baltimore (which is looking green and lovely) and the Lyn Stacie Getz Playground, and visited Netzach Yisrael congregation.

Marty Waxman was here on a family trip and took the opportunity to stay overnight in the Ashkelon Holiday Inn, and get an update on economic development projects with the help of Eliezer Priel, Alan Marcus, Moty Harel, Iris Liebovich and myself. The group visited two new small businesses that received loans from the Loan Fund sponsored by the partnership.

Devera Routman - "DeeDee", spent nearly a whole week in Ashkelon and we kept her very busy. Amongst other activities, she volunteered at Gan Hofit kindergarten, she spent a morning with Nicole - visiting the Ladies Ethiopian Art Project, met Liron our young shinshin, ate lunch with Dr Sharf at Barzilai Medical Center, visited with Mayor Roni and Deputy Mayor Levi, walked round Park Baltimore and went to check out the Michael Lapides firetruck donated by the Baltimore community, at the Ashkelon fire-station.

Noa Nagar HaLevy - Diller program counselor, who stayed with Devera's daughter Tammy Heyman while she was on the Diller delegation to Baltimore, invited Devera (as well as Yuval, Nicole and myself) to a delicious and bountiful dinner at her lovely apartment, where Devera met Noa's family, admired the incredible sunset and view of Ashkelon from the 5th floor (top of a hill location), and said of the dinner "Of all the fancy restaurants I visited in Israel, this was the best dinner I have eaten during my whole trip". Nicole

Youth Leaders Rule

This morning, new young faces took over the leadership of Ashkelon. As part of "Youth Month" in the city, today the youth leadership had a taste of being in charge of the City. They attended meetings, were interviewed, visited locations in the city with the Mayor, answered the phone and drank a lot of coffee.

Asaf Suissa (above), chairman of the Youth Council, sat in Mayor Roni Mehatzri's chair and ran the city. Standing next to the Mayor is Liron Menashe (last year's Youth Council chairwoman), who will be our Young Shalicha to Baltimore in September 2008, together with Tal Bouhnik.

Tal Bouhnik (left) and Yuval Peretz, took over from Deputy Mayor Levi Shafran. They took their job seriously and dealt with educational issues, under Levi's instruction.Tal will be joining Liron as our Young Shlichim to Baltimore.

Bar Chaprak (right) and Shir Ariely sat in Anat Berkovich's (the municipal spokesperson) - chair , and issued a press release about events of the day.

Teens also replaced the City Manager, the other deputy mayors and department heads. After 4 hectic hours on the job, they were all very happy to go back to school... "It's not easy to run a city!"

Nicole