Proposal: Studies have shown that there has been deterioration in Israel-Diaspora relations in the past ten years. In these very chaotic and troubled times for the Jews of Israel and for Jews in many parts of the world, there is a special need for rebuilding strong personal and cultural ties between Israeli Jews and the Jews of the Diaspora.

Project Family Ties proposes to facilitate re-establishing and rebuilding positive connections between Israeli families and Diaspora Jewish families, beginning with American Jewish families, by acting as the vehicle for matching and connecting families on a one-to-one level, primarily through family to family pen-pal activities.

Founder: Dale B. Weiss, formerly of New York, currently living in Herzliya, Israel is the Founder of Project Family Ties. Ms. Weiss has dual citizenship and has lived in Israel since November, 1997. Ms. Weiss is a licensed attorney, with twenty years of experience in practicing law, both in New York and more recently in Israel. She is also a teacher of English as a Second Language in Israel. Ms. Weiss will coordinate Project Family Ties from her base of operations in Israel.

Purpose: To build personal friendships between Israeli Jewish families and American Jewish families on a one-to-one basis, in order to strengthen the mutual understanding, cultural communication and positive personal involvement of the people of Israel and the Diaspora.

Goals: Our goal is to successfully connect one thousand (1000) families in the first year of the program. It is hoped that after the first year, depending on security issues and other relevant conditions, it will be possible to promote a Project Family Ties group summer program and convention in Israel, possibly with home hospitality for a portion of the program. Every effort will be made to have the American families transported to Israel by subsidized charter flight in order to make the experience financially accessible to as many families as possible.

The same cycle will be repeated each year, adding a matched one thousand (1000) families to the program, with the group visiting Israel during the following summer.

Rationale: It is well-known that when we have a personal link with someone in another country or culture, our understanding and empathy, our sense of connection to that country and culture is enhanced. By establishing such connections, Israel will be more than an abstraction for the many American Jews who have not spent significant time in the country and Americans will be personalized and made real for Israelis, who have not had significant first hand experience with America or its people. Bringing the two groups closer will benefit and strengthen both groups, increasing involvement and solidarity for people, who would otherwise not feel directly involved in issues, which are important and common to both groups.

Methodology: A family matching data base will be built by contacting synagogues of all denominations and Jewish Community Centers throughout the United States and similar organizations and groups in Israel. Any interested family will be asked to complete a questionnaire with important data for the purpose of matching families that have at least one similar characteristic. Examples of such characteristics are children of similar ages, special interests in sports or hobbies, similar professions of the parents and the like.

An orientation sheet will be given to each participating family. Suggested areas of common interest will be set forth and general guidelines will be suggested to help participating families establish mutually comfortable friendships. Follow-up communications to each family will be made approximately one month after the match is made in order to get feedback and ascertain that the program is working. Feedback will be used to regularly update the program. We will attempt to share interesting stories and feedback, where appropriate, with the entire group, via email communications, perhaps through an email newsletter.

It will also be possible to plan occasional local program evenings for participating families in a particular region with video movies made by their counterparts in the other country, discussion groups and general cultural information (sing-a-longs, recipe exchanges, sports exchanges, etc).

There will be no cost to a family for participating in the program and there will be no financial obligation of any kind from one family to the other.

Pen-pal family to family connections will be made primarily through email or regular mail for families that have no access to the internet. After two families become acquainted, they may choose other methods of communication (such as occasional phone calls, sending family photos) as well, but such choices will be at their option and certainly not required.

The primary language of communications will be in English, unless the two families decide to use Hebrew. One secondary benefit of participation in the program, especially for families with children who are learning the primary language of the other family will be an opportunity to practice the second language that they are learning in school.

Hebrew school and day school programs may be especially interested in having their students participate in the program as a way of reinforcing the new language skills of their students. Likewise, teachers of English in the Israeli schools may see a similar benefit for their students.

After successfully launching the American-Israeli part of the program, we will consider expanding it to other countries, which have Jewish populations.

For more information, please contact
Meredith Weiss
Natl. Dir.,
Coalition for Jewish Concerns-Amcha