Deirdre Arnowitz, Director of Social Work Services, Beth Sholom, Richmond

Last year Emek Hefer social workers Rina Tal and Amira Lamdani visited Richmond, Virginia under the auspices of Partnership 2000.

The Israeli social workers formed a friendship with Deirdre Arnowitz, Director of Social Work Services at Richmond’s Beth Sholom, who recently visited Israel as the guest of the Emek Hefer Regional Council and hosted by her already firm friends Rina and Amira.

A quick visit to the Givat Haviva campus was squeezed in to the heavy schedule of Ms. Arnowitz focusing on the parallel services for the elderly in Israel, particularly in the Partnership 2000 area of Emek Hefer, but who welcomed the opportunity to better understand the geographic regions bordering on her Richmond partners in Emek Hefer and to hear of the coexistence projects and other activities directed on and off campus at Givat Haviva.

Director of Givat Haviva’s International Department, Hilit Ben-Zvi – a member of Emek Hefer’s Kibbutz Givat Haim Meochad is involved in Partnership 2000 activities for her region and therefore our ‘Richmond connection.’ 

Hilit Ben-Zvi invited Emek Hefer Regional Council supervisor of social workers Rina to come a-calling with her American guest and colleague.  After calling in on the Arts Center and hearing about the ‘Through Other Eyes’ photographic project involving Jewish and Arab students and touching on other departments to be found on campus, Rina and Deirdre were taken to the Katzir observation platform on the Amir mountain range where using both a tourist and more detailed map, Deirdre became familiar with the area and Rina discovered a few new things as well!

Impressed by their visit to the Givat Haviva campus and vantage points in the immediate area, Rina hopes to encourage Regional Council colleagues to do likewise and Deirdre hopefully will add to her list of suggested venues for potential visitors from Richmond to Israel.

Partial view from the Katzir vantage point

over the Dotan Valley