Three young leaders from P2K region to thank community for support
Leandro Keselman is not a wandering Jew but he sure gets around. And early next month, the Argentina-born Tiberias physician will visit Milwaukee to participate in the Milwaukee Jewish Federation’s Super Sunday and Super Week.
Keselman and two others — Dr. Ofer Tamir and Yuval Davidowitz — will come to Milwaukee as young leaders from the Sovev Kinneret region, Milwaukee’s Partnership 2000 region in Israel, which stretches from Tiberias to the Lower Galilee and the Jordan Valley. The three men hail from each of these regions, which Milwaukee shares with Minneapolis, St. Paul and Tulsa.
And while the three are here, they will sit with community volunteers, make calls asking for support for the campaign and thank community members for supporting Israel.
Super Sunday, set for Dec. 7, kicks off Super Week, which runs Dec. 8-10. The Sunday-through-Wednesday phonathon event is a central part of MJF’s Community Campaign 2004, which is themed “Together, We Make It Possible.”
Participation of the Israeli leaders will add a new element to the event this year, said Super Sunday-Super Week co-chair Phillip Katz. “This is going to be great on several levels.
“One is for the delegates from the region to see how much effort the community puts into raising funds. Second is for us to understand their needs. Third is to create personal relationships between people here and there. And fourth is to raise awareness in the Milwaukee community of what we’ve done in our P2K region because we’ve done some really critical work.”
Co-chair Stephanie Riches added, “It’s a wonderful opportunity for us to get to know them better and for them to have a deeper understanding of what takes place over here.”
Keselman, 29, sees his visit as a chance to give back to the Jewish world. “I feel that it’s a way to give back all that Israel does for me,” he wrote in a recent e-mail interview.
“[W]ith this trip, I have the possibility to know new people, to share my experiences and to express how happy I am here in Israel. I can express to you how much you can help us and how much Israel can help all the Jews of the world, as Israel has helped me.”
“In other words, all of us take care of Am Yisrael — the people of Israel — we from here and you from there,” said Keselman, a physician who made aliyah in early 2002 with a Jewish Agency for Israel project that brought Argentinean physicians to Poriya Government Hospital outside Tiberias.
Seasoned activists
Davidowitz, from Kibbutz Ma’agan in the Jordan Valley, is not new to P2K activities: The 40-year-old father of three visited Milwaukee in March 2000 as part of Young Leadership Group A, a two-year program designed to develop leaders within the region.
“I think and hope,” Davidowitz wrote, “that together we can make the circles grow bigger, meaning getting more people involved, explaining about P2K and strengthening existing ties.”
“I think that one of the most important outcomes of all projects is the fact that so many new connections are made — people to people as we call it,” he said.
Deputy director of Poriya Government Hospital, Tamir is also not new to activism. The father of five has participated in aliyah missions to France in 1999 and to Latin America in 2001, the latter of which resulted in Keselman’s emigration to Israel.
Tamir has a clear sense of purpose in this delegation. As I see it,” he said, also by e-mail, the mutual relationship between the Jewish community in America and the people of Israel is one of the most important factors in the existence of our Jewish communities.
“[A] strong and healthy American Jewish community is essential for the survival of Israel and a strong and healthy Israel is essential for the existence of the American Jewish community,” he said.
P2K is a program of the Jewish Agency for Israel and is supported by funds from the Milwaukee Jewish Federation’s Annual Community Campaign and other federations across North America.
During their 10-day stay, Keselman, Davidowitz and Tamir will speak at synagogues, schools, and other organizations and agencies throughout Milwaukee.
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