Wednesday 4 June 2003

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Our first visit this morning was to Hamishpacha, a weekly haredi newspaper. It was very interesting to see in that the staff there are more liberal than the stereotypical image of haredim. The circulation is fairly large (120,000), and they seem confident that they represent the mainstream of the haredi movement.

After lunch, we went to Beit Shemesh (a town between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv) to meet with the director of their Partnership 2000 activities. They have a joint partnership with Washington, DC, and the South African Jewish community. We heard a lot about how they are working together with Jewish communities in the Diaspora to strengthen Israel.

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