The Billy Dalwin Pre-School of Temple Emunah is a proud participant of the Boston Ḥaifa Early Childhood Educators Exchange. Founded in 2001, the ECE Exchange is a collaborative effort sponsored by several local Jewish institutions including the Bureau of Jewish Education and the Boston Ḥaifa Steering Committee of Combined Jewish Philanthropies. The ECE Exchange has created a partnership between preschool teachers and directors in Ḥaifa and the Greater Boston area, enabling educators from Boston and Ḥaifa to visit and learn with counterparts in their sister cities.

Each year the ECE Exchange has grown in size and scope. In February 2001, Boston and Ḥaifa early childhood educators participated in their first mifgash (encounter) and began a professional dialogue in Ḥaifa. Subsequent exchanges included presentations by the Bostonians and Ḥafaim to each other on professional topics of mutual interest. This was followed by collaborative presentations and joint curriculum initiatives. In March 2004, when our Israeli colleagues visited, they taught in our classrooms for the first time and during the February 2005 and 2007 trips to Israel, we taught in theirs. Despite the obstacles of distance, and differences in language and setting, participants were eager to assume active teaching roles in their partner classroom and all experienced success.

With the support of the Pre-School board of directors, staff, and families, the director and several of our teachers have been fortunate enough to participate in ECE Exchange Missions to Israel. We have also served as a host site and model school for our Ḥaifa colleagues in March 2002, March 2004, April 2006 and April 2008 during their week-long ECE Exchange Missions to Boston.

This year with the support of our parent community and board of directors and with financial assistance from the Tenenbaum Family Executive Director Endowment Fund and the Bureau of Jewish Education staff development stipend, eight staff members of the Billy Dalwin Pre-School of Temple Emunah participated in the February 2009 Boston Ḥaifa ECE Exchange Mission to Israel! During this extraordinary ten day study mission our staff members engaged in an intensive professional workshop with our early childhood partners from Ḥaifa and with local colleagues as well. The ECE Exchange itinerary included in-depth visits to key sites in Jerusalem and Ḥaifa, classroom observations and interactive workshops. These workshops and round table discussions have enabled us to explore new techniques in special education, multi-ethnic/multi-cultural education, integrating arts into classroom curriculum and other topics relevant to early childhood educators so vital to the growth of our programs in Boston and Ḥaifa. With so many of our teachers participating in this year's Exchange, its impact will be felt in each of our classrooms this year and in the years to come.

The Boston Ḥaifa ECE has created a network of participating Jewish preschools and day care centers in the greater Boston area that are committed to working in partnership with each other and our Ḥaifa colleagues to instill a love for and connection to Israel, its land, and its people. This local network, sponsored by the Bureau of Jewish Education and facilitated by Naomi Chernin, the early childhood Consultant for the BJE, meets on a monthly basis during the school year to exchange ideas, share materials, and develop curriculum that will enhance the relationship between our children and their counterparts in Ḥaifa.

As early childhood educators we recognize the values of cooperation and pluralism. At this critical time in Israel's history, the staff of the Billy Dalwin Pre-School is dedicated to a partnership that promotes cooperation and celebrates diversity and we renew our commitment to its participants, goals and projects.

We feel lucky to be partnered again with Gan Hamaniya and its talented teacher Anat Lion. We very much enjoyed joining her in her classroom, interacting with her students and collaborating to design classroom curriculum and projects that bring the communities of Ḥaifa and Boston closer together.