2.1.01 - we welcomed a BIRTHRIGHT delegation from Pittsburgh. 35 students from CMU participated. They met with 12th year students from Ort Horowitz - one of Karmiel's local High Schools - and held a round the table discussions with them on different subjects: Jewish Identity, living in Israel - living in the Diaspora, etc.

10.1.01 - we welcomed a further BIRTHRIGHT delegation, this time from Baltimore. They went on a short tour of Karmiel and then met with students from Ort Braude - Karmiel's local technical collage. A spontaneous discussion started about the situation in Israel and the problems of assimilation in the USA.

11.1.01, 14 participants on a Solidarity Mission from Baltimore visited the region. Since most of the participants were from Beith Tfilah Synagogue, and the Beith Tfilah school has extensive ties with the AMIT school in Karmiel, they visited the school, meeting with pupils and teachers. They then visited the Local authority and met with Hanna Koval - General manager of Karmiel Municipality, and with Mr. Moshe Levy, in charge of the emergency Unit of the Municipality and representative to P2K activities. They heard from them about the situation in the last while. From there they proceeded to KISHORIT, a sheltered village for members with special needs. Each summer people with special needs from our partnered communities visit and stay there too. At the end of the day, they met with the Mayor of Misgav regional council - Erez Kriesler, who spoke of the events of the last few months in the area.

15.1.01 we welcomed a BIRTHRIGHT delegation from Baltimore. There were 120 students (mostly from Maryland University), who met with year 12 students from the "Kramim" High School in Karmiel and the Misgav High School. With the help of facilitators they discussed meaningful aspects of identity and held a short visit to the area.

24.1.01 - brought the last delegation for January to the area - a Solidarity Mission from Pittsburgh. 13 people came, among them Tova Weinberg, (co-chair of Women's forum). They met with Baruch Rozen, deputy Mayor of Misgav and Michal Leon, a social worker. They visited Kibutz eshbal and the Beduin village Arab-el-Naim. They heard about the event of the last months and the effect on Arab-Israeli relations in the area. They then went on to Karmiel for a short tour, and met with Hanna Koval - general manager of Karmiel municipality, who explained about Karmiel as a city, and the relations between Arabs and Jews. At dinner they met with representatives from the women's forum, with participants from the "Sela Project" - a project of the Jewish Agency, of youths who come on Aliya by themselves (without parents), learn Hebrew and live at the absorption center. The "Sela" kids appeared with a number of songs and then had in-formal talks with the participants who were very interested in the kids and the program.

Shvat 5761 - January 2001