By: Aya Ovadya

A delegation of twelve teens from the Pittsburgh area arrived for a visit with their counterparts from the Karmiel-Misgav region this past July 6th. They arrived within the framework of the "Teen Leadership" project operated by Partnership 2000 and the Jewish Agency for Israel.

The project's objective is to develop a young leadership cadre that will promote and maintain P2P relationship between the young people of the partner communities. The program also works to strengthen their Jewish identity and their relationship with the State of Israel.

The candidate selection process began this January in Israel among the 10th grade students of the Karmiel-Misgav region. Thirteen young people were subsequently selected. The group then participated in a series of preparation workshops led by Tal Hakim from Kibbutz Pelech and Galit Nir from Atzmon.

The visit by the American youth included tours of Jerusalem, the Dead Sea region, Masada, and other sites as well. They arrived in the region for a ten-day visit on July 11 as guests of their Israeli counterparts. During the stay in the region, the young people, both American and Israeli visited together at Rosh Hanikra, the city of Tzafat and an IDF base on the Israel-Lebanese border. They also enjoyed a day of rafting on the Jordan River and rappelling on the Dalton Cliffs.
The group attended the opening and closing ceremonies of the annual Karmiel Folk Dance Festival and participated in ideological workshops that dealt in issues such as Jewish Identity and Israel- Diaspora relations, etc.

During their visit they also did community service work to improve Karmiel's cityscape at two locations. Both were wall drawings. One was near Ta'ana Square and the other was drawn at the entrance of the "Kef Li Aviv" Child Enrichment Center.

At the end of July, the Israeli group will depart for a reciprocal visit to Pittsburgh for a 10-day visit to the community where they will be hosted by their newly made friends from the Pittsburgh Teen Leadership group.