On Monday (11/9/2009) Dan Onorato from Pittsburgh, a candidate for the office of Governor of the Commenwealth of Pennsylvania in elections to be conducted in November 2010 visited Karmiel Misgav Region. Currently he serves as Chief Executive of Allegheny County and its 1.2 million residents.
Onorato visited the region thanks to the warm relationship that exists between the Pittsburgh Jewish Community and the Karmiel-Misgav Region, within the Jewish Agency's Partnership 2000 program.
Onorato began his visit at the Karmiel City Hall where he met with the region's municipal leaders- Adi Eldar, Mayor of Karmiel and Ron Shani, Mayor of the Misgav Regional Council and the City Managers of the respective municipalities - Hanna Kovel and Eti Levy.

From there he continued to a visit to Kishorit- a home for life for people with special needs. Onorato was truly impressed by the community and said that it is his dream to build a similar community in his home state of Pennsylvania.
He went on to meet with new immigrants from the FSU at the Karmiel Absorption Center.

Also, he toured Kibbutz Eshbal, where he met with the young founders of the community who are still operating as its leaders. Eshbal, with its more than 60 members, runs a large number of educational projects for young people from all sectors of Israeli society- new immigrants, youth at risk, estranged young people, Arabs, Bedouin, and Jews, etc. Cindy Shapira, one of the Pittsburgh Jewish Community's more prominent lay leaders, who initiated Onorato's visit to Israel said at the conclusion of their visit to Eshbal, "This is real Zionism, to see these young people, with the gleam in their eyes and their fascinating activities".
The visit concluded with a discussion on the subject of "Regional Economic Development" in which Ron Shani, Steve Rhodes (Executive Director, Misgav Technological Innovations Center), David Slyper (Executive Director, MATI Karmiel and Misgav) and Hanna Kovel participated.