By Melinda Berman

Hi, I’m Melinda Berman. I am 12 years old, and I live in Flossmoor. This past summer I went to Israel for the first time. One of the highlights of my trip was going to Kiryat Gat-Lachisch-Shafir, our P2G (Partnership 2Gether-formely P2K) Region. I learned about Kiryat Gat during Sunday school in the third grade at Temple Anshe Sholom in Olympia Fields. Our teacher (who is my mom) worked with the Jewish United Fund/Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago (JUF/JF) to get us pen pals from Kiryat Gat. We traded letters and pictures and holiday goodies with our pen pals and got to learn about Kiryat Gat.

JUF/JF was able to find two of my pen pals, Karina and Michal. When I first met them, I was a little shy, but then I found out they were just like me.

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