By Mor Bar, President of the Kiryat Motzkin Student Council

This past week, the members of the Kiryat Motzkin Student Council has had the honor to host a group of teens from Orlando who have come to travel Israel and visit our city.  We have joined them on field trips across the country.  We started off with a visit to the Karakal Army Base in the far south of Israel. This army base has been adopted by the partnership this past year.  We were treated to joint activities with the soldiers, learned about their army experience and saw first hand life on a real army base.

We did rafting on the Yarden, volunteered at the Ahava boarding school for children at risk and toured Yad Ve'Shem in Jerusalem.  One of the highlights of the visit was a special Kabalat Shabbat prepared by the local teens - We celebrated Mary's birthday (Mary is the Orlando chaperone and a member of the Partnership 2000 Steering Committee).  We still have Tel Aviv ahead of us, and dread the day we have to say good bye, even if it's just for now!

We are having such an amazing time, the connections have become so strong.  There is no doubt we will remain friends and family for many years to come.  In spite of the distance between us, we found so much in common and learned so much from one another - we are one people, one nation, after all.

Thank you to everyone who made it possible for us to get together and learn to love one another.