By Sarah Hen

On October 2nd, 2007, a ten-student mission from the "Emek Hahula" 9th grade went to the "Talmud Torah" in Edmonton, Canada. We were very warmly received.

The mission members were Oriah Ravid, Daniel Cohen, Imri Zaguri, Ofire Avraham, Ofek Aloni, Guy Kadosh, Yehonatan Halevi, Ya'el Paut, Shalev Keidar and Nofar Ben Haim. The teacher chaperones were Sarah Hen from "Emek Hahula" and Einat Fisher from "Lev Haemek".

Our hosts (parents and children) were waiting for us at midnight at the airport, along with the school principal, Yehoshua Ben Simon. Their concern and warmth touched us deeply, and they did everything they could to make sure we had a pleasant time. They organized a trip to Jasper, a social evening, joint dinners and visits to two synagogues: "Beit Shalom" and "Beit Yisrael".

At "Beit Yisrael" I was asked to say the prayer for the welfare of the State of Israel. The entire community joined in with me, and we added a prayer for the return of our imprisoned and missing soldiers. At the end of the prayers, the community representative, Eli, approached me and showed me a form with all the missing soldiers listed there. They are constantly praying for their welfare and safe return to their families.

Mission members ran activities connected with Jewish and Israeli identity in the classes. Einat Fisher from "Lev Haemek", Neot Mordechai, ran activities in the elementary level classes.

We also held a special "Israel at 60" ceremony. It included milestones in the establishment and existence of the State of Israel together with song, and ending with a huge 'hora' dance with the staff and students of "Talmud Torah". The ceremony was very moving, and many parents, host families and others attended. Ms. Gail Talmon, the Chairman of UIA Canada in Edmonton also was there, as well as Michelle Markushammer, P2K Chairman for Edmonton and Jim Gibson, a council member from the city of Edmonton.

We all "clicked" at the airport, and these warm ties stayed with us the whole time. You could see this when it was time to leave. It was very hard, and in addition, we were all invited to the Bar Mitzvah of one of the host families, to be held in Jerusalem next summer.

On the flight back, we filled out a feedback questionnaire, and the main findings were as follows:

- The importance of learning a new culture.
- Forging ties with Diaspora youth.
- Causing them to want to visit Israel.
- Improving their Hebrew.
- Creating social ties.
- Honorably presenting and representing Israel.
- Seeing Diaspora synagogues.
- Using and understanding a foreign language.

Paz, Robinson and Segal were with us all the time and it is vital to maintain contact and make sure that all future missions are just as successful and that there be continuity.

A tremendous amount of work went in to make this work so well, and many people both within and without the school helped in everything: organization, preparation and good advice - Orly Zaguri Ohana, Itai Ben Shlomo, Nurit Biderman, Roni Hainebach, Nelya Kaplonov, Rachel Anbari, Yardena Moshe, Einav Rimoni, Leah Shohet, Ilana Na'im, Tzlil Avital, Zahava Ben Simol, Moran Levi, Smadar Azulai and Avishai Meir.