By Simon Griver

"I think what was awesome about the home where we stayed in Yokneam was that it was across the road from a kibbutz," explained 17 year-old Shira LeDeaux from St. Louis. "It was also weird that we would walk around the neighborhood and hang out. At home we never walk around the neighborhood but only travel by car. Maybe it's because my friends live further away."

LeDeaux  was one of 39 teenagers (27 from Saint Louis and 12 from Atlanta) participating in the Israel JCC Maccabi Games and Artfest who were hosted in Yokneam-Megiddo on Shabbat at the end of July.

Since the mid-1990s Yokneam-Megiddo has been twinned with the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta and the Jewish Federation of Saint Louis as part of the Jewish Agency’s Partnership 2000 (P2K) program.

LeDeaux added, "It was great. I stayed with Nitzan Adar-Aharoni who had lived for some years in St. Louis so we had a lot in common and a lot to talk about."

But even those Israeli hosts who have never visited in the US found they had much in common with their guests. Yuval Shildan, 17, hosted four teenagers from Atlanta and recounted that there was never a dull moment. He said, "Sport is an international language. We played a lot of basketball and soccer together and went swimming. And when we weren't playing sport we were on the computer together and listening to music. It was a great weekend."

Arkady Hasidovich, Regional Coordinator for P2K Yokneam-Megiddo stressed the importance of letting the Israeli and US Jewish teenagers hangout together. He said, "We arrange icebreakers and other activities to act as a catalyst to get the groups together but our experience is that ultimately they have so much in common that they don't need too much assistance. There is a great natural curiosity to learn about each other's lives."

Lori Abramson, a US immigrant who lives in Yokneam worked hard ahead of the visit so that the two groups could get to know each other via Facebook and Skype, and she also arranged a "values activity" for when the Atlanta and Saint. Louis guests first arrived in Yokneam-Megiddo.

She said, "The teenagers get on great because they like the same music and watch the same TV shows and movies, but we also want to get them thinking about their Jewish identity, so we arranged mixed group activities revolving around this. We found a lot of shared Jewish values though with the Israelis placing greater importance on values like serving in the IDF and the Americans more concerned about synagogue and Torah."

Fanchon Auman from Saint Louis who chaperoned the 27 teens from the city around Israel said, "I think the success of the Shabbat was reflected in the fact that the teenagers wanted to stay longer and we thought the same way too."

Shaked Miller, 17, from Yokneam who hosted teenagers from Saint Louis said, "It was great. We just seemed to get along and behave the same way and like the same things. We traveled to the nearby Druze village of Daliyat HaCarmel so they could buy souvenirs and gifts to take home."

Kenny Silverboard who chaperoned the Atlanta teenagers said, "Everybody formed friendships. The Yokneam-Megiddo people were really warm and friendly and we look forward to welcoming some of them back to Atlanta."

Sol Samuel, 17, from Atlanta who was in Israel to play soccer in the JCC Maccabi described Yokneam-Megiddo as awesome and amazing. "We hung out and did a lot of swimming. I only wish we could have spent more time there."

Judy Yuda, the Jewish Agency’s Yokneam/Megiddo P2K Regional Manager said, "The important thing is to maintain the momentum after these visits. In our experience, many of the Israelis and Americans remain in touch via email and Facebook, and even pay reciprocal visits. P2K makes the match and the Israelis and Americans just get on with it."