Keren Dinur and her family were at home when the rocket struck.

After hearing a warning siren, the 16-year-old and other members of her Karmiel family hurried toward the safe room in their house. Before they were all inside, a Hezbollah rocket landed about 10 meters from their house.

Fortunately no one was injured and damage to the house was minimal — one door and one window collapsed. However, the explosion caused the house to shake and unsettled the nerves of all the family members.

“It was really scary,” Dinur said. A half hour after the impact, they had packed some belongings and left to stay with relatives in Haifa.

Three weeks later, Dinur and her father returned to the family home for just enough time to gather the things she needed for a planned trip to Pittsburgh through i-connect.

Dinur was one of 33 teenagers who visited Pittsburgh in early August as a follow-up to the mission that took more than 90 Pittsburgh teens to Israel this summer. The teen mission, which was to have included a 10-day camp with teens from the Partnership 2000 communities of Karmiel and Misgav, was cut short after the war broke out. Still, during the last days of their trip, the Pittsburgh teens had a few days to meet and connect with their Israeli counterparts.

In the early planning stages of the mission, organizers arranged to bring Israeli teens to Pittsburgh, but the original group of 22 was increased after the war broke out. Additional visas and funds were acquired to make it possible to have a larger group.

The bombings, and subsequent evacuations by most residents of the northern communities, made it difficult for group leader Yuval Kisus to gather the teenagers together to prepare them for their trip.

“We were working on the program for six months, then suddenly in the last week it changed,” said Kisus, who is director of Megadim Matnas, a community center in Karmiel.

He called gathering the teens together during the war an “impossible mission.”

“It’s kind of fun to do the impossible,” he said.

Last Thursday afternoon, Aug. 17, Kisus and the Israeli teens were at the Jewish Community Center Family Park in Monroeville to enjoy a pool party and farewell gathering on the evening before the Israeli teens left Pittsburgh. Members of the i-connect mission and various local youth groups joined the festivities.

The war and its impact on the Israeli teens were topics of frequent discussion throughout their visit, Kisus said.

“It’s weird to leave Israel in a situation like that,” he said. “You don’t want to be there, but you feel you want to be there.”

Throughout their visit to the United States, which included a trip to Washington, D.C., the Israeli teens were given daily news updates about the war.

Hearing of bombs falling in her hometown made Dinur nervous because “it’s maybe someone you know,” she said.

Or Briga, 16, from Karmiel, also had a close call with a Katyusha rocket. His family was shopping at a mall in Herzliya when neighbors called to say that bombs were falling in their neighborhood. One rocket hit the Brigas’ back yard, about five meters from the house. Shrapnel shattered their windows and caused part of the roof to collapse. Several rooms were significantly damaged. Rather than going home after their shopping trip, the Brigas instead went to stay with relatives in Ashkelon, where they are staying until their house is repaired. Or didn’t get to see his house again before coming to Pittsburgh.

“I was kind of sad,” he said. “I really wanted to go see the house. I am looking forward to going back.”

Most of the teens maintained fairly regular contact with their parents during their visit to the States.

“I was kind of afraid something would happen to them,” said Carcom Sheffer of Misgav, who called home each day during the trip.

While many of the teens worried about their families, most were glad to escape the war for a while.

“I waited for this trip a long time,” said Dinur. “My parents were glad I was coming.”

Sue Linzer, overseas planning associate for the United Jewish Federation and project director for i-connect, is hopeful that the Pittsburgh and Israeli teens will continue the relationships they began this summer. Past participants in similar exchanges have stayed in touch through letters and phone calls for many, many years.

“People are the most important part of the program,” Linzer said.

(Susan Jacobs can be reached at sjacobs@ pittchron.com.)