A delegation of school principals from Karmiel and Misgav visited Pittsburgh at the beginning of December, within the framework of the "Principals talking with Principals" project sponsored by the Jewish Agency's Partnership 2000 program.

The delegation included three principals from Karmiel schools, four from the Misgav region and the head of that region's Education Department as well as Yael Raych, the regional director of the P2K. Principals from Pittsburgh area Jewish schools provided warm hospitality for their Israeli counterparts.

During their visit, the participants were introduced to the United Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, the city's Jewish educational system and a variety of educational institutions such as Jewish day schools, Sunday schools, city public schools, an ecological school and technological school, etc.

Together with their American colleagues, they discussed existing projects in the schools and dealt with the issue of instilling Jewish values in a non-Jewish environment (e.g. Pittsburgh) and/or a secular environment (e.g. Karmiel, Misgav) in order to learn from one another and examine the possibility of promoting joint projects in this subject.

The members of the delegation were all warmly received by the Jewish Community and reported on the tremendous interest expressed by the members of the Partner Community about the situation in Israel and the region.

Irit Amit, a principal of a Misgav elementary school and member of the Israeli delegation wrote the following:

"What is the school's role in fostering/maintaining our students' Jewish Identity in a secular environment in Israel or a non-Jewish environment in the Diaspora? During our visit to Pittsburgh, we dealt with this question. A group of twelve area principals participated in the "Principals talking with Principals" project sponsored by the Jewish Agency's Partnership 2000 program.

The answer we all gave to this question was simple: "A very significant and important role!"

The answer became more complex when we tried to define "Jewish Identity", discover what we shared and differed, examine what is being done in our schools according to the standards of quality and significance and what impact we've had on our students as Jewish citizens of the State of Israel and the Jewish Communities abroad once they've completed their education.

The discussion and meetings were fruitful, exciting and stimulating. We returned to Israel with a much greater awareness of our own Jewishness. We became more aware of the need for a renewed look at the programs in our schools and committed to maintaining a strong bond with our Jewish brethren abroad.
 
It was sad and harsh for us to learn about the severity of assimilation in the community as expressed by the following statistics:
Over 60% of America's Jews are married to non-Jews and 2nd and 3rd generations have either a very weak or no connection at all with their Jewish Identity.

Less than 30% of the Jewish children in Pittsburgh participate in a Jewish educational framework and this is even after an aggressive marketing effort on the part of the UJF and the Jewish Agency.

The public elementary schools we visited were highly attractive from the standpoint of their level of teaching and their investment in the children from the academic and material standpoint and attracted most of the city's Jewish population. Class size is no more than 20 students and the teaching staff in each of the classes was reinforced by teaching assistants and reliable professionals.

Most of the learning focused on language and math skills, very little in the area of culture, a sense of belonging and world knowledge.

According to the principals we met, this is one of the reasons for the crisis that occurs in the move between Jr. and Sr. high school. There the level of violence is very high and many children experience a profound identity crisis.

We have much to learn and be jealous of concerning the status of the teacher in American society and their working conditions. However, we also have much to be proud of and happy with in our part of the world, in Misgav and Karmiel and even the State of Israel."