A group of 14 Pittsburgh young people visited the Karmiel-Misgav region last week (July 20-27), as part of the "Teen Leadership" project conducted by the Jewish Agency's Partnership 2000 program. A group of 18 teens from the region departed Tuesday, July 29th, for a reciprocal 10-day visit to Pittsburgh.

The Pittsburgh young people began their journey at the end of June with a weeklong visit to Poland. From there they continued onward to Israel where they remained for the following three weeks. During the first two weeks of their visit, the group toured the breath and width of the country. Their third and final week was reserved for a variety of activities in the Partner Community region of Karmiel-Misgav. Here a group of 18 10th graders, who after a rigorous selection process were selected to participate in the "Teen Leadership" program, met them.

To bring the two groups closer and better acquainted the week began with a variety of outdoor training activities.

As the week progressed, the young people enjoyed a variety of Galilee activities such as Kayaking down the Jordan River, hiking through the estuaries of the Kinneret, a Kabala workshop and a tour of Tzafat's ancient synagogues, etc.

Of course, no visit to the region is complete without some serious discussion of issues relating to Jewish Identity, as Israelis or Americans and co-existence that included a gathering with Israeli-Arab young people.

While in the region, the Pittsburgh young people enjoyed the unique experience of attending the opening performance and the finale of the area's annual Karmiel Dance Festival.

The group was accompanied by Yuval Kisus, executive director of the Megadim Community Center and Shachar Darom from the Misgav community of Yodfat.

The reciprocal 10-day visit to Pittsburgh and the region conducted by 18 Karmiel-Misgav young people began Tuesday July 29, 2008.