STL 4 P2K:
What’s Up Sister…City?
By Susie Zimmerman
June, 2010 

Yokneam/Megiddo: The Place to Be!

Shalom Haverim!
 
It won’t be long before we celebrate the summer solstice and long days of heat and St. Louis humidity. A great way to beat the heat is to spend some cooling days and nights in northern Israel and in our wonderful sister city communities Yokneam and Megiddo.
 
In fact, Terri and Rick Bernstein recently returned from their May visit to the region. You can read all about their great adventures with their daughter Julie by clicking HERE.
 
They were accompanied by Yael Shapira, the Jewish Federation liason in Israel for St. Louis and Atlanta. Avishay Caspi, a most enthusiastic P2K volunteer of long standing, guided the Bernstein family and gave them a most personal and multi-faceted tour of the area. 
 
And later in May, Chana Novack led a group of energetic college students on St. Louis Chabad Birthright’s 7th visit to Yokneam/Megiddo. Chana and her husband Rabbi Hershey Novack have been avid supporters of our Partnership and have helped to expand our “people to people” connections between our communities. You can read about the Chabad Birthright’s time in the region and see some great pictures by clicking HERE.
 
 
Debbie Crahan, a United Hebrew 8th grade teacher, visited Yokneam/Megiddo on June 6th. Debbie is one of the co-awardees of CAJE’s Rabbi Howard M. Graber Creative Teacher Award. She used the money from her award to travel to Israel and visit with her U.H. class’s Kesher B’Kitah – Classroom to Classroom P2K partner class at the Megiddo Middle School. Debbie met with Orly Rafaeli, one of our very involved Kesher B’Kitah teachers at Megiddo Middle School, attended an Arabic lesson in a 7th grade class and toured the entire school, meeting with students and teachers. We look forward to sharing some of her pictures when she returns home to St. Louis. Stay tuned!
 
All of us involved in the Partnership are big believers in educational exchanges. So with one educator in Yokneam/Megiddo, an educator from our sister city region was with us here in St. Louis. 
 
Orit Lin, sister of a former chair of the St. Louis – Yokneam/Megiddo P2K committee Galia Movitz, was recently in town to visit with family and to spend some quality time with our CAJE educators and especially to visit with the Solomon Schechter 8th grade class. The kids from SSDS had just returned from their class trip to Israel and Orit wanted to reconnect with them and bring one more taste of our sister communities to them. You can see Orit and some of the SSDS kids in the picture below:
 
 
On June 14, 20 St. Louis teens left for a three week trip in Israel. They are part of a program called “Israel Bound” which is a partnership (love that word!) of the Reform and Conservative Jewish communities and the JCC. CAJE has coordinated this trip, and has planned a visit in the Yokneam/Megiddo region including an evening mifgash i.e., a get together, with teens at Mishmar Ha-Emek, one of the kibbutzim in Megiddo. We’re all looking forward to hearing their stories and seeing their pictures.
 
We’re also very excited about Yoni Sarason’s upcoming participation in the “PresenTense” Summer Institute in Israel. In addition to spending alot of time in Jerusalem, Yoni will be connecting with friends and new entrepreneurs in Yokneam/Megiddo. If you haven’t read about this terrific opportunity, be sure to check it out at:
 
http://www.jewishinstlouis.org/page.aspx?id=221746
 
We can’t wait to read about Yoni’s experiences on his blog ‘Wandering St. Lou Jew’ and especially his time in our sister city region. Niseeya Tova and B’hatzlecha!!
 
Be sure to let us know if you’re headed to Israel soon.  You won’t want to miss our sister city region.
 
And to all our readers:  L’hitraot!