On Thursday and Friday March 13, and 14, 105 US Jewish teens arrived in the region to spend the weekend with local teens from Beit Shemesh and Mateh Yehuda. The program was organized by Partnership 2000 of the Jewish Agency.

The students are twelfth graders from the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School (JDS) in Greater Washington. They spend the last three months of their senior year learning and touring in Israel. As part of their program they come to our region in order to meet youth their age from their sister city and region - Beit Shemesh and Mateh Yehuda. The youth were joined by 90 local teens for two days of fun activities and home hospitality.

On Thursday the teens spent the afternoon at the Har Tuv High School getting to know each other.  There were a series of fun ice breakers and a pizza meal together and then the guests went off to their host families.

In the morning, the group met back at Har Tuv with their hosts - now friends. They painted the walls of the Har Tuv school all morning that had been specially designed by the "Shefa" art company, with DJ Danny Aloni playing great music to accompany the painting.  They finished off the morning with falafel and went home for Shabbat to their host families.

The Washington teens look forward to this visit to Israel all throughout high school.  We hope that their time spent in our region will stand out as one of their most memorable experiences in Israel. Partnership 2000 would like to thank the many families in Beit Shemesh and Mateh Yehuda who opened their homes to the visitors and hope that many new friendships were made.