The Tel Aviv - Los Angeles Partnership initiated a "journey" to Poland in which Holocaust survivors and teens from both Tel Aviv and Los Angeles took part.

The Tel Aviv group consisted of 20 survivors and 16 teens from different high schools around the city.

The Los Angeles group consisted of 60 teens and 15 survivors.

The Cafe Europa program was founded in LA about 20 years ago, and in Tel Aviv has been in operation since November 2001.  As Cafe Europas members from both cities have met on several occasions in the past, it was only natural that they should decide to undertake a joint trip to Poland.  Tel Aviv high school students have for years had ongoing contact with Holocaust survivors through a variety of programs.

The main purpose of the trip was to bring the first and third generations together, and enable the survivors to have some "closure" regarding their collective and individual pasts.

Following a tough screening process, the teens were chosen from different high schools in the city.  Most of them are seniors and those who expressed a particularly keen interest in going to Poland with a large group of survivors while learning their personal accounts of the war.