Over the course of the past few months our group has spent time learning about the city of Karmiel and the partnership that they have with Pittsburgh. While we sat in a room hearing about this partnership, it's something you can't fully understand without seeing the relationships that exist firsthand, and building your own.
For the past 6 days our group members have been living with young adults in Karmiel. We are learning that the issues they face are very similar to those facing young Jewish adults living in the states. We have toured the regions businesses and spent time volunteering in a neighborhood that houses residents of a lower socioeconomic status. The project we have been working on was started 4 years ago during the 2006 2nd Lebanon war. The residents of this neighborhood were forced to spend long periods of time living together in bomb shelters. During this time, feuds arose between neighbors due to a lack of communication. While these residents, primarily immigrants from Russia and Ethiopia, had been living next to each other for years they had not truly created the necessary lines of communication to build a community. Following the war, the City of Karmiel, with support from the JDC, Partnership 2000, and the Jewish Agency for Israel created a new program meant to build bridges between the residents. Programs were set up for the residents to interact with each other, including a cooking club, language courses, and beautification of the neighborhood. For me personally, this is the 3rd time I have been with a group to volunteer here. Each time we’ve focused on painting walls, bomb shelters, and gardening. With this current group we spent 2 full days painting. By bringing a group to the neighborhood to paint we are enhancing the quality of life for the residents and empowering them to take part in the upkeep of their surroundings. Each new section that is cleaned up continues to be cared for by the residents, as they don’t wish to see it fall back into disrepair. By painting walls outside of a housing complex, our group is not only beautifying the surrounding area, but also creating a new feeling of responsibility amongst the residents living there. This concept serves as an excellent metaphor for our trip as a whole. By painting walls in Karmiel our participants are enhancing their understanding of the Partnership 2000 program and exploring their relationship to Israel and the region.
For the participants, this trip is not just a chance to get out of the cold winter weather in Pittsburgh. For participants, this trip is a chance to begin developing what being a community leader means to them. Each member of our group is learning invaluable leadership skills and gaining tremendous educational opportunities on the complexities of life in Israel. We’ve visited an Arab Israeli village and met with a young Arab women who lives there, learned about the politics of the Middle East from renowned scholar Neil Lazarus, and toured small industries throughout the Galilee. Tomorrow we will head to Jerusalem for an in-depth look at how this city plays into the ongoing peace process between Israel and her Palestinian neighbors. On Friday we will visit the settlement of Efrat as we continue to explore the issue of the settlements and the role they play in life here. As a whole, we have already made a tremendous impact on Karmiel, Misgav and Partnership 2000, and the State of Israel is making a tremendous impact on our group as well. While we are halfway through our trip, we are only in the beginning stages of figuring out how we continue to grow and share our experiences here with our friends, families, and the greater J’Burgh community. What comes next will truly measure the success of this amazing experience we are all sharing here in Israel and we can’t wait to continue sharing it with all of you as well!
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