Bialik College delegation students and teacher Brett

This year these two traditional delegations arrived in the Arava on the same day -Friday, December 26th - in time spend the Shabbat with their host families, and to then participate in the event celebrating the Partnership's bar mitzvah. The Key Workers delegation has been enjoying home hospitality in the Arava for several years now, and two of their members, Jeff and Susan from Melbourne, on their first visit ever to Israel, said that they were amazed by all they had seen so far, and by the hospitality of their adoptive family from Moshav Faran.

The nine members of the delegation from Bialik College in Melbourne, which has visited the region almost every year since the Partnership's inception, and their teacher Brett, are spending eight days in the Arava. One of the students helped form the "human menorah", lighting one of the Hanukkah candles at the bar mitzvah event, and giving a most impressive speech in Hebrew and in English.

The delegation's agenda includes a comprehensive tour of the Arava, a treasure hunt on Tsukim (the region's youngest settlement), a hike through the Nahal Barak wadi, running activities for elementary and high school children, and two trips - north to Masada, Ein Gedi and the Dead Sea, and south to Eilat and Timna Park.

At the time of this writing the students and their Israeli friends and hosts are preparing to see the civilian New Year in together.