It was another great summer in the Lehigh Valley for four Israeli teens and one summer shlicha. Here, they reflect on their experiences:

Shlicha Rivka Elbert:
It’s been an experience of a lifetime, being in the Lehigh Valley community. It feels like home to me. Everyone is very warm and welcoming and everyone is so excited to hear that I’m from Israel. It makes me feel very, very welcome. The camp is amazing, it’s been very interesting to bring Israel to the camp, and it seems like the kids and the counselors want it. I love being at camp and doing things with the kids. The kids are very, very important to me, and interesting, and every day is a new day with them to learn new things. The hosting family that I was staying with was amazing, they take me places, it feels like they are my American Jewish family, so it’s very fun and I like it here a lot and I hope I can come back next year too!

Shani Kalmanovich:
The first thing that I want to say is this is an amazing experience for me. It’s the first time that I am in the United States and I had [such] a great time! I enjoy every day. I do new things for the first time here that they didn’t have in Israel, and the people here, they’re so nice, everyone is so polite and I feel a lot of [warmth] and love. I feel very comfortable and I just love this place and this area is a beautiful area. Everything is green, with trees, and I like it.

Ela Gilan:
The people are so nice and they take two strangers to their home and it’s like the nicest thing. Camp is really fun, it doesn’t feel like work at all, we come here and we have the best time. The kids are so cute and we have a really good time with them and the counselors. I tried new things here that I didn’t do in Israel, like mini-golf and tubing. We do really cool stuff with the families.

Ohad Katz:
It’s cool here. It’s my first time in the States and I really love it. I love the camp, I love the people. I love the families, and I’m doing cool stuff with the families. It’s awesome here!

Idan Nahum:
It’s my first time in the United States too, and all of the families that we stayed with are totally amazing. We’re having a lot of fun here at camp, guiding and meeting people, children. It’s very fun here.