Our Stories

JPDS-NC Students Meet their Israeli Pen Pals

January 14, 2015 by Gabriel T (’17) (Students) Noah T (’20) (Students)

We are brothers who are in 3rd and 4th grade at JPDS-NC, and we each have a pen pal in Israel. Over the break, we traveled to Israel with our family. We visited JPDS-NC’s sister school, Har Tuv, and got to spend time with our pen pals, Michael and Yonatan. We write letters to them in Hebrew. This was our first time meeting in person. When we got there, the school director greeted us and took us to the 3rd grade music class. “I was handed a recorder and was invited by the Israeli students to join them in playing ‘Mary had a Little Lamb’! Then, we had a group art activity and made an alligator out of clay,” third grader Noah reported. He added, “I liked visiting the school and meeting Michael. He didn’t know English but I could talk to him in Hebrew.”

Fourth grader Gabriel said, “I went to the 4th grade class. The students were excited to meet me and I was excited to meet them, especially Yonatan. I was asked to give the class an overview of American holidays, and then participated in their math lesson. They were all very nice. When the class celebrated the birthday of two students, they made sure that I received the first slice of cake. The visit was interesting and it helped me in school because our General Studies unit now is about Schools Around the World.” Har Tuv School also gave us fun souvenirs to remember our special day. We brought them to school today and our friends liked them.