JRT:
On Thursday, January 17th I went to Sderot. Russian Jewish Community Foundation of Massachusetts, on whose board I sit, is conducting a project in the city -- building a safe-play room and and an after-school program for children. My trip was arranged and discussed before with our representative on location, Natasha (Ashrut) Ponaytava. Natasha scheduled for me a series of meetings with representatives of the community, including some current and potential partners. The day was supposed to end with a meeting with children of Sderot who visited Boston last summer and their parents. The morning started with multiple calls from Natasha saying: "please do not come, we are under a barrage of Kassams, the city in in an emergency situation." This posed a dilemma -- should I go, or should I follow Natasha's advice and wait for her to come to Jerusalem. After having listened to Natasha, I decided that my wife and daughter would not accompany me, but that I had to go. There were a few reasons behind my decision -- I really wanted to see the shelter, that was built with hard-earned money of people of the Russian Jewish community of Boston, and I felt that I have to show the solidarity with people of the city. Rick Richman, of the Jewish Current Issues, suggested in an open-ed in New York Sun, that our President should visit Sderot to proclaim his solidarity with the besieged city, following the example of John Kennedy in Berlin. My President, my leader, did not go to Sderot, he preferred instead a company of fat Saudi royalties and talked about "occupation". But I had to go. There was another reason that re-assured me. Years ago a mayor of Sderot brought a key from the city to the Lubavitcher Rebbe. The Rebbe accepted the key and said with a smile that this made him an owner of the city. January 17th this year coincided with the Jewish day of 10th Shevat, the day of ascendancy of the the Rebbe to the position of leadership of the Chabad movement. As Rebbe's follower, I decided that I have to go to see the situation on behalf of the Rebbe. Natasha's daughter Sveta told me, that, usually, after a heavy morning shooting of Kassams, IDF would attack positions of the terrorists from air, and there would be an interruption in shooting for a few hours. So, there was a chance that I can make it to the city. Both Natasha and Sveta were shocked by an episode of a previous day when a Kassam fell right in front of their car as they were driving to the city with Sveta's one year old daughter Tair.
I drove to Sderot, leaving Jerusalem with its teenage hangout scene, where American Jewish youth were consuming pizza and alcohol in large quantities, fulfilling the desire of their parents to have a year of an "Israeli" experience. I drove through a normal, developed country, with much better roads than in many places in the states. And then I made a turn to Sderot. There were fewer and fewer cars, and when I came to the city I felt that I drove in on a movie set where they were shooting a war movie. My GPS told me to make a left on a rotary, roundabout in local parlance, but I could not. The turn was blocked by a police care and fifty yards from the block I saw a scene familiar from the news -- a crowd, an ambulance -- Kassam just fell there. Despite protests from my GPS I made a circle and came back. Police car had already left and I was able to proceed to my meeting with Natasha. A few minutes later we were meeting with people from a local organization Afikim Be Negev. They presented me with a "souvenir from Sderot". A piece of Kassam, it was still hot.( picture by JRT, click to enlarge)
In other places people meet their guests with hot, freshly baked bread. In Sderot, it is Kassams. That day they dropped in excess of 55 Kassams on the city.
I saw the shelter built by my community. By local regulation any shelter should be open to use by population at large during emergency. I was told by my hosts that the night before there were twenty women in this shelter. Women get together once a week, but organizers did not expect them to come under such heavy shooting. They did. It was safer together. They were listening to karaoke under Kassams. Then we met with Rabbi Pizin -- head of local Chabad. Every day he organizes in his Chabad house a large inside playground for children. Part of the scene is a Kassam painted in bright colors. With a smile, Rav Pizin said to me that I can have one if wanted to. He told me that in Sderot, Kassams is one of the first things that children draw. We met with Rabbi Fendel, head of local Chesder Yeshiva. Under Kassams he is building one of the biggest Chesder yeshivot in the country. (In Chesder yeshivot young men study Torah in combination with the service in IDF). Three hundred fifty young men are studying Torah in this yeshiva. Rabbi Fendel told me that Sderot means spine in Hebrew, and that nobody will break it. We drove from place to place, we had to run a few times in response to Tzeva Adom (Color Red). I was told not to buckle up, and be ready to jump out of the car and to run if necessary. At times our conversation was interrupted by the sounds of loud shooting. I almost jumped -- Sveta reassured me that these were "ours". Toward the end of the day we met with one family whose daughter was in our camp in Boston last summer. There was no question about bringing children and their parents together -- it was too dangerous. We just sat and talked quietly for a little while. I said that I was there to show my hosts that we cared. They said that they knew it.
Upon coming back home and seeing teary articles of the Boston Globe about the plight of Gaza's civil population I thought --Sderot is undergoing a collective punishment, but Boston Globe and the world refuse to see it. Sderot's citizens are getting shelled every day for no other offense than being Jewish. We can not remain silent or inactive. We all should say together: Ich bin ein Sderoter.
posted by: jrtelegraph
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