Chabad of  The North Shore Brings Sderot Children to Swampscott for the Summer

A siren goes off in the middle of the night.  Running toward a shelter, seventeen year old Ella Abuksis throws herself over her little brother to protect him from the incoming Kassam rocket.  Sharp shrapnel fragments pierce through Ella's body. She was killed but her brother survived.

It is the holiday of Sukkot.  Two Kassam rockets are fired from the Jabalya refugee camp into the Israeli town of Sderot. One hit a house, the other landed in the middle of an alley filled with playing Jewish children.  One rocket killed Yuval Abebeh, 4, and Dorit Aniso, 2, as they were playing together in the family Sukah.  Hamas took credit for the fatal terror attack, publicly declaring:  "We will keep firing rockets; we will continue Jihad (Holy War) until all of Palestine is returned."

“Why does a child playing in a Sukah deserve to die?" Yuval's mother, Asras, asked through her tears. 

"Physical damage you are able to see. The scar in the heart - that's what you cannot see," said Osnat Ben Haim, of Sderot, of the day that her house was struck by a direct hit.  She describes how her six year old son was enjoying a sandwich only minutes before the Kassam exploded in her kitchen. The boy was not hurt, but he has been severely traumatized.

Since early 2002, the children of Sderot and the Gaza perimeter communities have been living under constant threat of rocket fire from the Gaza strip. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, since August 2005, averages of 80 Kassam rockets a month have been fired on the region.  According to research by the Tel Hai College Resource Center, one out of every three Sderot children suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and all of these children also have at least one parent who suffers from PTSD.   Anxiety symptoms in children include sleeping difficulties, nightmares, sweating, development regressions, wetting beds, and fear of the outside.

Why don’t these families move out of Sderot?  The past few years of violence has economically crippled Sderot.   Two weeks ago, a Kassam landed in a toy factory. The factory closed and thirty workers were laid off.  This happens frequently. Many families want to move out of Sderot but are unable to because they cannot sell their homes. No one wants to buy a house in Sderot. 

And so the families remain in a war zone.  Thousands of children go to school every day in unprotected classrooms.  A typical day at Sderot for a child begins at 6:30 in the morning when Hamas launches the first rocket of the day, and the red alert goes off, warning residents that they have 15 seconds to escape from an exploding rocket.  The parks are empty.  Parents do not allow children to play outside or ride their bikes.

Chabad of the North Shore is offering 10 of these children  A summer spent outdoors, a chance to get away from the constant fear .In JULY 100 children, through the efforts of Rabbi Dan Radkin of Shaloh house in Brighton,and Rabbi Yossi LIpsker ,of Chabad of the North Shore will be flown to the states,10 of wich  will attend Camp Gan Israel day camp, and be housed right here in swampscott.  For the first time in years, these lucky children will feel the sunshine in the middle of the day and get the physical exercise they so badly need.  Most important, they will have  a month to heal and to gather their strength for the coming year. 

WE NEEED YOUR HELP!

 The expense for bringing a child for the summer is $3000  per child.  In addition to camp, expenses include transportation from Israel, staff from Israel, appropriate summer clothing ,and therapists who can work with these children ,many of whom suffer from severe post traumatic stress syndrome.

.Please consider either sponsoring  a child, getting together with your friends and sponsoring a child , or contributing part of that amount on your own   If you would like to help sponsor a child from Sderot for the summer, please call Rabbi Yossi Lipsker at 781 640 8157 or email rabbi@nsjewish.com., by fiiling out the Children of Sderot Form. This is your chance to make a real difference for Israel !

These children are your children. The children of the only democratic nation in the Middle-East.  How much longer should they suffer?