JN Thoughts

Sderot: In Line Of Fire

Jerusalem

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A26

February 28 • 2008 jti

everal leaders of the Jewish
Community Relations
Council of Metropolitan
Detroit visited the embattled southern
Israeli town of Sderot on Jan. 14. Our
trip was facilitated by Zionism 2000,
an Israeli nonprofit organization
working to address the crises fac-
ing Israeli society and especially the
nation's youth.
After leaving our Jerusalem hotel
and traveling southeasterly, pass-
ing the large city of Ashkelon in the
distance, our guide directed our bus
to a kibbutz that brought us into the
sightline of Gaza, from which the
rockets are launched almost daily into
Sderot. We stood on a hill overlook-
ing kibbutz agricultural fields and
a perimeter fence and, as a soldier
walked along his guard route, our
guide pointed toward the tall apart-
ment buildings in the
distance — the Gazan
town of Beit Hanoun.
The very next day, a
kibbutz volunteer from
South America work-
ing in nearby fields was
killed by a Palestinian
sniper.
Our tour continued
with a stop at the town
police station, where
thousands of missile
remnants are kept.
Our guide explained the growing
sophistication of the missiles and the
Palestinians' clear intent to deliberate-
ly kill or injure innocent men, women
and children with them.
We heard time and again about
the Tzeva Adom — the "Color Red"
alert that, when sounded, gives town
residents a mere 15 seconds to find
shelter. We saw safe rooms, fortified
bus shelters and concrete spirals in
the courtyards of public buildings
— they looked like sections of road
drainage pipes — which are intended
to offer at least some protection from
rocket blasts.
Later, we sat with the director of
Sderot's community center, who told
us of the pride and history which
the residents feel about their town
and the difficulty of trying to live a
normal life there now We were espe-
cially saddened to hear about the
professional duties of one of Sderot's
social workers, who described the

Council President Todd Mendel,
left, and Executive Director Robert
Cohen, right, deliver gifts and toys
to Sderot.

large number of children suffering
from post-traumatic stress syndrome,
including her own 2-year-old daugh-
ter.

Detroit Connection
We observed the commitment of the
Sderot community to remain resilient
in the face of unremitting terror-
ist danger and to especially
provide the children there
some moments of happi-
ness. We visited a community
center and a school where
music students study in a
program funded by Detroit
Jewish philanthropist Eugene
Applebaum. One of the music
program's directors told us
that the students should
"hear more than the sounds
of alarms and falling rockets"
in their lives. The two mini-
concerts that we witnessed certainly
fulfilled that promise.
Our group was proud of the
Applebaum family's contributions
to Sderot. And during our visit, we
delivered several bags of toys that
we had brought from the U.S. to dis-
tribute to Sderot's children. We also
unanimously decided to spend our
last hour in Sderot eating lunch and
shopping in the city square, provid-
ing a modest economic benefit to the
town.
At every stop during our visit,
residents told us time and again how
grateful they were that American Jews
took a day out of their tour of Israel
to come to Sderot to see their plight
firsthand and to embrace them with
our support.
Later that afternoon en route
back to Jerusalem, we stopped at the
Israeli Armored Corps Memorial and
Museum at Latrun, where 31 Israeli
soldiers died during an ill-fated battle