Children in Sderot, like these youngsters at the Alon Mada’aim elementary school, are coming to America for a month of camp.
Photo by Jonathan Levine/UJC
July 8, 2008
With the goal of providing a “worry-free” respite for youngsters from an Israeli town that has been the frequent target of attacks from Gaza, 10 girls from Sderot will spend the month of July in Monmouth County.
The youngsters, who are 12 to 14 years old, will live in the homes of members of the Chabad of Western Monmouth County and attend its Camp Gan Israel in Englishtown. They are part of a group of 110 children who are being brought from Sderot to attend Chabad camps in the United States and Canada this summer.
“We want to give these kids a worry-free summer in a loving community,” Rabbi Boruch Chazanow, director of the Western Monmouth Chabad in Manalapan, told NJ Jewish News. “We also want to show the people of Sderot that the Jewish community in America cares about them.”
The summer camp program began in Boston in 2007, when 20 Sderot children attended a Chabad camp in the Boston area.
“Last year’s program was such a huge success, and we wanted to be a part of it this year,” Chazanow said. “Besides giving these children a wonderful experience, we hope to raise awareness of the plight of the families living in Sderot. We will see the real faces of kids who are affected by what’s happening there.”
Since 2002, the children from Sderot and other western Negev communities have been living with the constant threat of rocket fire from Gaza and must be near bomb shelters at all times, he said.
“A typical day for a youngster in Sderot begins around 6:30 a.m., when Hamas launches the first rocket of the day,” said Chazanow. “A red alert goes off, warning residents that they have 15 seconds to escape from an exploding rocket.”
The children who will arrive in Monmouth County underwent a screening process conducted by a Chabad rabbi and mental health professionals in Sderot, Chabad’s Hal Crane of Morganville told NJJN. The process determined the youngsters’ ability to adjust to being away from their homes and families.
The participating children are not necessarily members of Sderot’s Orthodox population and are from the spectrum of Jewish observance.
Crane, the project coordinator for the local Sderot camp program, said that the community has been raising money to support the project. Chabad in Manalapan is still receiving donations, and Crane said that although he is unsure of the exact amount raised so far, enough has been collected to pay for the campers’ airfare, visas, and health insurance.
He said he is confident they will raise enough to cover the cost of the entire program — approximately $50,000 — including day trips and other activities. Donors from the local Chabad community have already offered to cover the cost of a planned trip to New York City.
However, another round of e-mails and letters has been sent to members of the Jewish and non-Jewish communities in an effort to attract more donors. “People have been extremely generous, but we still have quite a way to go before we’ll have the entire amount we need,” Crane said.
All of the host families volunteered to house the campers, even though they may not have daughters who are attending the camp.
Research conducted at the Tel Hai College Resource Center revealed that one of every three Sderot children suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the violence that has invaded their lives, Crane said.
But “for the first time in years,” the 10 Sderot children coming to Monmouth County, Crane said, “will be able to play outdoors, swim, and experience the summer fun they deserve.”
They will have a fun-filled schedule of events during their four-week stay, including, in addition to the New York trip, a community barbecue, a visit to Jewish Heritage Night in Trenton, sports activities, arts and crafts projects, fashion makeovers, pool parties, and a “make-your-own and eat-your-own” pizza night at Levy’s Pizza in Manalapan, said Crane.
Crane visited the area three years ago on a trip run by the Israel Law Center, an Israeli civil rights organization near Tel Aviv.
“Sderot is literally under the gun,” said Crane. “When I was there, the population was about 24,000, and now there are approximately 20,000 people there. So many have left because of the missile attacks from Gaza, and there are others who want to move away, but they can’t sell their homes.”
Additional information about the Sderot camp program is available from the Chabad office at 732-972-3687.
--TOP--
- Comment: comments@njjewishnews.com
