Ich Bin Ein Sderoter

An Israeli man prays as he leans against a concrete shelter in the southern town of Sderot January 23, 2008.  Reuters (Amir Cohen).

Greg Margolin, in “Ich Bin Ein Sderoter” in yesterday’s Jewish Russian Telegraph:

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 an after-school program for children. . . .  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 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. . . . I decided that I have to go to see the situation on behalf of the Rebbe. . . .

I drove to Sderot . . . 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. . . . I saw a scene familiar from the news — a crowd, an ambulance — Kassam just fell there. . . .

I saw the shelter built by my community. . . .  I was told by my hosts that the night before there were twenty women in this shelter. . . . 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. . . . Toward the end of the day we met with one family whose daughter was in our camp in Boston last summer. . . . 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.

Israelis cross an empty street in the southern town of Sderot January 23, 2008. . . . just 1.5 km (1 mile) from the northern border with the Gaza Strip (Reuters:  Amir Cohen).