Helping Sderot Schoolchildren

Portland's Hadassah group held a picnic this summer in Portland on August 19th in order to donate money for the children of Sderot, Israel for school supplies. One of the members will travel there this fall and see how the city is faring.

The first day of school was Sunday, September 1st, and 1.5 million children went back to school in Israel. In Sderot, a rocket landed near the school Saturday night, which is in the city. That was followed by two more Qassam rockets. Parents know that the schools are better fortified than their own homes and hope for the best. This past month 300 rockets landed in the area. The people of Sderot have had rockets attacking them for the past four years.

Our newscasters are always remarking that these Qassam rockets are homemade, as if they can cause no damage. They may be homemade, but cause a great deal of problems. I'm sure none of our American citizens would be blase about such attacks near their children's schools, homes or stores. Hamas continues these attacks while peace talks are being negotiated.

I lived in Safed, in the northern Galilee from 1981 to 1985 where I taught in the junior high school. We had practice bomb drills there in a bomb shelter in the school where we had to spend hours. I had hoped that by this year, such a need of bomb shelters would be a thing of the past. The bombing continues.