February 27, 2008

Shalom,

Today was a particularly difficult day in Sderot and the surrounding area. A 30-year-old student from the Sapir College was killed and several were wounded when a Kassam rocket directly hit the school. At the same time, five rockets landed near Ashkelon, causing a number of light casualties.

This was a day of particularly intensive Kassam attacks, perhaps as a response to an Israeli Air Force’s joint operation with ground forces and the General Security Forces (Shabak), which destroyed a vehicle carrying five prominent Hamas terrorists on their way to carry out an attack this morning.  According to information received, these five people had recently come to Gaza, from Iran, to train locals in manufacturing and launching rockets. Embarrassed by this development, Hamas felt compelled to respond with a Kassam attack this evening.

The situation in Sderot is extremely difficult. The government decided to fortify one third of the buildings, but this has not yet begun.

Yet, with all this, we must not ignore demonstrations of solidarity and resilience. Last week, I joined the members of the Israel Emergency Campaign (IEC) Evaluation mission on their visit to Sderot, where we heard first hand how UJC/Federation dollars are helping provide essential services to the residents, and are making a lasting impact by helping to develop a collaborative model for service providers. We also had another first-hand experience, as the "code red" alarm cut off one of the sessions, and had us rushing to the security room.

At the end of the week, thousands of Israelis from all over the country converged on Sderot and spent many hours there, buying in the local shops and eating in the restaurants in order to bolster the city's economy, which has been hard-hit by the non-stop bombardments (attacks that have endured for years).

And this evening, in spite of the tragedy, Ze'ev Tsachor, the president of Sapir College, announced resolutely that tomorrow, the college will be operating as usual and that students are asked to attend classes. He added that academic life will go on without change.

Last year, when Kassam rockets led to a drop in enrollment in Sapir College, the IEC provided scholarships for its students, helping bolster registration. This is just one more example of how your support helps the people in that region stand their ground.

Our hearts are with the people of Sderot, Sha'ar HaNegev and the entire region.

B'Shalom,

Nachman Shai
Senior Vice President, UJC
Director-General, External Relations, UJC Israel

To learn more about the situation and to hear directly from Sderot residents, please read UJC’s Voices from Sderot blog.