Join Shaloh House at an exciting concert by “Oneg Shemesh”
of the famous Moshav Band of Israel.
CONCERT TO WELCOME
SDEROT CHILDREN
Tuesday, July 8th at 4:00 p.m.
Shaloh House Auditorium
29 Chestnut Hill Ave. (2nd floor )
Brighton, MA 02135
Delicious Refreshments
Join us in warmly welcoming these
children to Shaloh House’s summer camp.
Interact with them, and let them experience first-hand our
Ahavat Yisrael for these brave children.
You’ll be glad you came.
For more information, please call 617-787-2200
Jetlagged but happy, 70 children from Sderot, Israel, were given a heroes’ welcome Wednesday, as they arrived at JFK International Airport for a summer in the U.S.
Donning Camp Gan Israel t-shirts, the children were greeted like long lost relatives by the directors of the respective Chabad Gan Israel summer camps that will be hosting them for the month of July.
Months in the planning, it’s been a grassroots effort by Chabad Shluchim who wanted to give Sderot’s children a reprieve from the terror and trauma that has come to define life in Sderot. It’s also a way of allowing these children, who’ve had to grow up all too fast, to enjoy being children for a summer in the U.S. instead of worrying about life and death, and carrying the weight of existential matters on their small shoulders.
“If the terrorists will see us run, there won’t be an Israel left.” These weighty words are not those of an experienced politician. These are the words of 13-year old Chanan Yaakobov of Sderot, whose father was killed by a Qassam rocket last year.
When Rabbi Dan Rodkin, headmaster of Shaloh House Jewish Day School, heard this on a radio interview in his Boston home last year, he thought, “I must do something for that child.”
So in collaboration with the local community, Rodkin arranged for Chanan and others from Sderot children to join the 200 children of Camp Gan Israel of Shaloh House last summer.
A year later, Shluchim around the world call him “the father of the program,” and have worked together to iron out a web of logistics to bring their own quorums of children.
Through the generosity of the Rohr and Tabicinic families, Chabad Shluchim have arranged for some 110 children in all—40 of them going to Gan Israel camps on the West Coast, to enjoy four weeks of relaxation, sports and fun in a secure environment.
REPRINTED FROM CHABAD LUBAVITCH NEWS.