This past summer I went on Kol Hanearim (KH), living and volunteering with youth at risk in children’s homes in Israel. I was assigned to the Neve Michael home in Pardes Chana and the children from my home were scheduled to be on break the week we were to arrive. At the very last minute, it was decided that a camp would be created for 55 displaced seventeen-year-old girls and boys from the Sderot community. The girls and boys that participated were very much impacted by the war, since they were from one of the cities that was infiltrated on October 7. They had been living in hotels for many months and had been in school without their friends and community. Even after moving back home, it wasn’t the same, being that they live less than 20 minutes from Gaza. They feel the explosions every day and hear rockets constantly. This has become a part of their everyday life.
Never would I have thought that I could make such great friends in such a short period. They may not speak very much English and have never visited the United States, nonetheless they are teenagers just like all of us. We laughed and danced and had an amazing bonding experience the first week of KH and stayed in touch daily after my return.
This past year while in Israel with my family for Sukkot, I left my Jerusalem hotel and slept at my new friends’ homes in Sderot over chol hamoed. I felt the explosions while their homes shook and heard the loud rockets. I felt scared over the few days I slept with them and began to think about how frightening it must be for Hila, Gefen, Hodaya and Ayana to experience this every single day. Hila told me she spoke in Israel about her experience on and since October 7. Hila expressed how helpful it was to talk to others about what she went through.
I began to think about how my new friends had never left the country and how I wished I could give them a chance to have a break from the war. I wanted to give each of them an opportunity to share their stories about what they went through in Sderot with our SAR community. Many times we hear from older adults and it’s hard to see ourselves in their shoes and relate to the stage of life they are in. My hope was that SAR students would hear the stories from their perspectives, perspectives of seventeen- and eighteen-year-olds, and see how their daily life has changed.
I am so happy that my dream was able to actually become a reality and before long, it was arranged for the girls to come speak to some classes at SAR. I felt so lucky to have gained these four amazing friends; each one has truly made an impact on my life for the better and I hoped that everyone would enjoy meeting them and learning from them as well.
After they came to SAR, the girls told me they were a little scared at first to speak in front of so many kids from America because they aren’t used to Americans. However, they said that when they started speaking they felt more comfortable and that the Hebrew teachers made them feel at home. They told me that the kids in our school are so nice and when they walked by them they would say hi. They told me that speaking to the classes made them appreciate Americans more and what they do for Israel. They also said that being able to share the stories of people who they were close with who fell on October 7 was a really important thing and now that Americans personally know these people who live across the world it’s a huge deal. They really appreciated everyone and they said they loved SAR and miss it already. Hopefully, they can come back again soon!
