Life of Bnei Menashe in Sderot under rockets fired from Gaza
Tzevet khirum kehilati (tzakhat) צח"ק which means “Team for Community Emergency” under the department of "Khoshen," a branch of the municipality of Sderot city organized once a week a training program for emergency matters for elders and youngsters.
Undoubtedly, there is no city in the world that suffers as much from terrorist rockets attacks as the southern Israeli city of Sderot. Located less than a mile from northern Gaza, Sderot (population 27,000) has been under regular rocket and mortar attacks by Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terror groups in the first week of this month. And has been a daily target of the hundreds of missiles that have been fired at the civilian population in Sderot within the few days.
Every facet of life here in Sderot is affected by the rockets. Children growing up under these circumstances cannot have a normal life. Parents cannot just let them run outside and play freely. Here, every school and every bus stop is armored. The city is full of bomb shelters, and one always needs to know where the closest one is. Once the Red Alert air-raid siren goes off, we have less than 15 seconds to seek cover.
One could not imagine how frightening and dangerous to live under such constant and repeated attacks from hundreds of rockets raining down like hailstones. It should be noted that those rockets were intentionally fired to harm the innocent civilians of Israel and one can feel the pain and terror situation of Sderot only when we have real-life experience.
The Khoshen department takes the emergency program to teach the basic knowledge of how to deal with and safeguard oneself in such critical times, the Bnei Menashe community in Sderot also benefits from the Khoshen department to learn emergency treatment and first aid.
The project bear fruit since a meeting was held three weeks ago with various departments such as Agaf haKlita, Khoshen, Kehilat Yekhidati, Khug Noar, etc. Important figures present in the meeting were Slomit Ekstein, Manager of Khoshen; Avner Khai, Manager of Yekhidat Kehilati; Safre Shlomit, Yekhidat Kehilati; Naomi Goldberg, Yekhidat Kehilati; Hila Gonen, Khoshen; Enosh Lhouvum, Projector of Bnei Menashe, Agaf haklita; Renata Shlomov, Manager of Agaf Haklita; David Lhungdim, Rabbi of Bnei Menashe community; Sarah Lhungdim, Projector of Bnei Menashe, Agaf haKlita.
The Bnei Menashe community has experienced such harsh conditions for more than ten years since the earlier families settled in 2009. This year while the community of Bnei Menashe was in the midst of prayer service on 9 of Av, mourning over the destruction of our Holy Temple, we experienced such terror attacks of rockets pouring down like rainfall. Thank G-d those rockets were intercepted by the Iron dome and everyone was safe and sound. We cannot express our feeling through words and notes, the painful experience lay deep down in our hearts, because the Bnei Menashe synagogue situated in Natan Elbaz 23 is a portable Caravan, made of tin and wood, and more depressingly there are no bomb shelters nearby.
We hope we will receive a safe and secure synagogue soon in the coming few months as promised by the Mayor of Sderot, Alon Davidi. May G-d give him good health and prosperous life, and may the community of Bnei Menashe in Sderot merit soon to daven in a safe synagogue building with G-d’s blessing, and according to which the Mayor of Sderot promised.
