By Eva Trieger
Update, March 2, 2014--Due to unforeseen events, Michael Snyder and Brandy Gold have had to postpone the showing of Shelter Me Sderot. Further information will follow with a new date when it is scheduled.
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SAN DIEGO — “Mom,” your daughter whines “My English teacher says I need a new composition book.” While a trip to Staples may not have been at the top of your list, you know that for $2.49 and a minor inconvenience, you can outfit your seventh grader with her school supplies. Of course you want your son to be on the football team, but you worry about the injuries he may sustain at practice or in a rough game. In general, we send our kids off to school with little concern for their safety and wellbeing. Not so for 180 students at a small school in Sderot, Israel.
Thanks to the efforts of San Diegans, Michael Snyder and wife, Brandy Gold, Sderot is put on the radar screen in a very tangible and palpable way. A documentary short, Shelter Me Sderot, vividly illustrates what these students experience on a daily basis. This small school is somewhat unique in its combination of religion and sciences. But how can anyone learn in an environment of imminent and unpredictable attacks?
The couple, devoted Zionists, became engaged, married, and have spent significant time in Israel. Their five children have been acclimatized as well, and some have made or plan to make Aliyah. On one of their visits to Israel, the couple accompanied Sgt. Benjamin Anthony, veteran of the IDF, founder of Our Soldier’s Speak. This retired soldier visits universities, colleges, synagogues and school throughout the world spreading the word about the efforts and challenges facing Israeli’s defense forces, and the country they protect. The program has provided greater insight into Israeli conflicts, in order to stem the flow of ignorance and hatred.
Sadly, Sderot has frequently been the target for rockets, shelling and air attacks. The city adjoins the Sha’ar Hanegev Municipality which lies alongside the Gaza border and is the partnership region for the Jewish Federation of San Diego. Though there is currently a ceasefire with Gaza, the IDF was forced to re-deploy the Iron Dome in December, and the attacks continue giving the 24,000 people who live there little choice but to plan their daily movements around access and proximity to shelters. The community’s students have been studied by psychologists in Tel Aviv and 94% of these youngsters evidence Post Traumatic Stress Disorder symptoms.
What Snyder and Gold are seeking is a very doable, hands-on approach for American Jews, and anyone else, to take part in simple steps that will dramatically improve the lives of the families. The needs are immediate and not gargantuan. First, and perhaps most obviously, the school must have a full time Social Worker and a place to meet in the school, to provide the students and their families the necessary clinical assistance in processing their terror. The cost for a full-time social worker is much less than in the U.S., according to Snyder. Further, there is a shortage in this very poor community of school supplies.
Another need, and just as critical, is that although the school now boasts a lovely athletic field, the students cannot use it because they can never be more than fifteen seconds from a shelter. Thus, a new shelter is a primary need. As seen in the trailer, the shelter does not sit idle, and it’s difficult to imagine a time when it will. Laptop computers would allow students to continue their studies with their teachers when they have been sent home from the shelters, so that another day of potential learning is not wasted.
Shelter Me Sderot will be shown at Congregation Adat Yeshurun in La Jolla on March 4, 2014. The event is free, but donations of all sizes will gladly be accepted at the Facebook page facebook.com/sheltermesderot.
Snyder and Gold are eager to go to schools, synagogues; anywhere people are willing to learn how to help this battered community. The gifts are tax-exempt, and all donations will go directly to assist the children.
The news is not all bleak for Sderot. Snyder shared with me that while many homes were abandoned, that upon completion of military service, soldiers are returning to make their lives in their home town, refusing to be forced out by senseless terror.
Why not make a commitment to yourself and your family, that every time you pick up that composition book or any school supplies for your child, you donate an equal amount to benefit the children in Sderot? Watch the trailer, come see the film, and make a difference.
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Eva Trieger is a freelance writer specializing in coverage of the arts. She may be contacted at eva.trieger@sdjewishworld.com
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Important story. Thanks for bringing it to light, Eva.
Jacob