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Respites Give Elderly from Sderot and Gaza Border Region Reprieve from Terror Attacks
"It’s lovely to be here, but there’s no place like home," says Sarit Ravitz in her lilting Argentinean accent, while sitting in the lobby of Jerusalem’s Prima Kings Hotel.
A member of Kibbutz Yad Mordechai for 38 years, the kibbutz known for its honey factory as well as its location just six miles from the border with Gaza, Sarit and her husband, Chaim, were recently part of a group of 80 retirees from the Ashkelon coastal area who were brought by JDC-ESHEL for a respite trip to Jerusalem. As the barrage of Qassam rockets into the Gaza border region has continued without abating, JDC-ESHEL has begun sending groups of elderly residents out of the region, giving them some much-needed respite among friends who are also living under the stress of the attacks. "They come to rest, to do some tai chi, have activities with the youth, do therapy with Amcha, and do a little bit of touring around the city," said Margalit Gad, who organizes these JDC-ESHEL trips. Amcha, an Israeli organization that specializes in therapy for Holocaust survivors, has expertise invaluable to elderly groups such as these, for whom the Qassam attacks are additionally terrorizing because they evoke past traumas related to World War II or other tragedies. This is the fifth respite round implemented by JDC-ESHEL since May 16 for retirees from Sderot and the surrounding area. Including a sixth trip that will be made in the third week of June, 2,000 people will have traveled to Jerusalem for three days of "R and R". The initiative is part of JDC's wider response, which is supported by the UJC/Federations Israel Emergency Campaign. Click here for details. JDC's ability to identify and reach those elderly who most need this break—do not have the resources to relocate during the bombardment—is through their ongoing strong working relationship with local municipal departments of welfare. Trip participants thus include a diverse range of pensioners from city dwellers to kibbutzniks, sabras to immigrants from a full range of countries. In order to be included, participants must be physically independent and the main aim is to get everyone out for a brief respite. "That’s what it is for now," said Gad. The 80 people at the Prima Kings had been gathered by the local day center for the elderly in the Ashkelon coastal area, and most were from nearby kibbutzim and moshavim. There were ten people from Kibbutz Yad Mordechai, about half of whose members are pensioners. "We’re an aging kibbutz," said one participant. When the "Color Red" siren warning sounds, whether in the kibbutz or nearby, there is "no time" to get to a bomb shelter, said Ravitz, whose aunt and brother both live on the kibbutz. "You just look up at the sky and hope for the best," said Ari Ben Ami, who made aliyah to Israel in 1955 from Britain with his wife, Tamar, and has been living at Moshav Talme Yaffe, also in the area, since the early 1960s. While building codes now require all new homes to have a safe room, most people live in homes built at least 30 years ago. There are bomb shelters nearby, but no one can reach them in the few seconds between hearing the siren and the rocket falling. "Not even the younger folk," joked one of the participants. Many people also have grown children living in Sderot, the nearest city, and they are living with the Qassams all the time, said Penina Cohen, who lives in Netivot, a small southern town that was part of the Negev Desert settlement project, and is primarily home to Sephardi Jews who immigrated in the 1940s and 1950s. "My girls are in Sderot," said Cohen, who was at another Jerusalem hotel with 100 people from the Sdot Negev (the fields of the Negev region). "I worry a lot." "I can’t sleep," added Cohen, who said she is an active volunteer both with the local day care center that worked with JDC-ESHEL to bring the group to Jerusalem, and with the local army base. "I stay up all night worrying. I got here in 1948 from Tunis and there was never anything like this. But many, many thanks to the Joint [JDC] who brought us here." Ravitz also has a daughter in Sderot, who moved there last summer from Shlomi, one of the northern communities that was hard hit by Katyusha missiles. "From Katyushas to Qassams," she said. "This trip is the cherry, but where’s the cream?" commented Miriam, another Yad Mordechai member on the trip. "I never expected that this is what I would have to deal with when I retired. Instead of my grandchildren coming to visit us on the kibbutz, my daughters-in-law are too scared, so we go visit them." As they sit around in the various hotel lobbies, trading stories, playing dominos, crocheting and knitting, talk turns to people’s children and politics. At the Knesset Hotel, where 50 residents of the Shaar Hanegev, the northwestern Negev region, are staying, there is very little desire to talk about the current situation and how it affects them; the camaraderie helps them forget, even if only for a few days. They also came via their local day center, and are happy to be away from home, from "the symphony of Qassams, helicopters and shooting," says one participant. "We’re close to Sderot," says Shlomo Ariel, a member of Kibbutz Nir Am, which is midway between Beersheva and Ashkelon and borders the Gaza Strip to the west. "We’ve been there since 1947." "For 60 years we’ve been sitting on the border," he added. "So to be here is wonderful, but home is fantastic." June 2007 |
