MONTREAL — Thirteen-year-old Eliasof Cohen was sitting at home
with his family at the Shabbat table when he heard for the first time
an eerie whistling noise that grew ever louder. Suddenly, there was a
blast very close by and the ground shook. His neighbour’s house had
been hit by a Qassam rocket.

Cohen is one of 10 boys, age 12 to 14, from Sderot enjoying a month’s respite in Montreal, sponsored by the Chabad Lubavitch Organization, from the often intense shelling of the Israeli Negev desert town that they’ve endured for much of their young lives. The Sderot area, less than a mile from the Gaza border, has been struck by thousands of missiles since 2001.

Ten boys from Sderot, Israel, are enjoying a month-long vacation in
Montreal away from their besieged Negev town. They are pictured with
Rabbi Schneur Silberstein, left, and Rabbi Moshe Krasnanski, right, and
counsellors Dovi Gedasi, second from left, and Chagai Aharon, seated at
right.     [Raphael Ohayon photo]

The introduction of sirens a couple of years ago to alert residents to an approaching attack has in some ways only added to the daily apprehension that these boys have grown up with.

Eliasof also remembers the time when he was at school and he and his friends found their classroom locked. While they went to get the key, a “code red” was announced, and they lay down on the floor, as is the normal drill. The rocket fell right in the locked classroom.

“The last two years have been very difficult, very frightening,” said Yair Chen, another one of the boys. “When you hear the sirens, you don’t know were it’s going to fall. You just know something is coming in your direction.”

They speak a lot about luck and miracles as having kept them relatively unharmed.

Maor Cohen also recalled a brush with possible death. Last year, he and his classmates decided they would skip studying for a Talmud test and go out to play. He and some others changed their minds and went to one of their houses to cram. Just at that moment, a rocket slammed into their playing field. One boy was injured seriously enough that it took him six months to recover, he said.

Koby Benchimol remembered getting off the bus one day to go to school and a rocket striking right beside him. His little sister was injured and had to be taken to the hospital. “If I had been one centimetre to the left, I would have died,” he said matter-of-factly.

The boys have been conditioned to take shelter at a moment’s notice. One “luxury” they are enjoying in Montreal is taking long showers. In Israel, they only spend a few seconds under the water, because they never know when there might be an alert and they have to run.

They are also sleeping peacefully here. In Sderot, they go to bed wondering if they will be woken up by a siren.

These active youngsters have known long periods of time when it was not safe for them to go outdoors.

“One of the first things they did when they got here was run across the street to the park to play on the swings and seesaws, and these are big boys. They were just so happy to be outside without any fear,” said Rabbi Schneur Silberstein, director of the St. Laurent Chabad, which is hosting the boys with the Town of Mount Royal Chabad.

The kids are based at Chabad’s day camp Gan Israel, located in the United Talmud Torahs school in St. Laurent.

“They are here to relax, to have fun, and experience a normal life like Canadian Jewish kids. Their lives have revolved around when the next Qassam is coming,” said Rabbi Moshe Krasnanski, director of  the TMR Chabad.

Tony Aronoff lamented the decline of his hometown, the result of so many people leaving. Some have abandoned houses they have not been able to sell, and Sderot has taken on the aspect of a ghost town.

“But,” he quickly adds, “many are staying to fight, to protect the land of Israel – at the front lines.”

Ron Chen is doubtful there will be peace between Israelis and Palestinians any time soon. “How can there be when we are just trying to go about our lives and have rockets coming down on our heads every day?”

They were thrilled about the opportunity to spend a few weeks in Canada, and they say they are having a good time and are grateful for what everyone is doing for them. When asked if they’d like to come back next year, a unanimous cheer went up.

Still, they think constantly about their families. They are generally limited to two phone calls a week to their parents, so they do not dwell too much about what is happening back home. Their families can visit the website www.jewishcamp.ca to get news and photos of their sons’ activities.

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The boys in Montreal are among about 150 Sderot children who are spending a month this summer abroad at Gan Israel camps. The rest are in the United States and Europe. Many more applied than could be accommodated.

Everything is covered by Chabad, which is active in providing humanitarian and counselling services in Sderot, including not only airfare and local costs, but even spending money and, in some cases, passports.

Most of the boys have not been outside Israel before, and some had not even been to a big city and were agog at Montreal, coming from an isolated town of only about 15,000.

The boys are living in a rented house in Snowdon near the Jewish Community Campus, where the two trained supervisors are with them at all times.

A typical day begins at Rabbi Silberstein’s home, across the street from UTT, for prayer and some religious instruction. (The boys come from secular and observant backgrounds, and a variety of cultural origins, such as Russian and Moroccan as well as well-established Israeli families.)

At UTT, they join the approximately 160 local children attending the day camp, which includes a senior division for their age group. They are kept busy all day with sports, crafts and outings.

The kids have gotten along well, despite the Israeli boys’ limited spoken English, and the varying mastery of Hebrew among the local children, many of whom attend public schools.

In the evenings, they can use the pool and gym at the Ben Weider JCC-YM-YWHA.

Many families are also hosting the boys for Shabbat dinners and other get-togethers.

“I’m humbled by working with these children,” said Rabbi Silberstein. “They have so much courage and incredible resilience, and yet we know all have been traumatized and are very vulnerable.”

Post-traumatic stress disorder has been observed in a large number of children in Sderot. Those chosen for the vacation have all been personally affected by the hostilities, but were judged to be psychologically strong enough to go abroad for a month.

“We hope when they go back [at the end of July] they will spread the word that the people of Sederot are not forgotten, the Jews here care and are trying to do whatever they can to help,” said Rabbi Krasnanski.