Pictures and Story: Mayor of Sderot visits Baltimore

Posted on October 28th, 2009 by JewishByte

JewishByte Baltimore- The Mayor of Sderot paid a visit to Baltimore on Monday. The Honorable David Bouskila was in Baltimore to help raise funds and awareness for the plight of Sderot residents, who are continually faced with the brutal onslaught of the Kassam rockets, fired by Hamas terrorists in Gaza.

Presenting the plight of Sderot residents, local Baltimoreans gathered to hear what the Honorable David Bouskila had to say. During the delightful evening interspersed with stories experienced first hand, the mayor displayed the power of what a positive outlook can bring. Sderot has been creating metal flowers out of the death and destruction wreaked by the Kassam rockets. The flowers are given in appreciation, to donors of $1,000 or more. Mr. Sheldon Berman, who is very active in causes related to Israel was very excited to host the mayor in his home. Mr. Berman will be visiting Sderot on a solidarity visit this winter. Mr. Berman will also be co-sponsoring an event featuring noted journalist Daniel Gordis, in mid November.

In March of 2008 Stanley M. Chesley, president of the Jewish National Fund, was on a solidarity visit here and realized that he saw no children playing outdoors. Deciding that something needed to be done, and he had an idea. If these children couldn’t go to a park outdoors, lets build one indoors where it is protected from rocket attacks.

That is how a 21,000-square-foot bunker of a recreation center was born and came to be inaugurated in March 2009, in the industrial sector of this city. It has a small indoor soccer field, video games, fun-house mirrors, a climbing wall, rooms for birthday celebrations and $1.5 million worth of reinforced steel. The new recreation center also has two rooms set aside for counseling and a staff of mental health workers.

The site, an abandoned textile warehouse, has been refurbished with $5 million from the Jewish National Fund and painted in cheerful colors.

Although not every part of the roof is protected against rockets, the building has many reinforced areas that double as functional spaces, including the soccer field and a computer room. When a rocket is launched, a siren sounds also known as a “tzeva adom” or red alert, which gives residents 15 seconds to take shelter, making it easy for those inside the center to move to the reinforced parts.

Since the Gaza War last year ended on January 18, some 269 Kassam rockets have been launched from Gaza at Israel. Although the current pace of Kassam rockets have slowed to the occasional ”tzeva adom” or red alert in English. The most recent attack occurred on Sunday October 18, with two Kassams launched, causing no damage or injury.

In the summer of 2008 an outdoor solution was found as well. Most outdoor playgrounds in Sderot are empty, though not this one, the first playground in the world that is properly protected from falling rockets. There are heavy concrete tubes that children can run to when the siren sounds for protection. Moms are finally feeling that it is safe enough to let their children play at a playground. The children look like they are having fun.

Sderot residents are grateful for the innovations and are glad to have a playground like this where the children can play somewhat at peace, but it’s obviously not a solution to living with the rocket fire.

27260160 (Photo Credit: NY Times)

Sderot mayor in Baltimore

Photos and Story by AJ Bulua – for JewishByte.info. He can be reached via email aj@jewishbyte.info . To learn more about Sderot, visit SderotMedia HERE. To contribute please visit the JNF website HERE.