July 2, 2008

Children from Sderot will attend Jewish summer camps in North America.

Some 70 children aged 11 to 14 from the besieged town in southern Israel were scheduled to arrive Wednesday at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York on their way to 10 Chabad Gan Israel day camps in the eastern United States and Montreal.

Another 50 children were scheduled to fly into Los Angeles to attend West Coast Chabad camps.

Summer camps financed and supervised by the Prime Minister's Office and the education ministry will be held for the children of Sderot and other communities adjacent to the Gaza Strip, the Prime Minister's Office announced Tuesday.

The camps will be held during July in Sderot, as well as the Eshkol, Ashkelon, Sdot Negev and Sha'ar Hanegev regional councils. More than 5,000 children are expected to participate.

In addition, several U.S. and Israeli organizations have joined in the Moms for Israel campaign and already sent 54 children from Sderot to summer camps in other areas of the country. The groups plan to send more.

Among the groups are the One Israel Fund, Jewish National Fund, UJA-Federation of Greater New York, Northern New Jersey Federation, Jewish Agency For Israel and Art for Israel.