Northern New Jersey community sponsors a respite for Sderot's educators

Twenty families of Sderot educators arrived for a weekend in Nahariya, thanks to the generous contribution of the Northern New Jersey community. During these days, they met with teachers from Nahariya and together took part in joint activities including hikes, events and workshops, and received a lot of support and love.

Read about the significance of this respite in the following letters:

"The weekend was amazing, everyone had an incredible time!! We got on the bus last Saturday night half depressed; people didn't want to go back!! They couldn't stop thanking the people from New Jersey…! And what stories I have for you – about a teacher named Osnat Ben Haim, whose home took a direct hit from a Kassam last May, while she, her husband and four children were in the shelter. They decided to leave Sderot, and all summer they spent moving the contents of their apartment to Be'er Sheva (to a temporary dwelling for next year). This vacation gave them the opportunity to take a break and get away from their daily troubles and from their busy errands in Beer Sheva. For Osnat this was farewell trip, she said goodbye to her friends – teachers at the school where she worked for the past 6 years – and it was really sad.

The planning was excellent – not a moment wasted, we went from one activity to the next, from the pool to the reptile park, to lunch, to the children's competitions, to the laughter seminar to the drumming seminar to the hikes… The counselors were wonderful and attentive to everyone's needs. According to my conversations with everyone – this vacation was just what they needed and they really appreciate the joint efforts of JAFI and the New Jersey community. Thanks very much. Taking the teachers into consideration was so important and I take my hat off to the New Jersey community for its empathy toward and caring for the residents of Sderot and its desire to impart to them that they are not alone in this battle. And my thanks for such a moving experience!"

"Dear Smadar,

On behalf of the teaching staff and administration, I wish to thank the Northern New Jersey community for donating these days of R&R for the families of the Sderot teachers in the Western Galilee. The trip was well planned from start to finish; we really enjoyed the programs and the hike. During the hike, the counselors took care of the logistics and Ronit, the JAFI representative, was amazing, and Smadar made sure to visit us and ask how we were doing and handled every detail.

Feedback from the teachers was excellent and they even noted that they had never experienced such organization and cohesion. It was very nice that someone finally thought of the Sderot teachers.

Congratulations on a job well done and thanks for thinking of us.

I would be delighted to cooperate with you in the future."

Dalia Kol

Chairwoman Teachers' Union

"Shikmim – Maoz" School

Sderot Educators Respites 2:
 
106 people participated in the program which happened during Succot started on Sunday, September 30. The group left Sderot in the morning, stopped on the way for a couple of nature hikes and visits, a picnic lunch, a tour of Acco, and arrival to Kibbutz Matzuba in the evening. 15 families of Nahariya educators joined them for dinner and some evening activities. Both Noa Epstein, the living bridge coordinator joined them at tat time. I have greeted them in the name of the partnership and NNJ, and explained why federation chose to support this project.

On Monday, October 1, the group had a tour of Tzfat, and had a peaceful rest of the day in the kibbutz (including swimming) and pool activities. They were joined by the Nahariya families once again in the afternoon for some joint activities.

On Tuesday, the last day of the respite, they have left the kibbutz, went on some more nature hikes, visited Caesarea, stopped for a picnic lunch at a park, and got back to Sderot in the evening. Once again, everybody was ecstatic by the opportunity given to them by their brothers and sisters in Northern NJ, to have a break from the daily hardships in Sderot. They promised to send us letters of appreciation, and I will forward these to you when they come in. It should also be noted that the partnership staff went out of their way to make this a successful project.