Looking Back to the Future

As of the time of this writing, 24 people have been killed, and the Iranian rocket and drone barrages have injured more than 600 people. Numerous buildings have been destroyed, and hundreds of apartments have been damaged, leaving hundreds displaced. It has been reported that Iran is intentionally targeting civilians.

Schools are closed; gatherings of over ten people have been requested to be cancelled. Some businesses are closed as the government has requested that only “necessary” businesses remain open at this time. Streets are empty, and those brave enough to go out are panic shopping.

Looking Back to the Future

When I lived in San Diego, 18 years ago, I would hear jet planes from the surrounding military bases on training missions over our neighborhood.  Today, I live in Sderot and have for the past seventeen years, six wars,  the sixth war has been ongoing since 7 October 2023, and around 25,000 Kassam rocket attacks. Today, I still hear jets flying overhead, but I know they are headed to Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen, and now to Iran on bombing missions.

In San Diego, helicopters would fly overhead on training missions. Today, the helicopters I hear are armed with sixteen missiles, a M230 30 mm cannon with up to 1,200 rounds. Hearing those 30 mm rounds being fired is almost a daily occurrence.

Sderot Emptied

I have lived on the top floor of a home with no bomb shelter. The best you could do was run to the hall wall or the room furthest to the east, as the Kassams fired from Gaza come from the west.

Today, my home is on the first floor of a four-story building, and it has an attached bomb shelter, which just happens to be on the east side of the building.

I have witnessed my hometown of 23,000 people be reduced to about 3000 as the 7 October 2023 war escalated and the residents fled to safer locations throughout Israel. My wife and I stayed in Sderot and did our best to serve the needs of those who, for whatever reason, could not or did not leave.

Hope For Sderot provided hot, cooked meals, trips to the next town for shopping, or provided them with groceries that we purchased for them. We established a food distribution center to distribute canned goods and essential grocery items as well. We made home deliveries down empty, darkened street, not knowing if just maybe there was still a terrorist hiding somewhere.

Countless Meals Cooked

I can’t count the number of meals we have cooked for soldiers since the beginning of this present war, as well as the number of new socks, T-shirts, blankets, gloves, beanies, and scarves given out. 

The food we cook, we cook  in our kitchen here at home, in a single oven. We can prepare meals for seventy soldiers at a time. We prepare all the salads the night before;  Eti does the baking the day before, and I start the cooking at 4:30 in the morning to have it ready in time for them to come and pick it up.

I have seen frightened, scared, and apprehensive townspeople return after being displaced for six months. They came home to the ongoing war, and the sound of artillery fire at all times of the day and night. They came home to those 30 mm rounds being fired daily. Sometimes they were, and still are, so loud that you think it is happening right outside your front door.

Unfortunately, the  Gaza war is still ongoing, the sound of artillery still  reverberates through the air as our windows rattle and more reservists are being called up.

And now, as the air strikes against Iran escalate, their retaliation includes the firing of ballistic missiles across most of the country as well as suicide drones; Once again, we find ourselves sitting on the edge of our chairs in our bomb shelters, bomb shelters that were designed to protect us from Kassams and shrapnel, not from ballistic missiles. 

In Spite of it All We Keep Going

Through all this, when a mother of 4 goes to the hospital to see why she is having extreme headaches, we were there to provide cooked meals for Shabbat and throughout the middle of the week.

We were asked by a mother with cancer if we could help her get some tennis shoes for her three-year-old son; she neither had the funds nor the ability or strength to go shopping for them. We were more than happy to go shopping for her and her son.

We were there for a mother with school-aged children who broke her leg; she was off work and laid up. She was unable to go shopping or cook for Shabbat. We made sure that there was enough prepared food to get them through Shabbat and with some left over. We were there for them for four weeks.

Just in passing… Shabbat is the most significant and important day of the week here in Israel. You can cut corners all week, but for Shabbat, you try to set the most special dinner table you are able to provide for your family.

During the week, we have access to the leftover food from one of our schools here in Sderot. The meals range from Chicken legs, meatballs, hamburger patties, and schnitzel. It comes with couscous, pasta, rice, or quinoa, fresh, raw vegetables, and fruit. We package it up and make deliveries to families, who, for some, this is their dinner that night.

We also make sure some makes it way to the “warm Corner”. The “Warm Corner” is a bomb shelter located at the entrance of town that has been converted into a stop-off point or resting area for soldiers, or anyone who needs a break, for that matter.   We also support them with home-cooked food and beverages.

The Bread of the Vineyard bakery calls us every night at closing time. They give us all the bread, rolls, croissants, and bourekas left from the day. There is a different IDF unit that it goes to each night.

Needless to say… we are serving hungry people, soldiers in need, single mothers, and low-income families trying to make ends meet. Add to the everyday stress,  the stress of the ongoing Gaza war, and now the fear and the uncertainty of the war situation with Iran is a lot.  Most people have a pretty full plate. We will continue to do whatever we can to give any little Hope we can, and in doing so, we strive to fulfill the calling we have been given and the mission of Hope For Sderot.

It is through your support and generosity that we are able to do what we do. Thank You for your unwavering support!