Maissel: Life in Sderot
By Deborah Fineblum Raub
The Jewish Advocate
April 18, 2008
When the rocket alarm went off at Kibbutz Alumim recently, Jeremy Maissel raced through his house, calling the names of his wife and children- or at least three of them. In his panic, he forgot to call his oldest daughter, Reut, an oversight the 17-year-old refuses to let him forget.
Alarms warning the residents of an incoming rocket are part of life at the kibbutz, located a few miles south of the city of Sderot- and 2.34 miles from the Gaza Strip. Though it’s been hit by rockets, the kibbutz has seen no casualties to date.
Instead, it’s Sderot that’s a “favorite target,” Maissel told a group of communal workers at CJP offices last Wednesday. And he makes it clear why. Sderot has, quite simply, more people and provides the bombers a broader target. The Kassam rockets are deadly, but not easily aimed. “But their goal is to panic and terrify,” says Maissel. “If anyone is killed or injured, it’s a bonus.”
For those who think these are primitive weapons, it’s eye-opening to know they’re run off a sophisticated computer, which needs only 20 seconds between launch and explosion.
By the time the alarm sounds, residents have 15 seconds to seek shelter. But sometimes that is simply not enough. Maissel shared photos of one homey kitchen- with rocket-shaped roofing slats hanging from the ceiling and exploded cabinets. It takes a particular kind of courage to leave your home Friday morning to shop for food for Shabbat, he says. “And you know that wherever you are, even at home, you’re not safe.”
Particularly powerful was an aerial view of the area, the kind you’ll find at Google’s maps site. It shows the region’s close proximity to Gaza and the vulnerability of his kibbutz, down to the avocado trees.
The British-born Maissel didn’t set out to live atop a volcano. The kibbutz has been his home since 1984. It’s where he met his Australian-born wife and it’s where their four children were born. Now 46 and an educator by trade, Maissel is traveling the English-speaking world sharing the realities of day-to-day life in this beleaguered corner of Israel.
The Jewish Community Relations Council sponsored his visit to Boston-area campuses and Wednesday’s briefing for communal workers at CJP’s office. The object of Maissel’s presentation was not only to convey the pressures on these Jewish communities, but also to stimulate discussion on the challenging ethical and security issues they face every day.
He brings out puzzle pieces and challenges his audience to piece together the “pie” indicting what “piece” of the responsibility for protecting the citizens is owned by the Israeli government, the Jewish world, Israeli non-profits, the Sderot municipality or individual Israelis. There are no easy answers, it turns out, especially since “the Sderot municipality is broke,” he says. In addition, of the town’s usual 20,000 residents, more than 7,000 have left. Those are mostly the wealthy, people who can afford to simply leave their homes, since selling or renting property in Sderot is impossible these days.
Maissel also played a song sun by 10 and 11-year-olds. Color Red is what Sderot’s children sing when they hear a rocket alarm. “My heart is pounding. Boom boom boom boom,” are some of the lyrics, and ending with “I’m glad it’s finished, yes!”
When the alarm sounds during the school day, the children are rushed into a concrete bunker, one recently given a Noah’s Ark exterior to make it less frightening. “A lot of these kids are suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome, with a difference,” he says. “There’s no ‘post,’ since there’s no end in sight.”
Maissel also challenged his audience to examine the Israeli government’s difficult choices, including building shelters for each Sderot family to the tune of $18 million; trying to develop intercepting weapons to beat the fast-moving Kassams, reducing the electricity Israel supplies Gaza (when last attempted, the international community cried foul), mounting a large-scale ground campaign which puts IDF soldiers in grave danger and alienates Israelis, negotiating with Hamas- a slap to Abbas who’s the official representative of the Palestinians; or just plain “restraint,” leaving the citizens even more abandoned and exposed. And Maissel made it clear that none of these reactions comes without multiple risks and problems.
He brought home the ethical dilemmas of life in the region with a quiz: If you wanted to have your simcha at home in Sderot as an act of support, but the rabbi, guests and DJ refused to attend, what do you do? If the alarm sounds and the clock is ticking, do you take the time to wake your family or neighbors or run for cover and save yourself?
Yet, in many ways the most difficult question so fall is one his family and so many others face every day: Even if you could afford to move, should you?
For Maissel, the answer comes without hesitation. “Jewish history is full of persecutions when we were forced to leave our homes,” he said quietly. “Now that we finally have our own nation, I’m not going to run away.”
