“This Purim, we experienced near miracles: our children played outside, we were able to sit and enjoy a meal, and we could breathe easily knowing there were no rocket attacks threatening our lives any minute. It’s been years since we could do such things in Sderot,” said Etti Cohen, a young mother and resident of the war torn southern town. Etti and her family were one of nearly 500 Sderot residents who spent the recent 3-day Purim Shabbat weekend as guests of Boys Town Jerusalem.

“There are no words to express just how precious each minute has been here,” stressed Shilo Toubi, as he watched his wife and five children join the Purim festivities taking place. “Boys Town gave us not only a wonderful place to stay and delicious meals, but a full three-day spiritual, educational, fun program that breathed new life into us all.

“I can’t begin to describe the insane, catastrophic dimensions of our lives in Sderot,” Toubi said. “Almost 8000 Kassam rockets have been fired on the city, including two just today. Our lives revolve around the 10 seconds we have to take cover when the ‘Color Red’ alert sounds—we can’t give our children baths, can’t go out for a walk or to play outside with the kids, and can’t ever know if an errand to the bank or supermarket will end abruptly with everyone having to run for their lives. When the Kassam hits, the fragments are hurled for miles around, and the combustion sparks fires that spread quickly,” he explained. “So you can imagine how much of a blessing it was to spend this weekend in such a quiet, loving atmosphere in Jerusalem.”

The formidable project to host hundreds of guests from Sderot was a joint effort of Boys Town Jerusalem and a group of residents in the Bayit Vegan neighborhood where the school is located. In addition, the nearby Jerusalem College of Technology hosted 250 of the guests for Shabbat on their campus.

“Actually, the spontaneous plans came together less than two weeks ago, and Boys Town’s staff and students went into full gear to give the Sderot families a much-needed respite,” explained Boys Town Jerusalem PR director Eddie Wolf. “In addition to the 250 people we hosted in our dormitory over Shabbat, we invited all 500 guests to a Purim party here Saturday night and to a festive Purim meal on Sunday afternoon. Many of our students volunteered to give up their Purim vacation to stay and help the Sderot guests,” he continued. “From our band playing music to our boys serving food and supervising the hundreds of children here, the Boys Town students were constantly on the go.”

For BTJ senior Meir Ben-Shabbat, helping children from Sderot at Boys Town was not a new experience. The electronics major had also volunteered last summer as a counselor in Boys Town’s “Camp Shalom” day camp for children from Sderot and surrounding areas under fire. “We were so happy to see Meir again,” exclaimed two of his former campers, Yitzchak Ori, age 12, and 10-year-old Yinon Toubi. “We still remember the fun we had here,” Yitzchak said, “and now it was great to play outside and breathe the air. We didn’t have to worry about hearing the ‘Color Red’ alert and having to run for shelter.”

Special activities organized for the Sderot residents included educational lectures, musical performances for adults and children, and a Sunday morning outing to Jerusalem’s Biblical Zoo. “We look upon Sderot’s residents as true heroes,” declared Boys Town dean of students Rabbi Meir Linchner. “We can’t stand by while they’re suffering so terribly. Whatever help we can provide is essential.”

According to Eddie Wolf, the school’s next initiative on behalf of Sderot’s population is to invite the city’s residents to celebrate a simchah at Boys Town Jerusalem campus.  “In light of the very dangerous situation in Sderot, celebrations are tempered with sadness: guests are too fearful to travel to Sderot to attend even family celebrations, and most of Sderot’s citizens do not have the funds to hold the simcha in cities outside the line of fire,” explains Wolf. “Boys Town has now invited Sderot families to be our guests for a Bar Mitzvah lunch following a Monday or Thursday Bar Mitzvah at the kotel, or for a festive meal following a brit mila, which can take place in our synagogue.” Wolf reports an enthusiastic reaction from Sderot families.

“Enabling us to experience the peace and quiet here is a true act of chesed,” exclaimed Sderot’s Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, who along with his wife had arranged the details of bringing the 500 guests to the school for Purim. “We are living terribly traumatic lives in Sderot. Even here, most of us were jumping when doors slammed or at any other loud noise. Our nerves are shattered.  Each and every one of us here has either been in a Kassam rocket attack or within several feet of one. We have witnessed great miracles, but the constant threat we live under is terribly grueling and frightening. We will always be grateful to Boys Town Jerusalem for giving us light and joy on Purim,” the rabbi declared. “May those of us from Sderot–and the entire Jewish People throughout the world—be blessed with the gift of peace.”

Boys Town Jerusalem is one of Israel’s premier institutions for educating the country’s next generation of leaders in the fields of technology, commerce, education, the military and public service. Since its founding in 1948, BTJ has pursued its mission of turning young boys from limited backgrounds into young men with limitless futures. From Junior High through the College level, the three part curriculum at Boys Town – academic, technological and Torah – is designed to turn otherwise disadvantaged Israeli youth into productive citizens of tomorrow. The campus, located on 18 acres in the Bayit Vegan neighborhood of Jerusalem, is a home-away-from-home for its student body with a capacity to serve up to 1,000 boys. More than 6,000 graduates hold key positions throughout Israeli society.