21.03.2010 

On Thursday, February 25th, 2010 some forty 12th grade students from the "Solomon Schechter Westchester School", New York, visited the Extreme Sports Center in Sderot.  The students began their journey in Poland and arrived in Israel a week later to begin a two month long stay.   The meeting with the youth of Sderot has become a tradition among the students of this school for several years now, but this was the first year that the meeting took place in Sderot.   

The young men and women carried out a number of assignments at several stations, including personal and group exercises in coping with difficulties, all held at the installations of the Extreme Sports Center in Sderot.  The joint activities were aimed at creating situations where the participants experienced at first hand subjects such as cooperation, offering one's services and a joint effort to solve problems and develop strategies, while coping with conditions of uncertainty, fear and similar.

Ariel Sperling, a student at the Solomon Schechter School said that although she was not unduly worried about visiting Sderot and about the threat posed by the Qassam rockets, she was very saddened when she realized that people have to live in these circumstances.  She enjoyed the day of activities in Sderot very much, and thought that the principal focus was meeting with the people and getting to know about the way of life there.  The security issue concerns her very much and she would like to help by reporting in New York about what is happening there.  She said that the American media describes the situation here very differently and she would like to describe the reality on the ground as she sees it.  Sperling had already been here in July last as part of the delegation entitled "Write on for Israel".  She concludes that at the end of the day, despite the differences in the way of life we are all very similar.

Owen, who is aged 17, found participating in the activities with people whom he had only just come to know a little strange at first but he soon got used to the idea and added that he could not wait to get home to tell his friends that he had been to Sderot.  During the tour it was interesting to see Gaza and how close it was to Sderot, but he too pointed out that he was not afraid of the Qassam rockets. 

Sivan Mordechai, who is a youth leader at the extreme sports center, and was in charge of the activities stated that although they were forced to hold all the activities indoors because of the torrential rain the encounter was a marked success and the youth enjoyed themselves very much.  The emphasis during the activities was placed on the interaction between the students and there was indeed cooperation and a good rapport between the young people from Sderot and the students from the "Solomon Schechter School".