By: Raffi Mark, Rutgers University

Today we stepped out of the discussion rooms and truly experienced Israel. We left our hotel in the Tel Aviv area destined for the city of Sderot. Sderot is along the border with Gaza and has been experiencing regular rocket attacks since 2011.

Sitting on the bus and immediately being shown that there were three bomb shelters surrounding our lunch area really brought the reality home to each of us. After hearing from a local tour guide about life in Sderot and seeing how playgrounds doubled as bomb shelters, we went to an overlook and began to grasp exactly how close we were to Gaza as we overlooked the border.

We ended our time in Sderot by volunteering at a local food pantry. In addition to volunteering our time, we raised money to bring elderly people who visit the food bank new carts to use to distribute and carry their food. Our group spent part of the afternoon bagging vegetables and organizing the pantry. This afternoon provided us all with real life experience with the community of Sderot and allowed us to work and enjoy ourselves while truly helping the community.

As we left the food pantry one of the workers told a group of us that the broken area of sidewalk was the scar of a ketusha rocket that had fallen just days ago. No one was hurt, but the cooling system of the food pantry was damaged and needed repair. Certainly, the marks are still clear. This brought our whole time in Sderot full circle since the intensity of looking for the nearest shelter came right to the doorstep of our relaxed afternoon of volunteering.