Boston groups to bring Sderot teens for summer

Jewish groups in Boston are gathering support to bring 20 teenagers from Sderot to summer camps in New England. The Children of Sderot project estimates it must raise $36,000 to finance travel costs for the teens, who have endured frequent barrages of Palestinian rocket fire since Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005. Inna Rifkin, a Russian-Jewish immigrant, initiated the project after learning of her daughter’s experiences working with Russian teenagers in the town, according to a report in the Jewish Journal Boston North. “We want to give these children, even for just a little while, what they don’t have at home: happiness, safety and care,” Rifkin said. The project has garnered support so far from Shaloh House, a Jewish day school in Brighton, Mass. and the Russian School of Mathematics in Newton, Mass. which Rifkin heads. A fund-raiser is scheduled for May 12 in Marblehead, Mass.