News Brief

The besieged residents of Sderot are being offered free workshops based on the teachings of Scientology’s founder. A nonprofit group, the Association for Prosperity and Security in the Middle East, has sent e-mails to social workers in the southern Israeli town offering to help the residents cope with Kassam rocket attacks, The Jerusalem Post reported. Some say the group, which claims to have no connection to the Church of Scientology or its founder, L. Ron Hubbard, is trying to take advantage of the residents. The Association for Prosperity told The Jerusalem Post in an e-mail that the workshops were based on the teachings of “The Way to Happiness,” a pamphlet written by Hubbard. The workshops are offered to schools and places of work. The e-mail is titled “Sick of being bombed?” and asks, among other questions, “Are you afraid to leave the house in the morning?” and “Don’t know if the children will return home safely?” Dalia Yosef, the head of an umbrella group for the psychological counseling and professional support provided to Sderot’s residents, said several social workers had voiced concern after receiving the e-mails. “We intend to investigate this association, as we do every group that offers social and psychological services in Sderot,” said Yosef, whose Hosen Center receives funding from the Israeli government as well as the Friendship Foundation, an organization headed by Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein and supported by evangelical Christians.