Rebuilding Community: Dror Israel Educators in Sderot

After 5 months as living as internal refugees, the educators’ kibbutz of Dror Israel returned to Sderot in March. Despite fresh memories of Hamas terrorists roaming the streets, this dedicated group of educators has only deepened its commitment to the city since the war began. 

Dror Israel has had a close relationship with the city of Sderot for many years. The city is home to a thriving branch of the affiliated youth movement HaNoar HaOved v’HaLomed (NOAL), as well dozens of Dror Israel educators. These educators have been working closely with the city municipality for years to create grassroots community initiatives, empowering local residents in each neighborhood to become community organizers. 

Dror Israel educators decorate their Sderot balcony, cleaned up after it was shattered by bullets on October 7th.

When the city of Sderot was evacuated on October 12, after being on lockdown for five days while the Israeli army battled Hamas cells, its residents scattered to 83 different locations around Israel, with large concentrations of people in the hotels of Tel Aviv, Eilat and the Dead Sea. Dror Israel educators, evacuees themselves, leapt into action, swiftly setting up temporary educational frameworks for children in the hotels in the general chaos of displacement. They also activated their networks of local community organizers, who created committees in each evacuee center to give voice to the needs of their neighbors. 

Led by Dror Israel's Sderot educators, amazing teens chose to step up as leaders

Eventually, when the Ministry of Education arrived to set up schools for the evacuees, Dror Israel focused its energies on informal education and community empowerment. From November through February, Dror Israel educators led weekly activities for over 600 displaced children and ran leadership training courses for over 80 Sderot teens, giving them tools to become role models and counselors for younger evacuees. 

Starting in January, people began trickling back to Sderot. In March, the bulk of Sderot’s residents were able to return to their homes. Dror Israel activists immediately began reaching out and rebuilding local leadership committees in the city’s neighborhoods. They began an initiative to give residents a warm homecoming, making signs and handing out chocolates. Together with over 600 local activists in total, Dror Israel mobilized to fix up the dilapidated and abandoned bomb shelters as a safe meeting place for neighborhood organizing. In addition, the educators worked closely with Merkaz Hosen (the Resilience Center), an organization that deals with war-related trauma in the Gaza Envelope, to facilitate group sessions in the neighborhoods. 

Summer camps create a sense of normalcy for Sderot's kids.

The youth movement chapter also returned to the city. Their building had suffered serious damage after being used by the army on October 7 as a strategic location for an intense firefight with a group of terrorists who had taken over the neighboring police station. As the branch is currently unsafe, programming is being held in protected rooms at nearby schools. These larger spaces also accommodate for the increased number of kids participating in youth movement programs.

The branch’s programming has grown and changed in order to meet the needs of the kids and teens, who face many new challenges as a result of their displacement and the ongoing war. Offering expanded weekly events with an increased focus on emotional and educational support, the ongoing programming continues to be a crucial part of rebuilding the Sderot community.