First Hand Report from Former Winnipegger Galya Lazar: Worries That Not all of her Classmates at Sapir College in Sderot with be There when Classes Finally Resume

Editor's Note Oct 10, 2023 : The following piece below was written by former Winnipegger Galya Lazar, the daughter of Nola and Matthew Lazar , who is a graduate of Gray Academy of Jewish Education. Galya is 26 years old, having made aliyah 7 years ago. She is studying Social Work at Sapir College in Sderot, which is right on the border with Gaza, and her classes which were due to start have been postponed until further notice. She lives on Kibbutz Mishmar HaNegev, where she has lived for about 6 years. She works in a daycare on the Kibbutz and as well as babysitts many of the local children of many ages. Some " Jewish refugees" from nearby Ofakim and Kibbutz Be'eri, places that were targets of Hamas's brutal atrocities were moved onto Kibbutz Mishmar Hanegev. Galya ha now moved off of Kibbutz Mishmar HaNegev to Rosh Haya'in, a city in the central district of Israel, where she is staying with her brother-in law Eliran Assaf. A mere 8 hours after Galya left Kibbutz Mishmar HaNegev, there was a Hamas terrorist loose, who was caught nearby her kibbutz. Yona Lazar, Galya's sister, who made aliyah about 9 years ago, is currently in Winnipeg, since she was here when Hamas terrorists broke through the border and perpetrated a pogrom, and has been unable to get a flight back to Israel. Gilon Lazar, Galya's brother, who did a gap year in Israel as part of Young Judea in Israel, who is currently studying journalism at Concordia University in Montreal knows one of the people who has murderered by Hamas at the outdoor rave, where Hamas murdered 260 innocent civilians.

On Friday October 7, everything was normal. I went to work at the daycare on the kibbutz, and then I spent Friday evening hanging out and catching up with my “adoptive” family here on the kibbutz. Then, yesterday (Saturday) morning, at around 7 a.m., I woke up to the sound of rockets, and a text from my family asking if I had also woken up from the booms. That is when I checked the news. Israel was under attack, and the Bruno Mars concert that I was supposed to go to that night was cancelled.

I live in the south, so this is not the first time that I have woken up to the sounds of Iron Dome, and not my first time running to the nearby bomb shelter. However, as the morning progressed, it became clear that this time was different. Reports started to come in of armed terrorists taking over Sderot and the surrounding kibbutzim. They were murdering civilians, taking families hostage, and kidnapping civilians and taking them back to Gaza. Once I was able to leave the bomb shelter, I packed my bags and went to go stay with my adoptive family. We kept up to date on the news, but tried not to let the children feel our worry as we watched the death toll climb to the hundreds.

Because we live in the south, we spent the day inside with the doors locked and the blinds closed; our biggest worry was that terrorists would break into our community too. On top of that worry, I also worried for my friends. I study at the Sapir Academic College in Sderot, a lot of my friends live in those communities that had been taken hostage by the armed terrorists. Throughout the day we all texted and called each other, making sure that each other were safe. I still worry that when we go back to classes, not everyone will be there.

Today, as communities near Gaza were liberated, families from those communities began arriving at the kibbutz, staying with host families that had volunteered their homes. These families arrived with nothing- their homes had been completely destroyed- so the community began collecting donations. Anything helped, especially children’s toys and clothes. Most of the men in the kibbutz community have been called to the reserves, and those who weren’t volunteered to help guard our kibbutz gates. I spent the day helping care for children whose mothers were psychologists/social workers, who had gone to help the families who had arrived at the kibbutz. Now I am home with my adoptive family. We are currently discussing whether to stay here, or to travel north to the center, and trying to understand what the safer option is.