Parents of Denver Jewish Day School 10th graders were relieved to hear this week that their children were safe after reports of a rocket attack in Israel’s Ramat Hanegev region where they are studying as part of the school’s Hebrew immersion program (HIP).
“The Denver JDS 10th grade students are safe and sound at Midreshet Ben Gurion,” DJDS CEO Avi Halzel informed the Intermountain Jewish News this week.
“They are quite far from Nitzana and the Egyptian border. The kids are currently participating in Gadna, an IDF high school training program.”
Early on Tuesday, Dec. 13, according to the JerusalemOnline website, red alert sirens were sounded in the southern Negev, near the Egyptian border, after local residents heard explosions.
Preliminary reports suggested that the rocket was probably fired from the Sinai and exploded within Egyptian territory, possibly as a result of ongoing internecine conflict there.
IDF authorities, however, advised Ramat Hanegev residents to keep bomb shelters open, according to JerusalemOnline.
In Denver, the red alert triggered parental consternation, in response to which JEWISHcolorado, which partners with the Ramat Hanegev region, forwarded a reassuring message from Eran Doron, Ramat Hanegev’s regional council CEO.
“At 08:04 a.m. this morning,” Doron wrote on Tuesday, “rocket rounds were fired and fell near the Nitzana community in Ramat Hanegev from Egypt. As of this moment no injuries or casualties are being reported and the IDF, security forces and regional council staff have ascertained the situation.”
Doron continued: “We are happy to say that no citizen or community properties were damaged in this event.”
DJDS sophomores have been spending five weeks in Ramat Hanegev for the past several years as part of an exchange program with Israeli students.
While in Israel, the Denver youths live and work with their Israeli counterparts at the High School for Environmental Education, a boarding school based in Sde Boker in the Ramat Hanegev region.
Chris Leppek may be reached at IJNEWS@aol.com
