Staff Writer

Campers at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Washington have some new pen pals this summer.

For the last couple weeks, they've been exchanging e-mails with children in the Israeli city of Sderot, which has suffered through almost daily Palestinian rocket attacks in recent years.

The JCC campers talk with their new friends about such things as their families, their favorite foods and their hobbies. And those simple exchanges have had an indelible impact on the Israeli youngsters, said Aviva Tessler.

They're "helping kids in Sderot go back to being kids again," said Tessler, executive director of Operation Embrace, which united the American and Israeli children.

And the campers are enjoying making new friends.

"I'm doing something good while having fun," said Jonah Gordon, 9, of North Potomac. "It's hard there in Sderot ‹ my mom told me all about it ‹ [and] it's good to have someone to talk to."

Founded in 2001 by Tessler and three other Potomac women, Operation Embrace provides emotional and financial assistance to Israeli victims and survivors of terror, including providing such services as mental health and trauma support counseling.

Last year, Camp JCC campers collected toys, games and other items for families in Sderot. Last Friday, they did so again, filling up bins with all kinds of stuff, from flip-flops to teddy bears to T-shirts. And Tessler also talked to the campers about whom they were helping and communicating with, showing them photos of some of the damaged buildings in Sderot as well as pictures of the families that they were assisting.

Tessler, who has spent the last year traveling back and forth between the Jewish state and her home in Potomac, describes Sderot as a place akin to the television town of Mayberry, R.F.D.

"Everybody knows each other," she said of the city of 24,000 people, which is five miles from the Gaza Strip and just a 40-minute drive from Tel Aviv.

And "they come from all over the globe," with Jews from Uzbekistan, Ethiopia, Russia and the U.S. among its citizens.

They "don't want to leave" their homes, Tessler said, but right now many are suffering through an unimaginable situation. With bombs falling daily, Tessler noted that Sderot residents aren't simply suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder.

"There's no 'post,' they're [still] in trauma," she said.

She added that many also feel a great sense of isolation, telling the story of one teenage girl who was so traumatized that she wouldn't come out of her house until Operation Embrace got her a computer so she was able to communicate with the world outside of Israel.

The e-mails demonstrate the "power of human touch," said Tessler, and "make it more personal."

Such contact "makes [Sderot residents] feel people care," she said. It allows them to "think beyond their reality," which is "so therapeutic."

For example, Yakov of Sderot told Shaked Ben-Moshe of Rockville that "I am short. I have brown hair and brown eyes. I like to play foot ball. Pleas[e] write to me soon."

Shaked responded that he was also born in Israel and then asked, "Do you mean you like football or soccer because in America they call football soccer? ... My favorite sport is also soccer!"

Yakov then asked his pen pal about what he does at camp for fun, and Shaked replied, "Camp JCC is really cool we go to the pool two times, and ... we also go to science, I can't remember the rest." Shaked also wrote that he likes Playstation, and Yakov asked him what games he has.

Shaked said he likes writing to Yakov once or twice a week during the camp's computer time.

"I feel like I'm actually helping someone," he said. "It's fun to communicate, and it never stops. He likes soccer, just like me."

"It's nice knowing how people live in another country," said Alex Klugerman, 9, of Rockville, adding that he and his pen pal, Naama, both read a lot. "It's fun to write to people."

"It's fun asking him questions about Israel," said Ethan Shrier, 8, of Potomac. "I always wanted to know about it [and] it's fun knowing someone who can tell you all about it."

Tessler said she hoped that her presentation would show the campers how important their help was to Sderot residents. And Ethan said afterward that he had learned a great deal.

"I didn't know that Sderot had wars in it," said Ethan. "I didn't know that many people found rockets in their houses. It's really nice knowing about where the people I'm writing to live."