On Wednesday July 4th OneFamily brought 250 children and their parents to Kraft Stadium, Jerusalem for a Fun Day, sponsored by the Weiser family in honor of their daughter Talia’s bat mitzvah. The Weisers are olim from the USA.

The participants included children bereaved by terror, and children from the south of Israel who have experienced severe post trauma as a result of rocket attacks from Gaza, and who feel imprisoned in their own homes this Summer in the face of persistent, renewed, rocket fire and red alerts. Two busloads of families from the south came to enjoy the gathering.

The Fun Day played an important role in OneFamily’s determined effort to enable Israel’s victims of terror to overcome the effects of the horrors they have experienced. It gave child terror victims and their families from Ashkelon, Sderot and the southern region an opportunity to leave their homes, and get away from the danger area, to breathe and to spend a carefree day enjoying themselves. It also brought hundreds of terror victims to experience the healing and the power of being together, and the reassurance that they and the extreme challenges they have experienced have not been forgotten.

“There is something particularly special at a OneFamily gathering,” says Chantal Belzberg. “These people together are a unique community, formed through their mutual, traumatic, and life changing experiences of being victims of terror attacks. They understand that the pain and the challenges of each other’s terror experiences do not go away, and that together they can enable each other to experience relief from their ongoing difficulties, to enjoy the freedom to be who they are, and the sense of understanding and intimacy that they have forged with the OneFamily team.

“I derive great inspiration from the fact that the thoughtfulness and generosity of one family – the Weiser family – can have such a positive and therapeutic impact on the well being and rehabilitation of so many families. It is the greatest gift for the beginning of the long summer holiday period.”

This is only the first of our carefully structured, comprehensive program of many Summer gatherings, camps and events for all victims of terror – those maimed, bereaved and traumatized.