As part of its ongoing efforts to boost awareness of the crisis facing the people of Sderot and other towns on the Gaza perimeter, UJC and its partners JAFI and JDC recently brought editors from American Jewish newspapers to the region, where the journalists stayed with local families, took shelter during kassam strikes, and examined the programs that funding from North American Jewry sustains.

We'll post links to the coverage here so you can see what perspectives these journalists brought home with them.

Today's serving is from Phil Jacobs of the Baltimore Jewish Times.

Jacobs' coverage came in the form of a series of short blog entries: 72 Hours, A General Speaks, A Day In Sderot (is there an unwritten law of journalism that everyone who goes to Sderot has to write an article with that title?), and An Enemy at Home.

The most powerful entry is An Enemy At Home, which describes the work of Shirley Katzir of Eden House, a facility that treats girls in Sderot who, in addition to coping with kassams, have been molested in their own homes. The Eden facility, supported by UJC's Israel Emergency Campaign, seeks to provide these truly traumatized girls with a safe place -- safe from both their family and the Kassams -- to live and recover.

Also worth a look is A General Speaks, about a blunt discussion led by retired Israel general Shalom Harari, who spoke about why Israel was unlikely to move into Gaza in a major way to deter the Kassams unless the loss of life in Israel escalated.