Aaron Joshua Baumol is learning about giving by sharing with the Gush Katif expulsion victims as he prepares for his bar mitzvah -- the youth has decided to hold the event in Nitzan, where the expellees were dumped after being forced from their homes in August 2005. In this way, local businesses will be able to profit from his party, he believes.
The event will take place on Parshat Noach (October 24).
Young Baumol, a 12-year-old resident of the burgeoning city of Efrat in Gush Etzion, still remembers the Disengagement from Gaza and northern Samaria, although he was only eight years old at the time.
"We had visited Neve Dekalim a few months before and I couldn’t believe that a town that looked so similar to my hometown in Efrat was going to be destroyed," he said in a letter he wrote to Israel National News. "There were beautiful houses, parks, schools, shopping centers and warm and friendly people who welcomed us into their homes.
"My family, friends and I joined thousands of people from all over Israel to try and change their minds. We formed a human chain, held signs up on the highway, went down to Kfar Maimon and Kissufim to try and talk to the soldiers and policemen, but unfortunately it didn't help."
Baumol remembers baking for the expellees as they tried to put their shattered lives back together in the small hotel rooms in which they were initially placed. He recalls "bringing toys, blankets, Purim costumes and whatever else they needed." But four years passed, the boy grew, and he "figured they had all moved into new homes and moved on with their lives."
He discovered this summer that he was wrong.
"My parents brought me down to Nitzan a couple of weeks ago and showed me the way the people of Gush Katif are living. This place did not look like Efrat. Everyone was still living in their 'temporary' caravans. No beautiful houses, parks and gardens. The warm and friendly people were still there, but they looked sad," he wrote.
Baumol spent time with the children, watching a soccer tournament, visiting the youth center, working out in the weight room and having a bite at the pizza shop.
"The kids were really nice to me, but it's not easy for them there," he noted. "A lot of them suffer from PTSD, have difficulty in school, feel trapped in their small 'homes,' get into trouble, and are generally sad about their new lives. Their only outlet is their Moadon [clubhouse] which is a small building with old broken down games and computers."
Nonetheless, he added, dozens of kids come to the Moadon every day to attend social activities and to use the learning center, "trying to move on and forget about their past."
After his visit, young Baumol decided that he would focus his bar mitzvah on helping the expellees of Gush Katif by moving the entire event to Nitzan.
"This way all the money we were going to spend on caterers, waiters, photographers, musicians, printers and more would go to Gush Katif refugees, and our friends and family could see the way these people are living four years after they were kicked out of their homes," he explained.
Baumol hopes to raise money at his party to equip the Nitzan youth club with "new fun stuff" which he says will help the kids "stay off the streets and get help and support to move on with their lives."
According to activists Yossi Dahari, head of GK expellee youth programs, and Rachel Saperstein, head of Operation Dignity, at least 30 percent of the former Gaza residents are still unemployed. In Nitzan, "temporary" home to many former business owners, nearly 60 percent of the residents have no jobs.