On Wednesday Sep. 27th an emotional event was hold in the Zinman Community Center in Beit Shemesh to honor the "volunteers of the war", the people who hosted, assisted, cooked, baked, made laundry for the hundreds of guests Beit Shemesh had during the 2nd Lebanon War. 

More then 1000 people were hosted all over Beit Shemesh during the weeks of the war. More then 500 of them were living in the community centers and schools of the city. The came from everywhere, from allover Northern Israel: from Haifa, Nahariya, Shlomi, Maalot, Acco and a number of other towns.

We were lucky, in as way, that the war took place during the summer break and that the schools were empty. They came here to get away from the impossible conditions in the shelters and the sounds of the explosions. They came by bus - one family from here, two families from there. They had heard that Beit Shemesh would give them shelter and so they came. One family brought another family, their relatives, their friends. That was a time of CHESED - in Beit Shemesh, a time of CHESED in Israel as a whole. One could not  help but being moved by the outpouring of kindness.

The whole community was mobilized to help. There was electricity in the air. The whole city was involved - all the non-profit organizations, the factories, the Municipality and hundreds of volunteers every day.

That evening we gathered in the Community Center to say "Thank You". It was a tribute sponsored by the BS Municipality, The Community Centers network of BS and the Jewish communities in Washington DC and South Africa via Partnership 2000 of the Jewish Agency. One by one, came on stage the leaders of each organization to get his/hers honorary certificate; one by one came the volunteers themselves to be thanked. Some of them were asked to share with the audience what they felt during those days.It was moving. People open their hearts. We all felt very proud of Beit Shemesh and its citizens.

The evening ended with the performance of Shulie Rand, an actor and a director (his famous movie is Ushpizin) who preformed with two stories of Shai Agnon.