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More than 600 people gathered at the East Brunswick Jewish Center on Jan. 12 to show their support for Israel at a rally sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Greater Middlesex County and raised more than $10,000 for the Freedom to Play campaign.

The federation kicked off its Freedom to Play campaign Monday night. The campaign will provide Israeli children with a day's relief from fear by taking them away from their communities that are being bombarded by terrorist rockets, to safe spots for a day of fun. At a cost of $53 per child, the goal is to raise enough to give 1,000 children their childhood back, said Rabbi Bennett Miller, of Anshe Emeth Memorial Temple in New Brunswick. As of Tuesday afternoon, federation officials estimated funds collected would pay for 221 children.

"It's a rally to support Israel -- a people under siege," said Gerrie Bamira, the federation's executive director.

The Freedom program will take them to a place "where they don't have to be afraid, where they don't have to worry about a sister throwing herself on her brother so her body shields him," Miller said referring to a story Sderot emissary Sael Abecassis told of an Israeli teen who saved her brother's life at the expense of her own. He talked about how people of Sderot and the western Negev have lived -- whether they're at a pool, walking home from a friend's house, or any other daily activity -- in fear of Qassam rocket attacks.

"So that the people of Sderot know they are not alone, lets try to understand what it means to have only 15 seconds... The code red goes off... count with me now 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12-13-14-15. If you're not in the shelter and if you're in the wrong place, your life is over."

Speakers included Rep. Rush Holt (D-12) and Frank Pallone Jr. (D-6); Benjamin Krasna, deputy consul of the Consul General of Israel in New York; local rabbis; lay leaders; students; and Abecassis.

Pallone has supported Israel's right to defend itself from daily rocket attacks by Hamas and other Islamic terrorist organizations and has called Israel the United States' one true ally in the Middle East.

Holt discussed his support for House Resolution 34 supporting Israel. On Jan. 9, Holt addressed fellow representatives and said, "The indiscriminate rocket attacks by Hamas are an unacceptable assault on Isarels citizens and her sovereignty."

Abecassis told stories about what life is like for his family living in Sderot. Amit, Abecassis' 5-year-old brother, knows to run for cover when the code red alerts sound. The boy then sings very loudly while taking cover from rockets shot into his community.

"He sings to block out the sound of explosions," Abecassis said. "A 5-year-old needs to understand this."

The boy's school has a model of the Western Wall for children to write down wishes and to put in the wall.

"What does he want? He just wants quiet," Abecassis said. He added a story about his grandparents, whose house was hit by a missile. His grandfather now cannot safely walk to visit another relative living just five minutes away. "This situation did not start a few weeks ago -- it started eight years ago."

Attending the rally was a way to counter negative reports about Israel in the media, according to one Kendall Park parent. Marc Rothstein said his children hear anti-Israel comments in school. "I think it's important to support Israel, and mostly I wanted (his two children) to hear what's going on," Rothstein said. While listening to the speakers, he said, "I was thinking how lucky we are that we are living here and we don't have to deal with (terrorist rocket attacks) every day." For Lee Livingston, the president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Middlesex County, the rally was about peace.

If Israel's enemies "lay down their arms there would be peace, if Israel laid down their arms there'd be no more Israel," Livingston said. In light of the fact that 600 people attended a rally pulled together in less than one week he added, "There's tremendous support for the state of Israel in our community and Jewish communities around the world."

Rabbi Eliot Malomet of the Highland Park Conservative Temple-Congregation Anshe Emeth of South River led the group in reciting the Prayer for the State of Israel, Rabbi Eric Milgrim of Congregation B'nai Shalom in East Brunswick led the Prayer for Israeli Soldiers, and Rabbi Robert Wolkoff of Congregation B'nai Tikvah in North Brunswick led the Prayer for American Soldiers. Abecassis said, "I'm here to say to you, 'thank you,' not as an Israeli, but as a resident of Sderot. You make us strong. Thank you very much."

Rabbi Aaron Benson of the East Brunswick Jewish Center served as master of ceremonies. He closed the rally with Hatikvah.

"Thank you all for attending and God bless Israel," Benson said.

Jesse Talmud, 16, of East Brunswick and his friend Jake Altholz, 15, of Clark, milled about the synagogue talking to each other, friends and The Jewish State after the rally. They said Krasna's description of what life of soldiers and civilians in Israel was moving. Talmud wore a T-shirt reading "Israel Defense Forces" given to him as a souvenir from his mother's recent trip to Israel. "They were inspirational," Altholz said of the speakers. Talmud added: "I'm here because I support Israel 100 percent."