An Austrian teenager brought happiness to Israelis living in the shadow of Palestinian rocket attacks when he celebrated his bar mitzvah in the shell-shocked town of Sderot.

The Dec. 28 celebration included indoor entertainment and an outdoor barbeque for more than 200 local children at the town’s Chabad-Lubavitch center. The teenager, named Refael, chose the location as a way to lift the spirits of a population that lived with the specter of attack for more than eight years.

“They were looking for a good deed to do in honor of his bar mitzvah,” said Chabad House Rabbi Moshe Ze’ev Pizem, “and that’s exactly what they did.”

The bar mitzvah boy marked his 13th birthday with family and friends in his hometown of Vienna before travelling to the Holy Land with Austrian Chief Rabbi Paul Chaim Eisenberg. Joining them for the Sderot celebration was Rabbi Yossi Swerdlov of the Lubavitch Youth Organization in Israel.

Pizem noted that just a week before, Sderot was struck by two rockets.

Said the rabbi: “Children here can always use something to help them smile.”