Baseball in Israel

          Today provided a different twist and another possible project. David Leichman and I were going to go for a long walk and the weather turned cloudy, cool and with a bit of a drizzle.  I am not complaining after reading about the weather in Rochester and all the Northeast U.S. David decided we wouldn’t go.

          After receiving a phone call David came to me with a dilemma he had.  He thought I might have connections that be of help. He is involved with a project of the Israel Association of Baseball along with Play Global, “an organization that teaches baseball to coaches and youth in developing countries and areas of conflict.” They are calling it Baseball LeKulam, Baseball for All.  They are trying to get 15 Arab Israeli boys from a Christian school in Ramle from grade 6 (ages 12-14) and 15 Jewish Israeli boys of the same age from Modi’in.  So far the Arab Israeli boys have been recruited but that is not the case in Modi’in.  We met with one of the organizers, Ira Moskowitz, to talk about strategies for recruitment which must happen this week.  David thought my connections in Modi’in, especially in the schools might help.  I will speak to some of the people here but already tried to recruit my cousin’s son and perhaps a couple of his friends. Later in the evening at a different meeting when I mentioned this to Ketzele (Yehudah Katz) a friend I met 10 years ago in the Partnership committee, who at one time served as an Israeli shaliach, an emissary to the US, he laughed at the idea of Israeli kids being interested in baseball.  Never the less the idea is to take boys who have never played before and teach them a game while having them meet and interact with boys from another background, with whom they might have never met.

          To go to this meeting we drove from Gezer onto a dirt road and ended up behind the Yishpro Center in Modi’in. It was the shortest route and cut the driving time almost in half. After a lunch at the Modi’in mall David and I returned to Gezer where I packed and drove back to Modi’in, stopping at my favorite wine store, Derekh HaYayin, to pick up wine for dinner.  I wanted the Recanati Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve 2012 that was rated in the top 100 for 2014.  The owner told me he only had ½ bottles but he had the 2013 which he liked better. I bought one of each so I could taste both at dinner to try and compare.  My palate is definitely not fine enough to describe the differences.

That evening I drove over to Ironi Aleph High School to meet with the delegation of students who will be coming to Brighton High School on March 15^th. This is an outgrowth of the partnership but is run independently between the high schools. I spoke to them about some of the things they might encounter on their visit. I knew some of the host families and shared that in mid-March they might still get to see snow.  Later Ketzele spoke to them giving a presentation he presents to many delegations of Israelis that come to the US about American Jewry. He spoke both of the vibrancy and strength of the community as well as the challenges we face based on assimilation and inter-marriage.  Tomorrow the Rochester teacher delegation will be arriving and I’ll go to the airport with Aviva to greet them.