sports – Jewish Independent

Let’s talk mental health

Michael Landsberg will deliver the talk Darkness and Hope: Depression, Sport and Me on Feb. 13, as part of Jewish Family Services’ Family Life Education Series. (photo from JFS)

Michael Landsberg is a Canadian sports journalist and former host of Off the Record for TSN. He is also a passionate advocate for removing the stigma around mental illness, and will be coming to Vancouver next month to deliver the talk Darkness and Hope: Depression, Sport and Me. A Jewish Family Services (JFS) Family Life Education event, the talk will be held at Congregation Beth Israel on Feb. 13, with all proceeds going to support JFS mental health initiatives in the community.

Landsberg, who suffers from depression and generalized anxiety disorder, has in recent years been an ambassador for Bell Let’s Talk, an initiative that raises awareness and encourages dialogue about mental health. In 2013, his documentary, Darkness and Hope: Depression, Sports and Me, was nominated for a Canadian Screen Award for best history or biography documentary program or series. The Canadian Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health has named Landsberg one of its Champions of Mental Health. Landsberg is known for his Twitter hashtag #sicknotweak, which encourages discussion around mental health and creates a forum for those needing help.

“We’re thrilled and delighted to have Michael Landsberg come and do a talk at Beth Israel,” said Alan Stamp, clinical counseling director at JFS. “He has become an ambassador and a pioneer for mental health. He took a risk coming out about his struggles, [and] for him to come out and share his experiences is quite captivating. What he does best of all is he addresses stigma and, when someone in his role can speak out, it helps to lessen the suffering of the one in five Canadians – which is a conservative estimate in my opinion – who experiences a mental health concern over their lifetime.”

In Vancouver, Landsberg will be doing a one-hour talk with a question-and-answer period afterwards. He spoke to the Jewish Independent about helping people struggling with mental health issues.

“In general, sports mimics life,” he said. “When I speak about life and the stigma around mental health, I know we’re not as far ahead as we think we are. I don’t think we’re nearly as far ahead as we would want to believe. We’ve been working hard and it’s way better, yet I hear from people in the sports world all the time who are still in the closet, or they’re feeling shame.”

A major focus of Landsberg’s work is combating the idea that mental illness is a sign of weakness or is something “self-inflicted.”

“That is the arrogance of mental health,” he said. “Mentally healthy people sometimes believe that they would have been able to overcome the illness – they don’t understand the reality that people with mental health issues face, and how unchosen and beyond their control it can actually be. I try to educate the non-sufferer to better understand what mental illness is, and that it is like any other illness, no different from a physical ailment.”

There are a number of reasons why both Stamp and Landsberg feel sport is a good entry point for this discussion.

“I’m a huge believer that the best way to break people of the stigma is to find really strong people, like Clara Hughes, who have struggled with this, to talk about it,” said Landsberg.

Hughes, a Canadian cyclist and speed skater who has won multiple Olympic medals in both sports, has struggled with depression. “If [Hughes] was close at the end of the race, she would win. If you find that even a person of that strength and accomplishment can suffer from depression, it changes your perspective,” said Landsberg. “Everyone with depression feels that they are not understood, [but] when you hear someone else talk about it, then you know we all feel some things in common, and … that is incredibly empowering. Real-life examples are great.”

Landsberg has also partnered with firefighters who suffer from mental health issues, encouraging them to share their stories.

Landsberg and Stamp believe that reaching youth is key to changing the future, and sports can be key in doing that.

“We have to help younger people to understand that mental health concerns are a natural part of being alive,” said Stamp. “We have to do that much younger, like 6 or 7 years old. They need to know that when you feel distress, there is a way out.

“We have to start with language,” he said. “How do we describe somebody who is struggling? Children can be injured by the labels we use … we should be teaching youth and adults how to be listeners, how to approach someone and see if they need help. Having some education around a mental health problem is tremendously impactful. We need to be kinder, gentler and more empathic in our dealings with people.”

Tickets to hear Landsberg speak are $10 and are available from jfsvancouver.ca or 604-257-5151.

Matthew Gindin is a freelance journalist, writer and lecturer. He is Pacific correspondent for the CJN, writes regularly for the Forward, Tricycle and the Wisdom Daily, and has been published in Sojourners, Religion Dispatches and elsewhere. He can be found on Medium and Twitter.

Challenges improve life

Israeli judo master Arik Zeevi will speak at FEDtalks Sept. 16. (photo from JFGV)

When we’re faced with a challenge, most of us are naturally cautious. But, says Israeli judo master Arik Zeevi, if you have a passion for something, go for it, explore it and, even if you fail, “you will always be proud that you took the challenge.”

Zeevi, who will be one of four keynote speakers at this year’s FEDtalks Sept. 16, advises in a 2014 TED Talk, “Go for the challenge because, I personally think that, by taking a challenge, that is the best way to grow, to improve your life.”

In that TED Talk, Zeevi shares the story of his experience at the 2001 World Judo Championship. Having trained intensely for two years and becoming a national hero in Israel – and with his journey to the championship being filmed by a team of videographers – Zeevi was “knocked out” (in judo terms, his opponent “threw [him] by ippon”) two minutes after setting foot in the ring.

Undaunted by losing the world championship match, Zeevi, a lightweight, registered to fight in the open match in which fighters of any weight could spar. Friends and colleagues warned him to back out, and the Israeli media fretted over what injuries he might sustain. But, Zeevi beat one opponent, a second, then a third; the fourth knocked him down. Though he failed to win the gold medal, he took the silver – and set a precedent. In the years that followed, having witnessed Zeevi’s success, more and more lightweights competed in the open category, and also won medals. The match morphed into its own championship event.

Zeevi won many judo medals in his time, and he is the 2000, 2003, 2004 and 2012 European champion. He is currently ranked eighth in the world, though he retired from fighting in 2012. Today, Zeevi is an inspirational speaker whose main income comes from talking to companies about what he calls “the similar worlds of sports and business.”

“It is all related,” he told the Jewish Independent, “excellence in sport and excellence in life.”

Zeevi also heads the nonprofit Israeli Foundation for Olympic Excellence (IFOE), which hires and funds Olympic coaches who identify, support and train Israeli children and youth they hope have Olympic potential.

“We scout kids who have talent, we try to nurture them and connect them to the sport that is right for them,” said Zeevi. “You could be Michael Phelps, but unless you’re living next to a swimming pool, you’ll never know.

“The biggest problem in Israeli sport,” he said, “is that all sports are coached by amateurs in private clubs. The coaches are getting income according to the numbers of kids, putting quantity over quality. Professional coaching is rare.”

Zeevi grew up in a tough neighbourhood in Bnei Brak and knows what it is like to have few opportunities.

“My coach was very young, and he was like an older brother to me,” said Zeevi. The coach played a role for Zeevi that he is now trying to play for others. “He pushed me to discover myself,” explained Zeevi. “Around 12, I became very serious. Before that, I was just trying to be part of something. At 12, I got my first invitation to train on the national team. My coach was a Soviet Georgian guy – they are fighters, warriors. By 13 or 14, I was already very big, and he pushed me to fight bigger guys. When 15, I won the championship against seniors over 21. He did a great thing for me, pushing me like that. When you find an athlete, you have to challenge them.”

It is the appreciation for what sports did for him that motivates Zeevi to make high-level training available to more young people. “I really believe in sports as education,” he said. “It is the best way to stimulate mental skills, and it teaches you how to deal with stress, failure, difficulty.”

Zeevi himself has three children. His daughter won the Israeli championship in gymnastics, and his middle son is into basketball and judo. Zeevi said his son has also taught him the lesson that sometimes pushing is not what brings success. “The more I push him forward, the more he goes backward,” he said, “so I have to take a gentler approach. The most important thing is just to be there for them. Then they will succeed.”

While in Canada, Zeevi will also be visiting a judo club in Toronto, which is run by an Israeli friend from his training days. There, he will be giving a master class for advanced fighters before he returns to Israel for Yom Kippur.

FEDtalks, which launches the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver’s annual campaign, is being held this year on Sept. 16, 7 p.m., at the Vancouver Playhouse. For tickets and more information, visit jewishvancouver.com.

BDS’s lacrosse to bear

Before a soccer match with Maccabi Tel Aviv last week, the Hungarian football team Ferencváros Torna Club paid tribute to István Tóth in what is being heralded as a meaningful move against a creeping antisemitism that has permeated the European sporting world among other spheres.

Tóth was a Ferencváros Torna player and coach in the 1940s before joining the anti-Nazi resistance and saving hundreds of lives, including Jews who he helped escape detention and probable death. Tóth was captured and executed in 1945.

Last week’s game in Budapest was dedicated to Tóth’s memory.

North Americans who were swept up (or bemused) by global soccer mania at the height of the World Cup last weekend can almost appreciate the depths of feeling the sport evokes in much of the world. National feelings – and other high emotions – understandably permeate fan expressions. What is more baffling from afar is the manner in which antisemitism has seeped into the culture of European sport. Among other manifestations, fans from some teams will ridicule or intimidate those of opponents by implying the players or their supporters are Jews. In one instance, fans plastered a town with images of Anne Frank in the opposing team’s uniform. Elsewhere, fans suggested the opponents lacked foreskins. It’s difficult to wrap one’s mind around: that accusations of Jewishness have been used as a tool of intimidation on a playing field. The closest analogy, perhaps, might be the example more common in North American sports, in which opponents are accused of homosexuality. But, with Europe’s history of antisemitism, and the alarming growth of extremist politics across the continent, this hints at a deeper problem. This is why the Budapest event, which was coordinated with the assistance of World Jewish Congress, was as significant as it was. It was an official statement against antisemitism in sport and a testament to a hero of the Holocaust era.

Meanwhile, in a sports competition some distance away, a variant form of political activism, not unrelated to antisemitism, was playing out.

The BDS movement has been trying to isolate Israel in social, economic and cultural spheres. Athletes from Iran and countries with other Israel-hating governments have thrown matches rather than legitimize the Zionist entity, or athletes have refused to shake hands with Israeli competitors. There are even groups urging a boycott of the next Eurovision song contest because, as Israel’s Netta Barzilai was the 2018 victor, Israel will be the host country for next year’s round.

The latest attempt at a boycott, though, comes with a happy ending – and a Canadian twist.

The Iroquois Nationals lacrosse team recently arrived in Israel to participate in the World Men’s Lacrosse Championships. Soccer may be “the world’s game” and hockey may be where many Canadians’ invest our emotional energies, but lacrosse is, officially, our national game. (In a bow to popular demand, Parliament some time ago declared hockey our national “winter” sport and lacrosse our national “summer” sport, but details.) While many Canadians have an almost religious devotion to hockey, the Iroquois refer to lacrosse as “the Creator’s Game.”

The Iroquois team arrived at Ben-Gurion airport with indigenous passports. A few years ago, the team was forced to forfeit their games when the host country, the United Kingdom, refused to accept their travel documents. Israel, on the other hand, welcomed the Iroquois passports after interventions from the Government of Canada and the Canadian embassy in Israel.

While diplomats and respected figures like Irwin Cotler intervened to help, the BDS movement tried to prevent the team from attending. It was a particularly nasty effort, since the Iroquois invented the game. It may have been in this very fact that the BDSers smelled a potential symbolic victory, no matter how offensive the impact would have been on the individual players and the tournament more broadly had the First Nations team – one of the sport’s powerhouses – been excluded. And, as is often the case with the BDS movement, their success would have hurt Arabs as much as anyone. The Iroquois Nationals will lead a coexistence lacrosse clinic for Arab and Jewish young people.

There is a history of friendship, however unlikely, between the Iroquois and Israelis, both indigenous in their homelands. Earlier this year, the Seneca Nation, one of six groups that comprise the Iroquois Confederacy, celebrated Yom Ha’atzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day, issuing a proclamation stating that “the Seneca Nation and the state of Israel share in common a passion for freedom and a willingness to fight for and defend our sovereignty and our shared right to be a free and independent people.”

The lacrosse tournament, which brings together 46 teams in the largest-ever such event, culminates this weekend. It may not elicit the rapturous fandom we saw last weekend in the World Cup. But we certainly have our sentimental favourites.

New NFB series on basketball

Ryan Sidhoo’s new docuseries, True North, looks at the youth basketball scene in Toronto. (photo by Yasin Osman)

“Wherever I travel, I go play pickup basketball and I always make friends, and maybe end up at someone’s house for dinner … you go ask to play basketball on someone’s court, there’s always that moment of, ‘Who is this guy?’ but, once you get out there and you start playing, it’s an inviting, universal sport that you don’t need a lot to participate in,” filmmaker Ryan Sidhoo told the Independent in a phone interview from Toronto.

Sidhoo is the creator and director of True North, a nine-part online docuseries produced by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) and Red Bull Media House about the youth basketball scene in Toronto.

“More and more young Canadians are playing basketball – over 350,000 according to the 2014 Canada Youth Sports Report – and the trend is particularly pronounced in and around Toronto, where a wave of second- and third-generation Canadians are shaping Canada’s new game,” notes an NFB blog about the series. It also notes that, “Canada now has over a dozen players in the NBA [National Basketball Association], more than any other outside country.”

In episodes ranging from 15 to 23 minutes, True North examines “the rise of the Toronto hoop dream through the stories of five young athletes.”

The series – which was three years in the making – “has a multigenerational appeal,” said Sidhoo, who spoke with players, coaches and families. Given the subject matter and format, he said younger viewers enjoy it but that, also, people closer to the age of the parents of the kids featured get something out of it from a parenting point of view.

In the series format, he said, we can tell in-depth stories, “but then that 15-minute episode has to be focused on one kid and their journey. I think that’s an appeal of the series, because they’re highly personal episodes and they’re not trying to do too much at once.”

Sidhoo has worked on various projects, including for Pulse Films, MTV and NBCUniversal, and he has produced and directed content across various VICE platforms; he was the creator and executive producer of Welcome to Fairfax, a 10-part docuseries for Participant Media about a group of young entrepreneurs in Los Angeles.

Born and raised in Vancouver, he’s since lived in California and New York. It was in New York that he earned his master’s in media studies, with a focus on documentary filmmaking, from the New School, in 2013.

“The seeds of the project were really planted at that time,” he said, referring to True North. At the New School, he wanted to do a project “on this old streetball legend named Fly Williams, who I’d read about in a book my dad had given me as a kid called Heaven is a Playground.”

In his search for Williams, Sidhoo ended up at a few different basketball tournaments. At the time, YouTube was just taking off, he said. “What I was seeing at these gyms in New York were these parents marketing their children as the next best basketball phenom. You started to see this cottage industry around youth basketball.”

Fascinated by this, Sidhoo said he kept his finger on the pulse of that world. He noticed that Canadians were having a lot of success getting into the NBA and the question of how basketball became significant in Canada led him to Toronto, “the epicentre of it all.”

“For me,” said Sidhoo of his love of basketball, “growing up in Vancouver, and, especially, having immigrant roots on both sides – my mom is Ashkenazi, they came from Poland and Winnipeg and eventually Vancouver, [while] my dad’s side of the family is from India – I just think that the popular sport in Canada is, obviously, hockey, and winter sports in general have more of a built-in tradition … [but] basketball lends itself to newcomers to a country, so my dad gravitated towards basketball as a kid. For me, growing up, basketball was always in the house, it was always on TV, it was something that I was around and I, naturally, through my dad, was introduced to the sport…. Of course, I like hockey and Wayne Gretzky and all that, but basketball was the thing that was a part of my identity … I always felt comfortable in the niche community of basketball in Vancouver because it was really diverse and it was very multicultural. As someone who had these mixed backgrounds, I felt at home in that world.”

Sidhoo played in various leagues in Vancouver, as well as participating in more than one JCC Maccabi Games. He described as “pivotal,” the Kitsilano Youth Basketball, run by Mel Davis, a former Harlem Globetrotter. Davis’s son, Hubert Davis, directed Hardwood, a documentary (also produced by the NFB) about his relationship with his father and basketball. When Sidhoo saw that film, he said he had two thoughts: “one, that’s amazing, because I know Mel and remember Hubert refereeing the games but then, secondly, it’s projects like that that plant the seed that, hey, maybe I could be a documentary filmmaker, too.”

As a kid, Sidhoo and his brother were encouraged to do what they wanted creatively. “I’d go out back and make videos of myself playing basketball,” he said. “My dad was always showing us films that maybe he shouldn’t have been showing us at that young an age, but explaining why he was showing them. So, basketball was always there and these offbeat films, or films that were aged above my viewing in terms of age appropriateness, that was always a constant, too.”

Growing up, he was also exposed to books, art shows and other culture. Sidhoo recalled his father taking him to one of the first Slam City Jams, a skateboard competition, in the early 1990s, when Sidhoo was 5 or 6 years old. “Back then, skateboarding wasn’t as corporate as it is now, it was still pretty punk,” he said. And, while it was a bit different to be at such an event, “at the same time, it’s normal because I’ve been consuming this kind of content and going to different, what you could call counter-culture, events, with my dad. So, the fascination with subculture was always there, along with basketball.”

True North is Sidhoo’s first project with the NFB. He called the film board with his idea while in Vancouver, and spoke with Shirley Vercruysse, executive producer of NFB BC & Yukon Studio. “She was open-minded,” said Sidhoo and connected him to the paperwork he’d have to submit for the NFB to consider producing the documentary.

“What I think attracted the National Film Board,” he said, “was that basketball is shaping Canadian identity, because we’re exporting so many amazing basketball players to the south that the perception of Canada is not just hockey anymore … basketball is part of the shifting Canadian identity. On a global, macro picture, that resonated with the film board. And then, also tapping into the human, story-driven documentary approach that I wanted to take is what the film board has been doing for a really long time. It spoke to a story that was big, but then also was told through the intimate, personal narratives of these kids. It was a nice combination for them, I think.”

True North is the first online docuseries for the NFB. It can be viewed on the NFB’s YouTube channel and on Red Bull TV.

Olympian’s North Shore ties

When A.J. Edelman was training in Whistler, he was the guest cantor for Chabad of the North Shore’s Yom Kippur services. (photo from A.J. Edelman)

Chabad of the North Shore community members had a more personal reason to cheer on A.J. Edelman at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. Israel’s only skeleton athlete to have made it to the Games, Edelman was training in Whistler around the High Holidays last year. While there, he participated in community life, stepping in as guest cantor on Yom Kippur.

“Although he [Edelman] could have attended services at a larger synagogue in Vancouver, he was committed to spending Yom Kippur where he could be useful and have an impact,” said Rabbi Mendy Mochkin, spiritual leader of Chabad of the North Shore. “We had a cantor during Rosh Hashanah, but not for Yom Kippur.

“It worked out great. Our community was very excited to learn that a skeleton athlete representing Israel was training locally and was very touched that he chose to join us. They were very moved by his … melodies and heartfelt prayers. We all prayed together with him that he should attain his dream to be an ambassador for Am Yisrael. Our prayers were answered!”

Edelman was born and raised in Boston, in a Modern Orthodox, Zionist family, and he attended an Orthodox Jewish day school. When he was 2, his parents strapped a pair of skates onto his feet. By 22, he was a good hockey player, but not good enough to become a professional.

“I decided that, if I wanted to continue doing sports, it had to be on a high, elite level that could really give a platform to whatever I would choose to do afterward,” Edelman told the Independent. “So, I decided to represent Israel, because it was going to be the only way I was going to do it. As it happened, as I was thinking about this, skeleton appeared on the TV for the team trials for the United States for Sochi. And I thought it looked like a terrific sport – eye-catching.”

For some athletes, they become good at a sport and then look for a country that will let them compete under its flag. In Edelman’s case, he was mainly spurred by the idea of representing Israel. Then, he began searching for a sport.

“It could certainly help me achieve my goal of inspiriting people,” said Edelman. “I didn’t know how difficult it was or how painful it was. I didn’t know how bad, at first, I would be at it. But, I did dive full on into it.”

Edelman had to go from zero to 100, so to speak, in less than four years. While many along the way tried to tell him his goal was unattainable, the naysayers only fueled his resolve to succeed.

“It’s not like swimming or other sports where you have to hit a time relative to previous Olympics times, you have to hit an absolute performance standard of world ranking in that specific year. It’s a quota system,” explained Edelman of skeleton.

Edelman had to become one of the top 30 skeleton athletes in the world in about 48 months. His last year of training was focused – with help from the other athletes on the Israeli skeleton team – on maximizing his point collection at competitions.

“Positioning Israel to be the beneficiary of one of 10 single-sled nations through points I accumulated through specifics results and races was important – and it involved a lot of mathematical calculation,” said Edelman.

Edelman finished 28 out of 30 at the Winter Olympics.

photo - A.J. Edelman was Israel’s only skeleton athlete to make it to the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea — A.J. Edelman was Israel’s only skeleton athlete to make it to the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. *(photo by Joern Rohde)*

“Making the Games was an insane accomplishment in that we were the only ones who did it without any coaching,” said Edelman. “We had absolute zero coaching for the first two years of my journey…. It took a huge physical toll and mental toll, and a massive financial toll. So, yes, 28 out of 30, I was very pleased.”

Edelman learned the sport from YouTube videos, and fundraised the money he needed to participate in competitions, buy equipment, and cover hotel stays and training facility fees. As far as trying to compete at the next Olympics, Edelman said, while he’d like to do that, it’s just not feasible.

“The financial strain is insane – $40,000 a year,” he said. “And only about 40% of it was covered from over the last four years by sponsors, family, friends – and complete random strangers. Doing it for another cycle would be too much of a financial strain. And I think I’ve accomplished what I was looking to accomplish, and am able to remain involved in Israel’s sports and help the next generation achieve their goals. I now have that platform.”

Although Edelman was at the Games – or maybe because he was at the Games – he said he felt disconnected from the Olympics as a whole.

“I only saw my own thing,” he said. “Otherwise, the experience at the end, or during the competition, of representing Israel, it was an honour unparalleled to anything in my life. There were a few moments I felt like I could cherish forever – the thoughts and feeling that this is what it’s like to represent a country and how it feels to be that individual. It was absolutely terrific.”

Edelman said he is not sure about what might come next for him, but that he is aiming big. For now, he is focused on transitioning from being a full-time athlete back into normal life. But life will never be the same for him, now that he has proven his potential to himself.

“If you apply yourself so completely and fully, and you just dedicate yourself the most you can, a lot can be accomplished,” he said. “But, not everything … I am never going to be able to make the NBA.

“I don’t usually tell people anything is possible. I tell them what I learned in the streets – that no one can tell you what you can’t do, and that you shouldn’t let others’ opinions dictate what you can do.”

As far as his experience with the Jewish community while training in Whistler, Edelman said, “My Jewish heritage is everything to me. It’s the entire reason why I did this. This journey was terribly difficult – it was the Jewish heritage aspect of it that kept me going.

“I cannot tell you how many times I wanted to give up, quit or just take days off,” he admitted. “But, then I’d remember I was representing the entire Jewish and Israeli community. Every night before I went to bed, I’d thank God for allowing me to be what’s called a Kiddush Hashem [sanctifying God’s name by living by example, in a holy way]. This means being a positive role model for my community and that means everything to me.”

Edelman connects with Jewish communities wherever he goes, seeing himself as an ambassador of the Jewish state. So, for him, joining the North Shore Jewish community when he was training in Whistler was a foregone conclusion.

The 2019 World Championship will be held in Whistler and, although Edelman has retired from athletic life, he wants to attend.

“When I tried out,” recalled Edelman of his first skeleton trial, “the Israel scouting report said that if I could just get down the track, that would be it … that I wouldn’t make it to the Games no matter how hard I tried. I think everybody can have that kind of moment … when they think they can’t do something or are told they can’t do something – but they should absolutely try and expect success.”

Rebeca Kuropatwa is a Winnipeg freelance writer.

Israel’s Olympic alpine skier

Israel’s lone Olympic alpine skier, 19-year-old Itamar Biran. (photo from @the_itamar)

This year’s Winter Olympics, currently underway in Pyeongchang, South Korea, feature Israel’s largest-ever representation, with 10 athletes competing – in figure skating, skeleton and alpine ski racing. In the alpine skiing events, there is only one Israeli competitor – Itamar Biran – and the Independent spoke with him prior to the Games.

Born in London, England, Biran, 19, lives in Verbier, Switzerland, but grew up in Israel. As Israel’s second-ever Olympic skier, he follows in the footsteps of Mykhaylo Renzhyn, who competed for Israel in the 2006 and 2010 Winter Games. Renzhyn was Israel’s highest-ranked skier in those years, and made his Olympic debut at 27. Virgile Vandeput was 19 when he qualified in 2014, but wasn’t able to compete due to an injury sustained weeks before the Games. Though Biran is not the first Israeli skier, he has posted better results than all of his predecessors.

Biran said the 2018 Games are different than any other past Winter Olympics for Israel.

“The Israeli Olympic Committee is supporting us a lot more, and they are starting to recognize our winter sports are as important as summer,” he said in a phone interview from France, before heading to Pyeongchang. He went on to point out how the increase in support and funding has allowed more Israeli athletes to get the top of their respective sports. For example, Israel now has figure skaters in the world’s top 10 and Biran is in the top 15 for his age.

“In Israel, the only thing people know about skiing is Club Med in Europe,” said Biran, not excluding himself. It wasn’t until age 4 that his father, Doron Biran, took him from Israel to France, where he learned to ski and instantly fell in love with the sport.

After a number of years going to Club Med in France, Biran’s dad bought a house in Verbier in 2006. It was there where Biran really started to excel at the sport. At first, he and his father would travel to Switzerland over school holidays. Soon, the holidays turned into a full season living in Switzerland, and Biran started to race.

European ski racers usually begin racing at 8 years old, but Biran started late, at 12. As a dual citizen of Israel and the United Kingdom, he had the option of racing for Britain. He joined the British Ski Academy at 13, and was with them for a year, splitting his time between London and Verbier. He chose to race for Israel because he wanted to reconnect with where he had spent most of his childhood, and with his family in Tel Aviv.

Not only is Biran the best Israeli ski racer, he would also be one of the highest ranked British technical skiers if he had continued in their program. However, after he chose to represent Israel, at age 14, he dropped out of the British Ski Academy and joined a private training group of athletes from small nations. The group S-Team is based in Gerardmer, France, and includes athletes from Spain, as well as other nations that don’t have large alpine programs.

The 2018 Winter Olympics will not be Biran’s first test against the best. He made his debut in the top level in 2015 at the FIS (Fédération Internationale de Ski) Alpine World Championships in Beaver Creek, Colo., where he was the youngest competitor out of all male events, finishing 62nd in the Giant Slalom (GS). He competed at that level in the GS again in 2017 at St. Moritz, Switzerland.

Biran also represented Israel at the Youth Olympic Games in Lillehammer, Norway, in 2016, where he finished 38th in the Super-G. The Super-G is the second-fastest skiing event, behind the downhill, and is one of the two speed events. It is not an event he will be competing in at Pyeongchang, since he has focused on the more technical disciplines in slalom and GS since the Lillehammer event.

“You have to treat the Olympics as just another race,” said Biran, for whom rubbing shoulders with the best is nothing new. “I have no idols because I want to be their rival,” he explained about the racers on the FIS Alpine World Cup series.

In the weeks leading up to the Games in Pyeongchang, Biran competed in the World Junior Championships in Davos, Switzerland, and made his Europa Cup debut in Chamonix, France.

The young Israeli is among the first generation of athletes to have the opportunity to both go to school as well as continue racing on a European or World Cup level. Germany’s David Ketterer currently attends the University of Colorado and races for their college team, and Biran has similar plans – he has applied to Bocconi University in Milan, Italy, and Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, two schools that will accommodate his high level of sport. He is not in school at the moment, having graduated high school last year, but will begin his post-secondary education in the fall.

In Pyeongchang, Biran is set to compete in the GS on Feb. 17 at 5:15 p.m. Pacific time, as well as the slalom on Feb. 21, with the same start time. For the full Winter Olympics schedule, visit pyeongchang2018.com.

Ben Steiner is a Grade 11 student at St. George’s school. He is a freelance journalist as well as being a teaching assistant at Temple Sholom Religious School. Check out more of Steiner’s coverage at his website, vancitysport.com.

Hockey career recognized

Jeff Buller at the induction ceremony for his father, the late Hy Buller, into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in Netanya, Israel. (photo by Diane Buller)

These remarks were delivered on July 4 as part of the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame induction ceremony at the Wingate Institute, in Netanya, Israel, for my late uncle, Hy Buller, who played for the New York Rangers hockey team from 1950 to 1954.

Ihave a photo hanging in my office of a curious little boy playing outdoors – a photo of me at 3 years old. In this photo, I’m proudly wearing a New York Rangers cardigan sweater, a loving gift from my Uncle Hy.

My Uncle Hy died in 1968, when I was still a teenager and, for much of my youth, he and his family lived in Cleveland, far from my hometown of Vancouver. I really got to know him best while penning an article about him for The Scribe, the journal of the Jewish Museum and Archives of British Columbia. This article, aptly titled “A mensch on defence,” was published in 2002.

In writing “A mensch on defence,” I reconnected with Hy’s three sons, Bob, Bruce and Jeff, who provided valuable information about their father. My cousins also put me in touch with legendary hockey players who had shared the ice with Hy: “Mr. Hockey” Gordie Howe, “Terrible” Ted Lindsay and goalie Johnny Bower. Each had warm memories of Hy and spoke highly of his abilities.

Winters in Saskatoon were devoted to hockey. Like many boys his age, Hy spent most of his time outside of school hours vying to be king of the ice on his uncle’s vacant lot, flooded and frozen each year.

A natural athlete, Hy quickly rose up the ranks and caught the eye of local coaches and scouts. When it was too warm for hockey, Hy never stopped moving, and was active year-round in football, baseball, basketball, golf, swimming and track and field, earning many awards.

In the 1940s and 1950s, there were only six teams in the National Hockey League. Most of the players on these teams came from the Canadian Prairies, with the majority coming from the small towns of Saskatchewan. From the time they were old enough to hold a hockey stick, youngsters in these hinterlands developed a fierce love for the game and a burning desire to be one of the 120 favoured players that made up the six NHL teams.

After an illustrious eight-year stint in the American Hockey League, Hy was traded to the New York Rangers at the close of the 1950-51 season, where he played with distinction until retirement in 1954.

A newspaper commented that, in street clothes, Hy Buller, with his mild, scholarly appearance, glasses and receding hairline, looked like someone who spent a lot of time in a library and knew from which end to read a book. But, once on ice with a hockey stick in his hand, something happened to Hy – a kind of Clark Kent into Superman transformation in which he changed from a studious-appearing bookworm to a formidable, hard-checking defenceman who seemed to be everywhere at once. He was admired not only for his solid plays but also for his good sportsmanship.

Hy’s type of playing in many respects resembled the kind of hockey played in Europe, depending more on clever stick-handling and skating than on the rough-and-tumble brand played in North America. His style and ability earned him the admiration of his fellow players.

I’m honoured to be accepting this award on behalf of my uncle and my family, 23 of whom have traveled from far and wide to share in this special moment. It’s a tribute to how well loved and respected he was that so many have journeyed to be here. I’d specifically like to note Hy’s sons Jeff and Bob, who have come with their wives, Diane and Sandie, and children.

On behalf of the family, I’m pleased to express our gratitude to the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame for their induction of Hy Buller. My sincerest thanks.

To read David Schwartz’s 2002 article “A mensch on defence,” visit jewishmuseum.ca/publication/scribe-volume-22-mensch-defense. For more information on Hy Buller, visit en.wikipedia.org/wiki/hy_buller.

Ultimate Frisbee and peace

Stratford Hall Sabres and Ultimate Peace leaders-in-training in action this past April. (photo from Ultimate Peace)

Ultimate Peace uses team sports – specifically Ultimate Frisbee – as a vehicle for peace education in the Middle East (and beyond). It starts with throwing a Frisbee but leads to friendship, trust, shared leadership opportunities and powerful life lessons in communities where conflict is rife.

Founded on the core principles of mutual respect, friendship, non-violence, integrity and fun, a group from Ultimate Peace embarks on a North American Friendship Tour every year. Karym Barhum is the Middle East regional director for UP. Originally from Ein Rafa, an Israeli Arab village about 15 kilometres northwest of Jerusalem, he described this year’s cohort of 14 Israelis as “Arab, Jewish, Muslim and Christian youth living in very close proximity. They don’t go to the same schools, they just live in [separate] communities: Arabs with Arabs, Jews with Jews.”

This year, Ultimate Peace added a Vancouver leg to their usual itinerary. Following a stop in Seattle, a group of 15-to-18-year-olds was in Vancouver April 11-16. This part of the tour was made possible by Danie Proby and Ari Nitikman, co-founders of and head coaches at UltiPros; both are alumni of Stratford Hall school on Commercial Drive. Working with their connections, Proby and Nitikman set the ball rolling for an extraordinary experience for both the visitors and their hosts.

photo - Ultimate Peace leaders-in-training and staff — Ultimate Peace leaders-in-training and staff. *(photo from Ultimate Peace)*

UP alumni and leaders visit schools, community centres, places of worship, homes and universities to spread awareness of UP’s Leaders-in-Training program. Barhum said it is a tremendous opportunity to see people “accepting everybody no matter who you are. We hope they’ll come back to the Middle East as ambassadors of UP, so they can educate others on how to accept differences.”

Samantha Gayfer, director of community development at Stratford Hall, said the school teaches students “they have a responsibility to give back and make a difference.”

Having arranged for Stratford Hall to host the UP event, families from the school billeted the 14 visiting students, who also spoke at other schools during their time here.

Gayfer described the billeting experience as “outstanding.”

“Arrangements were made for kosher and halal diets,” she said, “and the Jewish players had Passover while they were here. They organized a full meal with cultural and religious understanding.”

The impact of this gesture was not lost on her. “These are kids from families who live three miles from each other but never visit each other’s homes. Now they’re good friends.”

Naturally, there were questions. Gayfer asked the Arab students what their parents thought about their involvement in Ultimate Peace. The answer was always, “My family supports this.”

While she conceded that liberal parents are the most likely to enrol their kids in programs like this, it doesn’t take away from the power of showing Canadian kids what is possible, even in troubled regions. If such friendships are possible among Arabs and Jews in Israel, what can’t we achieve here in peacetime? she asked. “The more families you touch, the better,” she said, “to show that it’s not an insurmountable challenge, that we could live cohesively together.”

During their stay, Ultimate Peace won a tournament – a highlight of their trip. Gayfer said it was “an amazing experience for the kids.”

UP is an opportunity for youth to educate others about life in Israel. In talking about how one can be part of positive change by learning about multiple perspectives, they are also modeling new kinds of relationships: relationships that are necessary before conflict can diminish on a larger scale.

Stratford Hall student Matthew Chiang said he had an “awesome and unforgettable” experience with Ultimate Peace. “The kids were awesome, super-enthusiastic, funny and kind,” he said. “Personally, the two kids that stayed over at my house, Ohad and Faris, had a lot of common interests with me, such as ping pong, Rubik’s Cubing, playing cards, Ultimate, and even shopping. I had never met a person from Israel and I had no idea that they were so similar to me.”

Asked what he thought of the group as a whole, he described it as strong and cohesive. “The Jewish and Muslim students seemed like great friends who got along really well…. My family and I talked to them about their culture and religion. They seemed open and spoke without conflict,” he said.

“Kids involved in this program can send a message to adults that, although there is heavy conflict and anger here, in the end, we are all people who share interests and hobbies,” he said. “Ultimate really breaks the barrier in that conflict and embraces two different ideas and shares one common goal – to have fun.”

He added, “I think Ultimate Peace has strengthened the bond between Jewish and Muslim people and has started to break the barrier between them.”

As well as promoting physical and mental fitness, Ultimate Peace teaches life skills like leadership and communication and reinforces the importance of hope, kindness and collaboration.

“I thoroughly enjoyed how kind they were and how many common interests we had,” said Chiang. “Ultimate Peace is such a great organization with such an important purpose. I’m glad that I had the opportunity to be a part of their journey and I hope that I see them again.”

Barhum is already seeing the impact of UP’s tour on the students. “Many of them are making plans for a twinning program between schools in North America and schools in Israel. This would allow the Israeli kids to take turns playing host to overseas students.” Not satisfied with a single trip to Canada, he said, “They are looking to develop a stable program.”

None of this would be possible with the UP infrastructure behind it. Barhum described a spirit of openness and optimism in the leadership of the program.

“The board of directors trust and allow me and my staff to do things differently, always trying out new ideas,” he said. “They allow us to be open, to learn from others and to be able to change if necessary. This is one of the big things that inspires me and keeps me doing my job.”

The Vancouver stop, he said, was “a highlight – seeing our kids learning new stuff, recognizing that it is possible to live and share their lives with others from a different culture or religion.”

To learn more about and to contribute to Ultimate Peace, visit ultimatepeace.org.

Shula Klinger is an author, illustrator and journalist living in North Vancouver. Find out more at niftyscissors.com.

Team Israel’s fairytale run

Josh Zeid during the game against Japan. (photo from worldbaseballclassic.com)

Team Israel had a great run at the World Baseball Classic tournament. The ballplayers with a David vs. Goliath approach came out swinging hard and stunned the world with four consecutive wins in the preliminary and second rounds. But two losses in a row – an 8-3 loss to Japan March 15 and a 12-2 clobbering by the Netherlands on March 13 – made advancing to the finals a dream for the next global tournament.

The March 15 game started with five scoreless innings, but Japan blew open a lead in the sixth with five runs and added three more for good measure in the eighth. Israel scored all its runs in the top of the ninth.

The World Baseball Classic is a tournament in which the best baseball players in the world compete. Team Israel had bookers betting against it even making the main event, but the blue-and-white uniformed ballplayers, who were ranked 41st going into the Classic, not only made it to the preliminary rounds but won an astounding four in a row at the tournament.

Dubbed the Cinderella team of the contest, Team Israel stunned Cuba 4-1 in the first WBC quarterfinal game at the Tokyo Dome and, before that, swept the first round of games by beating South Korea, Taiwan and the Netherlands.

Only three of Team Israel’s 28 players are Israeli; the rest are Jewish Americans. According to WBC rules, anyone eligible to hold citizenship in a country can play for its national team. There are other teams with players who do not hold passports for the country for which they’re playing.

“The players love playing for Israel,” Israel Association of Baseball president Peter Kurz told Israel21c. “A lot of them want to come and visit after the tournament or after they retire.”

photo - Mensch on a Bench – the Israeli team’s mascot – waits for the game to begin — Mensch on a Bench – the Israeli team’s mascot – waits for the game to begin. *(photo from worldbaseballclassic.com)*

For fans, that the ballplayers are proud to wear “Israel” on their uniforms and represent the country is more than enough.

“I am a lifelong baseball fan, and it’s thrilling to see Israel competing on a world stage. But Israel’s participation in the World Baseball Classic is about so much more than baseball,” said Elie Klein, an associate partner at Finn Partners Israel who calls himself a “rabid New York Mets fan.”

“While baseball fans around the globe have taken notice of Team Israel due to their surprising athletic prowess, Jews around the world – many of whom have never watched a single inning of baseball – are drawn to Team Israel out of deep Jewish pride. Not because they are Israelis, but because they aren’t – they are largely American Jews who have decided to wear uniforms emblazoned with the Jewish star and don kippot during Hatikvah, to identify as Jews in such a public way,” said Klein.

American rapper Kosha Dillz (Rami Matan Even-Esh) even made up a song about Team Israel. And Team Israel will also be remembered for its mascot, Mensch on a Bench, a stuffed doll that was the Jewish answer to the popular Christmas toy and story Elf on the Shelf.

On March 22, the United States team beat Team Puerto Rico to win the championship.

Israel21c is a nonprofit educational foundation with a mission to focus media and public attention on the 21st-century Israel that exists beyond the conflict. For more, or to donate, visit israel21c.org.

Working to get to Olympics

Joel Seligstein is one of four Israeli skeleton athletes aiming for the 2018 Olympic Games in PyeongChang, South Korea. (photo by Erin Murphy)

What began as a dream 15 years ago – when David Greaves helped establish an Israeli presence in the bobsled and skeleton world – finally received the approval, recognition and support of the Israeli Olympic Committee this past December.

Greaves was a member of the Israeli bobsled team that fell short of qualifying for the Olympics in 2006, although they did compete in two world championships.

“When I retired from the sport,

I felt I wanted to continue in some capacity,” Greaves told the Independent in an interview earlier this year. “So, I took over as head of the federation, of which I’m now the president. It’s called Bobsled Skeleton Israel, which is the Israeli bobsled skeleton federation.

“I wanted to stay involved in the sport and to try to provide an opportunity for other Jewish athletes to experience something of what I did – the pride of wearing the Magen David on your jacket and competing for Israel internationally.”

The experience changed the trajectory of Greaves’ life – he was working in the sales and high-tech industry. It also made him realize what was important for him as a Jew and an Israeli.

“I came back from that experience deciding I wanted to leave the world of high-tech and focus my efforts on Jewish community and working for Israel,” he said. “That led me to volunteering for the Jewish Federation of Winnipeg. This soon led to me working on a contract basis for them, which turned into a full-time role. I became a fundraiser for the Jewish community.”

Greaves spent 10 years fundraising for Winnipeg’s federation and then for the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba, before starting his own business in 2014. Called Protexia, it helps nonprofits and charitable organizations fundraise.

With the refocus in his professional life also came a refocus in his involvement with Bobsled Skeleton Israel. As the organization’s volunteer president, he is in regular contact with the Israeli Olympic Committee as they gear up for the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, in 2018.

“The challenge was finding an athlete interested, sometimes from another program … the American program, whatever it happened to be. Some of the bigger programs are so deep, you can be a great athlete … but may not have an opportunity to make the big leagues and would likely not ever get the opportunity that they have now … to compete at the highest level, for a smaller nation,” said Greaves. “But now, I have four athletes competing at different levels around the world … and that’s more than most small nations have.”

While many people compete for Israel from around the world, most are not directly connected to the Israeli Olympic Committee, but, with the completion of the process in December, Bobsled Skeleton Israel is now an official Olympic sport under its umbrella. Last September, the committee had accepted Greaves’ recommendation to recognize the criteria established by the International Bobsled and Skeleton Federation as the Israeli criteria.

“It was almost anticlimactic,” said Greaves. “I was working on this for 13 years and I’d never had the opportunity to present to the Israeli Olympic Committee before, with the opportunity of them possibly accepting our recommendation. Needless to say, I was over the moon and ecstatic.

“So, now, I feel confident talking about our future, because the only step left for us to be competing at the Olympics is for one of my athletes to qualify. If we have an athlete that qualifies, then we’ll be going to Korea for the Games, as he will have met the criteria.”

To get to the Olympics, the athletes will need to be in the top 60 internationally. For the current season, the goal is to get two athletes into the top 75 world ranking, which would position them for next year. They currently only have one.

All of the Israeli athletes in the federation are competing on their own in skeleton.

“It’s been easier for us to find skeleton athletes from a budgetary standpoint, because we don’t fund our athletes,” said Greaves. “We’d love to have a bobsled team, too, but it’s a bit more work for us to really develop that program. Given I’ve got a full-time day job and we don’t at the moment have any prospects for bobsled athletes, our efforts have solely focused on developing our skeleton program.”

Israeli skeleton athlete Bradley Chalupski in action. *(photo from Bradley Chalupski)*

Bobsled Skeleton Israel is a nonprofit in the United States, enabling them to fundraise there for their athletes. These athletes can fundraise within their circles and the organization can provide a tax receipt to donors.

“We’ve been pretty successful in the last few years in raising more money than we have in the past,” said Greaves. “It’s been allocated out to the athletes based on need. Essentially, they get reimbursed, in very small part, for their costs. If we have $5,000 or $10,000 in the bank, so to speak, and an athlete has just come back from a week of training, then they can submit a portion of their expenses. But, it’s very modest.

“We’re looking to have a fundraiser this spring in Winnipeg. There’s also now – because we’re now officially a member within the Olympic movement in Israel – the possibility for funding from the state if an athlete qualifies for funding.”

In that case, the athlete will be eligible for a few Israeli shekels a month. Even so, about 95% of the money spent in this sport by Israeli athletes is money that they themselves have raised, either through their own personal supporters or their own savings. According to Greaves, his athletes have given up the last two or three years of their lives to compete and train.

Contributions are deductible in Israel and the United States, and there is an Indiegogo campaign currently underway. Greaves is in discussion with a few Jewish organizations with the hope that they may be able to assist in accepting Canadian donations.

“We want people to understand we’re in this because of a love for Israel and a love for sport,” he said. “Our ultimate dream is to walk into the Olympic stadium with the Israeli flag. There’s such a pride that’s hard to convey. We do this out of a sense of pride and love for Israel.

“I once was asked in an interview years ago, when I was competing, if I had a choice to compete for Canada or for Israel, who would I pick? I’m a dual citizen. I said, without a doubt, I’d want to do it for Israel. There’s a special connection between my Jewishness, my connection to Israel and my Zionism. The other guys on my team feel the same way as well. Am Yisrael might make this a different experience than other athletes might have … not to take away from how amazing it would be for any athlete to represent their country.”

For more information and to follow the athletes – Bradley Chalupski, Adam (A.J.) Edelman, Joel Seligstein and Larry Sidney – visit facebook.com/israelibobsledandskeletonfederation. To contact Greaves, email [email protected].

Rebeca Kuropatwa is a Winnipeg freelance writer.