Grapevine August 11, 2024: Sports for social impact

■  INSPIRED BY this year’s spirit of Olympic Games diversity, the One Team summer camp in Ashkelon, organized by the Azrieli Foundation’s Sport for Social Impact (SSI) project and ORT Kadima Mada, marked its third year of empowering 50 girls aged 13-15, half of them Bedouin and half of them Jewish, through sport and unity. Despite Israel’s complex security situation, the camp’s continuation highlights the resilience and peace aspirations of the varied facets of Israeli society. Embracing Olympic values, One Team fosters mutual respect, challenges stereotypes, and promotes personal growth through diverse sports activities. It increases girls’ confidence by featuring inspiring female athletes and mentors, and enriches the experience with cultural exchanges, fostering lasting connections and a future of harmony and understanding.

■  WHILE THE Azrieli Foundation covers activities in many varied spheres, it should be noted that Danna Azrieli, who heads the Israel branch of the Azrieli Foundation, is married to Australian-born martial arts champion Danny Hakim, the chairman of SSI, who founded Budo for Peace over 20 years ago, with a mission similar to that of SSI. Hakim is associated with several sports projects and sits on the boards of major sports organizations, especially those that break down barriers between the different segments of Israeli society.

Although there was evidence of antisemitism and anti-Israel fervor at the Olympic Games, despite all efforts to prevent racist incidents, the SSI summer camp lived up to its principles.

There was one member of the camp who was neither Jewish nor Bedouin, but her presence contributed to the diversity. She was 16-year-old Asuka Arai, the daughter of Japanese ambassador Asuke Arai and his wife, Senator Rui Arai, who is a member of the Japanese Parliament. Asuka, who attends boarding school in the UK, came to Israel for the summer vacation, knowing little about Jews, and having heard mainly negative comments about Israel while in the UK. She is now in a position to refute some of the things she’s heard. Her presence was hardly surprising, as Hakim lived in Japan for some time, studying with major karate exponents, and has maintained relationships with Japanese diplomats and business people. Hakim has represented Australia, Japan, and Israel in international karate competitions.

■  THERE ARE several entities in Israel that believe that sport is a positive means of bringing Arabs and Jews together from an early age, so that they form friendships simply on the basis of liking each other, and do not become the victims or promoters of religious and political prejudice common in adults. One of those entities is the Freddie Krivine Initiative (FKI), which, for many years, has brought Arab and Jewish youngsters together to play tennis. Many don’t know how to hold a racket, much less hit a ball when they first get there, but with patience and coaching, they all become good players, some even displaying championship potential.

On the tennis courts, with the exception of a few girls who wear hijabs, it is almost impossible to tell who is Jewish and who is Arab. Some of the Arab girls, rather than wear a hijab, cover their heads with a jockey cap, the visor of which shields their eyes from the sun when playing tennis.

In addition to regular activities, the youngsters also attend an annual summer camp which last week got off the ground for the fifth time, and began with a run for the shelters so that the children would realize that in times of danger, they are all equally at risk.

It caused Lee Wilson, the director of the Freddie Krivine Initiative, to cast her mind back to October 8 when her Muslim colleague Riham Namla had remarked: “Lee, if a bomb from Hezbollah or Hamas lands here, it just as easily could land on me as on you. We are in this together.” At the time, she did not know just how prophetic her words were. The tragedy of the deaths of 12 Druze children, who were happily playing soccer when a Hezbollah rocket fell on their soccer field last month, testified to the fact that terrorists make no religious, ethnic, or national distinctions. To them, everyone is a target.

At FKI, there is a strong belief that children who play together learn to live together. This belief is shared by both Jewish and Arab parents who bring their children to the tennis courts and sometimes hang around to watch them play. Here too, friendships free of prejudice are formed between Jews, Muslims, Bedouins, Christians, and Druze.

Noa Tishby

■  IN APRIL last year, Noa Tishby, one of the most outspoken of Israeli influencers, who had been Israel’s special envoy on antisemitism, was fired because she dared to speak out against judicial reform. This was before another popular spokesperson, Eylon Levy, was dismissed for having participated in an anti-judicial reform demonstration before he ever joined the government spokesperson’s team. Logic would dictate that the government would have learned the lesson of not throwing out the baby with the bath water. But no. As a Sabra living in Los Angeles, Tishby, a film producer, actress, fashion model, and author, vowed to continue doing what she had been doing, regardless of the Israeli government’s antipathy toward her. What she was and is doing is appreciated in various Israeli and American Jewish circles, and she has been the recipient of several awards. The most recent was last week from the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation in recognition of what she has been doing in the realm of public diplomacy.

Tishby, in the course of a visit to her family, made a point of going to the Peres Center to see the Ziv Koren October 7 photo exhibition, which also appears in book form.

While at the Peres Center, she met with the center director Efrat Duvdevani and chairman Chemi Peres, who decided to present her with the Knight of the Peres Center award, saying that her strong and courageous voice stands against the disinformation, incitement, and denial of the brutally barbaric October 7 atrocities that pervades social media platforms, news broadcasts, and university campuses throughout the US.

The presentation of the award was made to Tishby in the office of the late Shimon Peres, president and prime minister of Israel, who long ago recognized Tishby’s talent and courageous heart, and predicted that she would be a vital and influential force in defending Israel’s image.

■  MEMBERS OF America’s Gottesman family are renowned for their philanthropy individually and through the Gottesman Foundation. The many contributions they have made to Israel in various fields began long before the establishment of the state and continue till the present day. Last week, Trudy Elbaum Gottesman and Robert Gottesman presented the National Library of Israel with the original version of the renowned Moss Haggadah, widely regarded as a modern masterpiece of an illuminated Hebrew manuscript.

Created in a large format, and written and illustrated by hand, it recently headlined Sotheby’s sale of important Judaica. In his book, The Jewish Way, Rabbi Irving Greenberg, called the Moss Haggadah, “A magnificent work of art, possibly the most beautiful Haggadah of all times…”; and Bible scholar, the late Rabbi Moshe Greenberg wrote: “The illuminations of the Moss Haggadah are a stunning revelation of the layers of Jewish history present in the text…But it is quite impossible to convey the delight experienced by the eye and the mind at virtually every turn of the page of this magnificent manuscript, the creation of an artist steeped in Jewish lore and uniquely capable of suggesting its riches.

NLI Chairman Sallai Merido described the Moss Haggadah as the jewel in the crown of the Library’s collections,

In 1992, David Moss, a Jerusalemite, was awarded the Israel Museum’s Jesselson Prize for Contemporary Judaica in recognition of his works including his Haggadah.

At the NLI last week he said that he began the manuscript in 1980 after months of research, and he was glad that it had finally come home.

The Moss Haggadah has been exhibited at the New York Public Library, Yeshiva University Museum, Harvard University Libraries, and the Library of Congress. In addition, facsimiles have been exhibited, or acquired, for the permanent collections of major museums, universities, and galleries in North

America, the UK, and Israel. A copy was presented by President Ronald Reagan to President Chaim Herzog in1987 as the official gift on the occasion of the first state visit by a President of Israel to the US.

■  ELOQUENT ORATOR Rabbi Meir Soloveichik, who has frequently come to Israel to lecture, has been appointed to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), by senate minority leader Mitch McConnell. Soloveitch, who is assistant professor of Judaic Studies and director of The Zahava and Moshael Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought, noted that religious liberty lies at the heart of the American ideal and the Commission’s task in promoting the cause of international religious freedom reflects Lincoln’s belief that America is meant to embody a great promise to all the people of the world.

USCIRF is an independent, bipartisan, federal government entity established by the US Congress to monitor, analyze, and report on threats to religious freedom abroad. It also makes foreign policy recommendations to the president, the secretary of state, and Congress with the aim of deterring religious persecution and promoting religious freedom abroad.