Amira's Posts

PALMER, Mass. — Each summer, Camp Ramah in New England (CRNE) brings close to 60 post-army emissaries to serve as bunk counselors and teach in such specialty areas as dance, sports, swimming, nature, woodworking, Hebrew and Jewish Studies, ropes and krav maga. Campers and staff are accustomed to such names as Neta, Ela, Tal, Ofer…

This past summer, however, one young Israeli tennis player, who spent a week at Camp Ramah in Canada, followed by a few days at CRNE, turned a few heads with his unusual first and last name – Fahoum Fahoum.  “Fahoum means navon, like your division name, Nivonim, (the wise ones), the young visitor told a packed open-aired tent of 16-year-olds during an evening discussion at the Palmer, Mass. camp. The campers were captivated by Fahoum’s personal story and peppered him with questions about his life in Israel.

Fahoum loved growing up in Haifa. “Growing up as an Arab Muslim in Haifa was very special,” he says. “Haifa is known for its relationship between Arabs and Jews. I am thankful for growing up in Haifa because the environment gave me a better chance to integrate.”

Fahoum and his sister, Nadine Fahoum, were the first Israeli Arabs to attend the Reali School in Haifa. He credits his mother with the idea of sending him to the Israeli Jewish school but notes, “there were many concerns among our friends in the Arab community.”

“I believe the community was worried that the school would not be ready to welcome someone like me,” he recalls. “Along the years, people around saw how the support the Hebrew Reali School gave my sister and me, and how it nurtures its children. They actually became very curious about becoming a part of the Reali family as well.”

Fahoum says both he and his sister received a fine education and a wonderful introduction to tennis through their years at Reali. Nadine went on to play in such tournaments as the Juniors Wimbledon, the U.S. Open and the Olympics. Fahoum was the number one junior in Israel at age 14.  “Tennis is like a language.  It is used to communicate with others.  It is a common language,” observes Fahoum.

Nadine attended Old Dominion University in Virginia and ultimately transferred to Duke University, where she played #1 on the women’s tennis team.  Upon graduation, she went on to work in New York for the Israel Tennis Centers and is currently pursuing graduate studies at New York University.

Fahoum also began his college academic and tennis careers at Old Dominion; then transferred to Quinnipiac University in Hamden, where he played tennis and is pursuing  a communications major and business minor. He is interning at the Quinnipiac Alumni Association in the office of Public Affairs and Development. He hopes to attend graduate school at the Yale School of Management.

“I hope to accomplish mutual understanding and future between Arabs and Jews, using sports as a tool for communication,” he says.

During Fahoum’s stint at the two Ramah camps, he did a lot more than teach tennis. Bryan Gerson, head of the sports program at Camp Ramah in New England, observed, “Fahoum adds a professionalism-on and off the courts-with a great personality and a wonderful message of inclusion. Sally Klapper of Stamford, now a junior at Ramaz in Manhattan, called the experience of having an Israeli Arab at camp “eye opening.” “It was interesting to hear from someone who is so completely accepted into Israeli society,” she said.

Bringing an Israeli Arab to a Ramah camp is not an obvious move for an observant, Zionistic Jewish summer camp. Rabbi Mitch Cohen, the National Ramah Director, feels that bringing Nadine Fahoum to three of its eight Ramah camps in the United States and Canada is very important. “Bringing Fahoum to Camp Ramah helps to emphasize the importance of co-existence and tolerance of other people, especially at a time when Jewish-Muslim relations are so sensitive. Through tennis, and the great work of the Israel Tennis Center, Fahoum inspires us with his life story.”

And Fahoum couldn’t be more pleased with his time at Ramah camps.  “The visit really made me feel like home. I came to Ramah to learn more about the Jewish community abroad and share some of my experience and future goals with its members. My being in Ramah allowed the camp to have a more complete experience of Israel. After all, Israel is not all Jewish, so my visit helps complete the picture. I hope that after my visit, both campers and staff will have greater confidence in a mutual future between Arabs and Jews.”

Fahoum remains both realistic and hopeful as to the power of sports.  “Sports provides a tool for communication,” he notes. “Although Arabs and Jews live next to each other, they have no common language and therefore rarely integrate. Sports is a language in and of itself. Sports provides a common ground for different people from different backgrounds to integrate. Partnerships on the [tennis] court can lead to friendships off of it.”

Fahoum certainly thinks of one day returning home to Israel – but he remains both practical and realistic. “I will go back to Israel when I feel like I received enough support to begin establishing a concrete project back home.”

(Source: http://www.jewishledger.com)

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Original Article Published On The Camp Ramah In New England

Most people at camp recognize David Dalnekoff as the hard-working, good-natured man who delivers the mail each day. This past Shabbat, David was honored by his synagogue, the Westville Shul in New Haven, Connecticut, with a Kiddush lunch in his honor, as he celebrated his 40th birthday. I was invited to say a few words from the bima –about both David and the Tikvah Program at Camp Ramah in New England.

David was a camper of mine in the early 1980s when he was an amitzim camper—and he has been coming to camp for 27 years!!!  David has been in amitzim, voc ed and post voc ed, and he has participated in several Tikvah Ramah Israel trips.  David is a very dependable, productive, caring member of the New Haven (and the Ramah New England!) Jewish communities.  David attends minyan in his Orthodox shul three times a day, every day, and he often leads the davening!

To celebrate his birthday, David lead Shaharit (with a full repetition of the amidah!) and Hallel, and he had an Aliyah.  Rabbi Fred Hyman (who once hosted our Voc Eders at his shul in Kadimah Congregation in Springfield, MA, when he was the rabbi!) praised David for his caring ways. “David always asks how my mom is doing!”  In Rabbi Hyman’s d’var torah, he noted that we can all learn an important lesson about life from David and Parshat Noach. “Noah’s name in Hebrew means ‘rest’ or ‘chill;”  David is always smiling and chill—we can all learn from David!”  We wish David many years of happiness and success!

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Original Article in The New York Jewish Week

In many ways, it was just another awesome day at the U.S. Open.

Leander Paes and his partner won the mens’ doubles final; Serena Williams, won the womens’ championship; a boy from Croatia became the junior singles champion, while a 15-year-old with the first name “Tornado,” would narrowly miss an upset win of the junior girls’ championship.

And on courts 7 and 11, equally talented athletes with lesser-known names were also gearing up for two more finals, both in wheelchair tennis. In many ways, wheelchair tennis is just a regular part of the US Open. At the same time, it’s quite extraordinary.

Some background, courtesy of a sign outside court 7: “Wheelchair Tennis began in California in 1976. Since then, it has grown to be played on six of the seven continents and, currently, there are more than 170 tennis tournaments on the wheelchair professional tour. The US Open Wheelchair Competition was established in 2005 … The Men’s and Women’s division athletes have disabilities in their lower extremities only and are classified by gender. Quad division athletes have disabilities in their lower and upper extremities and are classified based on disability, not gender. It is one of the only sports in which you may see men and women competing against each other on equal terms.”

Each wheelchair tennis player has his or her unique story. As a credentialed journalist (I also covered the Open for the Times of Israel), I am lucky enough to learn more about these athletes when I receive a copy of the 2013 U.S. Open Tennis Championship Wheelchair Tennis Competition Media Guide, as well as a supplemental packet of player biographies.

On court 7, I saw the #2 seed, Stephane Houdet of France, and the #1 seed, Shingo Kuneida of Japan, preparing for their match, which Houdet won.

Houdet, who has two sets of twins and a veterinary degree, started to play tennis at the age of 8, then again at the age of 34 – ten years after his motorbike accident. Kuneida played tennis recreationally from ages 11 to 16 and then learned to play wheelchair tennis after becoming paralyzed by spine tumor surgery.

In wheelchair tennis, “preparing,” means transferring from regular wheelchairs to specially designed game chairs (large angled wheels, two small wheels in front, one small wheel in back), checking air in their tires, strapping themselves in to their chairs and putting in mouth guards. While wheelchair tennis has chair umpires, line judges and ball persons, each player has his or her own method of storing balls—in their laps, in a bag behind the chair, or in their spokes.

Court 11 hosted the Quad Singles Final is about to begin, with Lucas Sithole of Johannesburg battling #1 seed David Wagner of the United States. Wagner had been a college tennis player before a water accident 18 years ago.

“Let’s go, Wags!” cheer his buddies, many of them also in wheelchairs. Sithole, who was injured in a railway accident as a child, is “currently the highest ranked triple amputee on the wheelchair tennis rankings.”

The left-hander is an incredible athlete, using his partial right arm to help guide his chair as he races to each ball. Sithole stuns Wagner, upsetting him: 3-6, 6-4, 6-4.

Tennis fans like me returned home that Sunday having experienced quite an impressive scene — one of true inclusion. Tennis has found a way to naturally include athletes who have both disabilities and extraordinary abilities.

I wonder if tennis fans know that wheelchair tennis boasts a unique statistic: Esther Vergeerretired from wheelchair tennis last February with an active singles win streak of 470 matches. The last match she lost was ten years before her retirement, in January, 2003. Now, that’s an athlete we can all strive to emulate.

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With a cadre of middle-aged Jewish male fans, feisty Sharon Fichman is hopeful for her upcoming women’s doubles match

FLUSHING MEADOWS, New York — On the court at the US Open in Flushing Meadows, 22-year-old Canadian Sharon Fichman is a hard-hitting, feisty, grunting right-handed baseliner who packs a lot of punch into her 5 foot, 4 inch (1.63 meters) frame. Her fighting spirit and determination helped the number two seed as she battled through three matches in the US Open qualifying tournament last week.

There, Fichman earned one of the 128 coveted spots in the US Open 2013 Women’s draw, unlike Israeli star Shahar Peer, the number one seed in the “qualies,” who lost her first round match in straight sets to Russian Ksenia Pervak 6-4, 7-6 and did not make the main draw for singles. Peer will play doubles with Lourdes Dominguez Lino of Spain.

At a career-high rank of 95 in the world, and despite being relatively unknown outside of her native Canada, Fichman attracts a small group of loyal followers. These mostly middle-aged Jewish men from New York city chant courtside, “Go, Sharon!” throughout her matches and appear to know a great deal about the Jewish players and coaches represented at the US Open.

One Fichman fan sees my Times of Israel media credentials, grabs the daily schedule of matches from my hands, and points out all players with a Jewish connection: “Julia Cohen is half Jewish; Camille Giorgi is Jewish; Youzny is maybe a quarter Jewish but his Russian coach is a proud Jew…” Nachas.

Fichman’s own parents are not in the crowd; she matter-of-factly reports in a post-match interview that her nuclear engineer father, Bobby, and computer engineer mother, Julia, have already used up their vacation time.

Fichman was born in Toronto in 1990, where she was also raised, but is currently training in Vancouver with coach Larry Jurovich. Her Romanian-born parents moved to Israel in 1982, then to Canada in 1989. Fichman began playing tennis at age 6.

“I come from a tennis family — my dad played in the nationals in Romania, my mother loved playing tennis recreationally and my older brother, Thomas, plays tennis. We had a club near our house and I was good at tennis right away.”

In 2004, when she was 13, Fichman won the prestigious Orange Bowl juniors title and was the world’s number two player in her age group. The same year she was Canada’s under-18 Indoor and Outdoor National girls champion. By 14 she had won the gold medal for tennis singles at the 17th Maccabiah Games, where she also won a silver in mixed doubles and a bronze in women’s doubles.

“I got really sick when the week of the Maccabiah Games started,” she vividly recalls.

Fichman has been to Israel many times. “I really love Israel — it is an amazing place. I have dual citizenship, and I have lots of family — aunts, uncles, cousins and nephews in Israel.”

She had a very successful 2006 with doubles victories in both the junior Australian and French opens; she reached the quarter finals in singles and the finals in doubles at the junior US Open later that year. In October of 2006, Fichman began beating some of the world’s top ranked players including Hana Sromova (114).

Fichman turned pro in 2007 and managed to defeat the world’s #90, Stephanie Cohen-Aloro. Later, in 2012, Fichman’s competed in Challenger tournaments and her rankings began to climb — from 239 in July to 153 in December.

Most recently, Fichman has achieved some success in her native Canada

Most recently, She has achieved some success in her native Canada. At the Rogers Cup in Toronto earlier this month, Fichman, then ranked 104, reached the second round in singles and made it to the semifinals for doubles.

With a career win/lost record of 234 and 148, she has earned $85,383 so far this year, with a career net of $338,643.

Following Fichman’s three wins in the US Open qualifiers, she faced Romanian Sorana Cirstea, ranked 22 in the world and the tournament’s 19th seed.

Asked in a post-match interview about facing another player of Romanian descent in the first round, she playfully said, “I’ve known Sorana since we were 11 years old. We’ve played so many times. We met at age 13 or 14 in the finals at the Orange Bowl — it’s not weird at all. We grew up together and we’re friends.”

Cirstea defeated Fichman 7-5, 5-7, 6-1.

“I had a lot of opportunities but I didn’t connect on the break points. I felt I played pretty well for the most part.”

Fichman is intensely focused on her tennis career, which often requires 35 to 40 weeks of travel per year.

“It’s hard to find another passion when I am in one,” she said, but speaks of her love for cooking and baking, the outdoors (walks, hiking and fishing) and of possible future professional interests including business, finance, real estate, and interior design.

But for now, it’s back to tennis. Despite her loss in the singles, Fichman and fellow Canadian Aleksandra Wosniack are in the main draw for  the US Open women’s doubles, where Fichman is currently ranked 89 in the world. (Fichman and Wosniack were scheduled to face wildcards Allie Kiick and Sachia Vickery, both of the United States, on Wednesday, but the match was postponed due to rain.)

Fichman is optimistic. “This is the best I’ve done as a pro — the best is yet to come!”

(Source: http://www.timesofisrael.com)


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