The Original Article is Posted at JNS.org

Israeli doubles team Daniel Cukierman and Edan Leshem retired against the Czech team of Tomas Machac and Adam Pavlasek due to an injury to Cukierman’s hamstring.

Israel’s hopes for a dramatic comeback from a 2-0 deficit against Czechia on day 2 of the 2024 Davis Cup World Group in Trinec, Czechia were quickly dashed after only five games on Sunday when the Israeli doubles team of Daniel Cukierman and Edan Leshem retired against the Czech team of Tomas Machac and Adam Pavlasek due to an injury to Cukierman’s hamstring. Czechia advances to September’s Group Stage Finals for the second year in a row. Israel returns to Group I and will be in action in September.

The Czech team got off to a fast start, breaking the Israelis in the first game of the set and holding serve in the second game. In game three, Cukierman grasped his hamstring in pain after trying to chase down a Machac lob. He returned from a medical time out with his hamstring taped and briefly continued the match. The Israelis, now down 4-0, won their first game as Cukierman held serve. He was in obvious pain and retired, giving the Czechs a 4-1 win and a sweep of the best of five series.  

The fourth match, no longer necessary to determine the series outcome, was played with Israel’s Orel Kimhi (#456) losing to Czechia’s Vit Kopriva  (#115) 3-6, 6-3, 11-9. Kimhi was the only Israeli in the two-day affair to win a set versus the Czechs.

In Saturday’s contest, Israel’s 24-year-old lefty Yshai Oliel (#415) battled 18-year-old Jacob Menshik (#127), losing the 1 hour, 34 minute match 6-1, 7-5. Oliel, up 6-5 in the second set, nearly managed to take the match to a third set.

In the Saturday’s second match, Cukierman (#465) faced Jiri Lehecka, current #31 and former world #23, fresh off a 2nd round appearance in last month’s Australian Open. Cukierman lost the first set 6-1 and battled back down 6-5 to take the second set to a tie-breaker; he went on to lose 7-6.

“It was very difficult for me, I felt like I lost timing and confidence in the first set, but with the help of the team I managed to come back in the second set and play my game, put more balls into the field and try to attack as much as possible,” said Cukierman. “We were close throughout the whole process,” he added.

In commenting on both of Saturday’s matches, former Israel tennis great and current Team Captain Jonathan (“Yoni”) Erlich noted, “The games were quite similar. The Czech players started the game by storm and our players started defensively. They had chances to turn the score around but the Czech players played excellently and knew how to close the game. It’s definitely a tough mission to come back from 2:0 but we will try to focus on our next game [doubles] and hopefully the momentum will change.  We must prepare ourselves and believe that it can be done.”

Due to Cukierman’s impressive performance on Saturday, Erlich decided to substitute Cukierman for Roy Stepanov to team up with Leshem for Sunday’s doubles match. The extent of Cukierman’s injuries will be determined upon the team’s return to Israel.  

While Israel’s team members anticipated tough competition, they were not intimidated by the Czech team. Cukierman noted before the tournament, “We have played against the Czech players before and we know them well. They are very strong and there are clear differences in the ranking between the two teams. Of course we are the underdogs, but at the Davis Cup, you can’t tell and we will fight and try to surprise.” 

Oliel added, “Me and Tomas Machac—we grew up together and I know him well. He of course made an amazing jump. They are a great and strong team and we will have some tough games. We train very well and hope that we will be able to bring our abilities to fruition and win.”

While Erlich knew the Israeli team was facing stiff competition, playing the Czech team has special meaning for him.

“The last match against the Czech Republic was also the last in my career, so the memories are pleasant and exciting also thanks to the victory in the doubles game and on the other hand less happy than we lost in the end. I hope this time we can do a better result,” he said.

In 2022, the Czech team beat Israel 3-1 with Erlich and Cukierman scoring an impressive 6-3, 6-4 victory over Jiri Lehecka and Tomas Machac.

The 12 winning nations (out of the 24 in action around the world this weekend) will secure a place in the Davis Cup Finals Group Stage in September—alongside 2023 champions Italy, 2023 runners-up Australia and wild cards Great Britain and Spain.  

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The Original Article is Published at The Jerusalem Post

Parting wisdom for potential olim: Surround yourself with a familiar environment, even in a foreign country.

When the Sone family made aliyah from Montreal, Shawna promised her children they could continue attending Camp Ramah, their beloved Jewish summer camp in Canada.

However, in Israel she was surprised to learn that for many of their children’s friends, summers did not have a similar experience and that families barely survived the often dreaded hofesh hagadol, the long, unstructured summer break.

The chef, cookbook writer, mother of three sons, and board chairperson of the Morris and Rosalind Goodman Family Foundation was inspired to share the magic of sleepaway camp with large numbers of Israelis, so she founded Summer Camps Israel to provide camp opportunities to Israeli children over the summers. Now she offers these camp experiences to Israeli children impacted by the current war.

While the upbeat, always positive Shawna always loved Israel, she was in many ways an unintentional olah.

She grew up in Montreal in a family that “stacked the deck,” she says, in favor of the children falling in love with Israel. They attended Jewish schools and camps, participated in the community, visited Israel regularly, and had tremendous pride in being Jewish.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper speaking at 2009 Canada Day celebrations on Parliament Hill. (credit: KASHMERA/CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)/VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS)

“My father woke up and went to bed with the news of Israel, but we were Diaspora Jews,” she notes, “Israel was ‘over there’ and no one ever encouraged me to move – not rabbis, not school, not camps.” She enjoyed her junior year of college in Israel, but aliyah was not in the plans.

In contrast, her husband, Todd Sone, grew up in a very Zionist family in Toronto and always had aliyah on his mind.

When Todd was in ninth grade, his pharmacist father spent a sabbatical in Jerusalem with the family, and Todd enjoyed an incredible year in French Hill, attending the Himmelfarb School. His friends left glowing comments in his yearbook, complimenting him for fitting in so nicely and for being such an important part of the class.

Todd dreamed of returning to Israel and finally did for his junior year of college at Hebrew University. Shawna playfully notes that Todd “had aliyah in his blood.” There is some friendly disagreement about whether his desire to make aliyah was disclosed on their first date. “He claims he told me he planned to move to Israel. I think I wasn’t listening.”

The two married in 1996. At around the 10-year mark, the idea of aliyah started nagging at Todd. The family began spending a month every July in Israel, where the kids attended Ramah’s Jerusalem Day Camp. They then returned to Ramah Canada for the second month.

The couple began to realize just how good their kids had it in Montreal. Family, community, and friends “ticked every box.” They began thinking about ways to get their children out of their comfort zone – something “adventurous” to “build resilience,” Shawna says. She considered “random countries, like Belize,” but settled on relocating for a year to Israel.

They set out for their furnished Ra’anana rental apartment with “14 hockey bags” and “pretended to live here.” Todd continued working with his North American-based employer.

Meeting Canada’s prime minister and then making aliyah

In January of their Israel year, then-prime minister of Canada Stephen Harper came to Israel for a visit.

“My mother of blessed memory was a huge fan of his,” Shawna says. “She used to say we will never live through a time when we will have a prime minister who is so pro-Israel.” Shawna was excited that her parents would be in Israel, as they were invited to be part of the trip and the opening of KKL-JNF’s Stephen J. Harper Hula Valley Bird Sanctuary Visitor and Education Centre.

Sadly, her mother, Rosalind, was diagnosed with lung cancer and was unable to make the trip.

Shawna and Todd were offered the chance to join the prime minister’s delegation. “The country was lined with Canadian flags. I realized you don’t have to hate something to love something. I can be a bissel [a bit] of both. My identities could be aligned with one another.” She smiles, recalling, “Bibi was singing ‘Let It Be’ with Harper at the David Citadel on karaoke night! Why are we leaving so fast!?”

THE SONES decided to stay, moving back to Israel “for good” the following year.

At the time, their boys were in grades 4, 7, and 11.

“There is never a perfect age,” Shawna admits, crediting her community for what soon became a successful aliyah experience. Friends “took our phones and put in their numbers.” At first, she found this a little aggressive but soon came to appreciate these were the important go-to people to find out “what time school ends, how to fix a flat tire, where to find a guy to do this and that. Those numbers were lifelines!”

She credits her friends and community for helping: “Everyone was once where you are, and they want you to succeed.” She considers this a “unique experience” in Israel, where “everyone pays it forward, is authentic, genuine, and kind. There is an attentiveness to others here.”

Shawna also credits Todd for being “the driver.”

“Todd had this insatiable itch to be part of the story. He didn’t want to ask ‘Where was I?’ when we had this opportunity.” She adds, “You need a driver. I was willing to go for the journey – and were both on the same page at the end of the day.”

She acknowledges that you “have to come with 500% of will” – everything can knock you down. Fluency in Hebrew, she says, is crucial – even in a community with many Anglos. “Language is the most important thing – and Todd had it. I am still in ulpan – and will be until the end of days!”

Even without the language, Shawna has found her purpose in philanthropic work, with its base in summer camps. She met Todd at Ramah, and her deepest friendships came from her camp experience. “I am beholden to camp,” she says.

“I started asking questions about what kids do here in the summer. Why are the lights off in June? Why was summer break dreaded by all?” She knew she wanted to help grow sleepaway summer camp in Israel.

In 2019, she started the Forum for Summer Camps to bring informal education professionals together under an umbrella. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, two 10-day camp programs – one of which was My Piece of the Puzzle, a program that integrates children and youth at risk and those with disabilities – opened in 2020. They continue to grow. There are currently 28 camps. They served 15,000 campers last summer.

“We are trying to be reflective of the diversity of Israel,” notes Shawna proudly as she describes one camp serving Jewish and Bedouin girls. “We hope that camp will become part of the journey of becoming an adult in Israel. We hope that every Israeli who wants it will have a 10-day camp experience and feel it for life.”

The current situation in Israel has led Shawna and her team to offer Winter Boost Camps, three-day camp experiences for children who have been evacuated from their homes. To date, they have served 600 children.

While Shawna’s camp work continues to fill her time and renders great satisfaction, the professionally trained chef finds ways to combine all of her interests.

She has led Shefa, a women’s trip to Israel “to celebrate Israel’s abundance” and to be inspired by Israeli women making an impact.

Shawna, who also teaches cooking classes, reports, “I use food mixed with philanthropy.” For example, she teaches a class at Leket, Israel’s National Food Bank, on how to cook with leftover food, and to raise awareness about the organization’s mission.

She offers parting wisdom for potential olim: Surround yourself with a familiar environment, even in a foreign country. She notes that there is something for everyone in her Ra’anana community, such as English-speaking mahjong groups, yoga classes, and Torah study.

She sums it up: “Find your comforts!” ■

SHAWNA GOODMAN SONE, 52 FROM MONTREAL TO RA’ANANA, 2015

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Original Article Is Published at JewishDisabilityInclusionNews

I had the rare and moving experience of visiting a severely wounded Israeli soldier this week at the Samson Assuta Hospital in Ashdod. Y, a Special Forces soldier, was nearly killed when a bomb detonated near him and his unit.  A doctor in Gaza determined that Y would not have made it if transported to a more distant trauma center in Israel.  Fortunately, the doctors and medical staff at this amazing hospital essentially, in the words of his mother, brought him back from near death.  

What makes this story personal is that I have known Y since he was a young child, coming to one of our Ramah camps with his parents who worked on staff and with our Israeli shlichim for many years.  As a teenager, Y would train hard at camp in the hopes of being accepted to an elite unit in the IDF.  He succeeded and he and his comrades having been doing what is necessary to assure Israel’s survival and safety for years.

Thank God, Y has left the ICU.  He has had over 20 surgeries; he is now able to speak and eat regular food and he will soon move to a rehab hospital.  He hopes to return to his apartment, girlfriend and a future career, though he notes that “sometimes life takes a different path than planned.” (He wishes he could have served more than four weeks in Gaza, that he can return to Gaza, and that he would do it all over again).  Y also joins the expanding ranks of Israelis who are now considered disabled.  Y is now an amputee.  He feels “lucky” that his leg was lost below the knee and that he will soon be fitted for a prosthetic leg.  He is incorporating this new aspect of Y—his disability—into his already multi-faceted character.  He is determined NOT to let his disability define him.

Y is not alone. Israel is “welcoming” new members in to the disabilities community almost daily.

According to the Times of Israel, the Health Ministry reports that as of the middle of December, an extraordinary number of Israelis–10,580–have been wounded in the war with Hamas in Gaza, attacks by Hezbollah along the Lebanon border, and terrorist attacks in the West Bank. The latest figures provided by the Defense Ministry indicate that 6,125 of the wounded are IDF soldiers and members of the Israel Police and other security forces. Of these, 2,005 have already been recognized as permanently disabled.

A Jewish News Syndicate report notes that “around 2,000 Israeli civilians, soldiers and police officers have had limbs amputated or become disabled in other ways since Oct. 7.” 

Due to previous wars, Israel has some experience in addressing the needs of mainly young people who have become disabled.   Israel has a very active NGO, Negishut Israel/Access Israel, which has been advocating for the needs of the elderly and those with disabilities for decades. Organizations like Israel Para Sport Center introduces people with disabilities to sports.  

This postage stamp is from 1968

In many ways, Israel is doing a great job addressing the needs of people with disabilities.  The current war poses great challenges and opportunities to becoming a world leader in offering services guided by best practices for people with physical disabilities and mental health challenges. I pray Israel will continue to be a pioneer and leader.

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Original Article Is Published At The Jerusalem Post

As Benjy celebrates 40 years since his aliyah, he remains positive yet realistic.

When Benjy Munitz’s family moved to a “more Jewish neighborhood” of Los Angeles and joined a synagogue in time for his bar mitzvah, his parents issued an ultimatum.

They said, “You have to go to a [Jewish] youth group once. It is your choice after that whether to continue or not.” The experience was so positive that Benjy kept going, got increasingly more involved in Jewish communal life, made aliyah less than a decade later, and spent his life dedicated to tikkun olam (repairing the world).

Growing up in a Reform temple at that time meant two things: community and tikkun olam. He credits his parents and various rabbis for instilling these values in him.

“My parents boycotted grapes [a labor strike in the late 1960s organized by the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee against table grape growers to fight against exploitation of farm workers]. And our shul rabbi, Steven Jacobs, was known as ‘The Boat People Rabbi,’ since he felt it was a Jewish obligation to help resettle refugees from Vietnam,” he recalls.

Benjy was “all in” with his involvement in the Reform movement and tikkun olam. He became a leader in NIFTY (National Federation of Temple of Youth) and attended Jewish summer camp Swig in the Santa Cruz mountains, where they had a model kibbutz.

BENJY HARVESTS onions on a tractor at Kibbutz Lotan, 1980s. (credit: Maor family)

In high school, Benjy secured prison uniforms and organized a demonstration outside of NBC in 1978 to spotlight the plight of Soviet Jews; he and fellow protesters wanted the studio to show the state of Soviet Jews and refuseniks during their coverage of the upcoming 1980 Olympics. Benjy also organized a demonstration to bring attention to apartheid in South Africa.

One of the founders of Kibbutz Yahel encouraged Benjy to go to Israel after high school. He spent the year on the Machon l’Madrichei Chutz L’Aretz Jewish Agency Leadership Program, which “led to a very high aliyah rate” among the Reform movement participants.

He credits three experiences from that year in Israel with contributing to his desire to make aliyah: 1) meeting relatives from Argentina from the same shtetl as his family, who came to Israel on aliyah after the Six Day War; 2) in 1979 experiencing a pipe bomb go off a block away from his home in Jerusalem and seeing “how Israel turns from a country into a community, with people caring for each other and helping each other out;” and 3) while living on Kibbutz Yahel, learning about the founding of a new Reform Kibbutz Lotan, in the Arava. (“It checked all the boxes, community, being active and Jewish history and tikun olam.“)

After spending that formative year in Israel, Benjy returned to the US for three years to attempt to get his college degree. He spent just over a year at UCLA before transferring to a junior college. “They had agricultural fields. I learned how to drive a tractor and learned about soil,” he says.

He also was a Zionist youth leader, spoke about Israel on college campuses, and continued the process of preparing to make aliyah, including saying goodbye to family, which he stresses is “an important part of the process. “

Making aliyah and moving to Israel

IN OCTOBER 1983, Benjy made aliyah to Kibbutz Lotan, six months after its founding. “I was gung-ho about the kibbutz, since it brought together several of the ideologies I believed in, and it had a great group of young and very talented people,” he explains.

After a year and a half in Israel, he and other olim (new immigrants) from the kibbutz enlisted in the army together. “Wearing an army uniform on a bus was the first time I felt really Israeli – until I opened my mouth [to speak Hebrew]!” Benjy playfully adds that he learned a great deal in the army, including “all about Hebrew initials and the best places around the country to get food.” He was flattered when offered to become an IDF officer, but he felt that “making the desert green was my contribution” and focused his energies on his kibbutz work.

In addition to being in charge of field crops such as melons, tomatoes, and onions, and later serving as general secretary of the kibbutz, he met his future wife, Nicole (Nicky), who arrived on the kibbutz from the suburbs of Sydney, Australia, a few years after Benjy arrived.

“Meeting Nicky was the best thing that happened to me on kibbutz,” reports Benjy, who changed his last name to Maor after getting married in December 1992. They combined the M from Munitz’s name, and the R from Nicky’s last name (Center) and came up with Maor.

Nicky has worked as a lawyer for the Israel Religious Action Center of the Reform Movement (IRAC) since 1992. In 1996, she became director of IRAC’s Legal Center for Olim, which has represented more than 100,000 new immigrants, particularly regarding issues relating to the Interior Ministry and conversion. She has spearheaded conversion cases before the Supreme Court and recently won the landmark decision recognizing Reform and Conservative conversions performed in Israel.

DESPITE BENJY’S professional successes and his fluency in Hebrew, he began to realize that he still had some language gaps, especially given his work in the area of Jewish identity. When colleagues at Oranim College of Education realized he was American-born and therefore fluent in English, they asked him to help with fundraising.

Benjy’s fundraising role was eye-opening and career-altering. “You can do tikkun olam through fundraising. You help bridge the gap between doing partners and fundraising partners,” he says.

Benjy has since spent almost his entire professional career in the Israel fundraising sphere, always combining his love for the fundraising and tikkun olam. He’s worked for Hamidrasha Center for Study and Fellowship (educational programs for new immigrants from the Former Soviet Union) and TAKAM (the United Kibbutz Movement), establishing the first secular yeshiva in Israel, and running programs for Russian and Ethiopian immigrants.

In recent years, he’s also spent time as director of global resource development at Beit Issie Shapiro, a Ra’anana-based leader in the disability field, as well as fundraising at the Leo Baeck Education Center, Hillel Israel, and at his current position, Tsad Kadima (A Step Forward), a program for people with cerebral palsy that operates in six cities in Israel.

As Benjy celebrates 40 years since his aliyah, he remains positive yet realistic. “On October 6, now 40 years ago, I packed my bags, got on a plane, and made aliyah. If you are not happy day to day, it will never stick.” Benjy is generally very happy with his decisions and with life in Israel.

“After 40 years, I want to be optimistic about how Israel has changed for the better, though sometimes it is hard to see the positives.” He jokes, “I can’t say ‘Ein li eretz acheret (I don’t have another country),” noting that he has two passports, and his children each have three.

He is proud of his three children, Sagi, Eden, and Tamar. All serve in the IDF, and two sons returned from overseas for the recent IDF call-up. Benjy adds, “I was young and idealistic when I made aliyah; now I am a little older and still idealistic!”

However, he cautions that anyone considering making aliyah should be aware of just how hard it is to leave family behind. “What I miss most about LA is Mexican food and my family. The family piece starts off difficult, then gets worse. Having family halfway around world – both Nicky and I – made us jealous of olim from the UK (with family closer by).

“You don’t think of the ages of your parents (now and in the future) when you make aliyah at 23. Everything has a price,” he says.

But ultimately, “you feel alive here!” ■

Benjy Maor, 62 From Los Angeles

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