Published Articles

Original Article Published On The JNs

Still, it has its work cut out for it at the World Baseball Classic in Miami, where some of the best teams share its division, says Peter Kurz.

Team Israel is currently battling it out in the World Baseball Classic in Miami, where it’s part of a grouping with powerhouses the Dominican Republic, which many are picking to win; Venezuela and Puerto Rico. Nicaragua rounds out the five-team Pool D, whose games will be held from March 11 to March 15.

Still, the team’s coach and general manager are optimistic. “We will be the underdog like always, and we will be overlooked,” former professional baseball player Ian Kinsler, who coaches the Israeli team, told JNS. “I have a pretty easy message for the players. We are showing up to win, not just to participate.”

Peter Kurz, the team’s general manager, told JNS that he has a lot of confidence after Israel’s “incredible run” in the 2017 World Baseball Classic. Israel was the lowest-ranked team “by far” to make the Olympics, and it won Israel’s first-ever Olympics team game.

It also came in second in the 2021 European Championship “on a team that was over 50% locally grown sabra ballplayers,” he said. “Those were incredible achievements, and they have certainly put Israel baseball on the map.”

This year, Israel’s team has 13 current or former Major League Baseball players and eight Minor League prospects, who might play in the majors next year. Ten hold Israeli citizenship.

“Team Israel will surprise a lot of people,” said Kurz.

Ian Kinsler, part of Team Israel, is playing in the World Baseball Classic in Miami from March 11 to March 15, 2023. Credit: Israel Association of Baseball.

‘It was a great trip for the family’

JNS reached Kinsler—himself one of the most decorated professional baseball players—in early March before he left his home in Texas to fly to Miami with his son, Jack.

A former four-time All-Star and holder of a World Series ring, Ian Kinsler won two gold gloves at second base during his 14-year career: eight with the Detroit Tigers. He won the World Series in 2018 with the Boston Red Sox. Throughout his career, he stole 243 bases, recorded 1,999 hits, belted 257 home runs and batted in 909 runs. In 2022, the Texas Rangers Hall of Fame inducted him.

Kinsler grew up in Tucson, Ariz., the son of a Jewish father and a Catholic mother. He has told reporters often that he did not grow up religiously observant but that playing for Israel, including going through the process of making aliyah in 2020 to be eligible for the Olympics, has connected him more strongly with his Jewish relatives.

He was one of five torchbearers at the Maccabiah opening ceremonies in Jerusalem in 2022 and threw out the opening pitch at a Maccabiah game. On that trip, he told JNS, he and his family spent Shabbat at the home of Jordy Alter, president of the board of directors of the Israel Association of Baseball.

“We got to experience Jerusalem and Tel Aviv,” he said. “It was a great trip for the family.”

Experiencing the history in Israel made Kinsler feel more connected, and it “brings out feelings of lineage and heritage—that it is really your people,” he told JNS. “The more you experience Israel, the more you feel connected.”

Kinsler’s 14-year-old daughter, Rian, felt like she was participating in a high school learning field trip, and his 11-year-old son, who answered every question with “King David,” ended up being right half the time, he said. At Israeli sporting events, Kinsler appreciated how relaxed it was.

The Israel team arrived in Miami on March 6 before nightfall and the start of the Jewish holiday of Purim. On Tuesday, Jordy Alter arranged a Megillah reading for the team, which also watched the 2022 film “Israel Swings for Gold,” about Israel’s baseball team competing in the Olympics in 2021.

After exhibition games on Wednesday and Thursday, the team will work out on Friday at the Miami stadium, take Shabbat off and play the first game on March 12 at noon against Nicaragua.

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Original Article Published On The JNS

Rimon Tubin, the founder of HackAustism, tells JNS the Start-Up Nation ought to be able to aid those with disabilities.

“I could have been rich,” Rimon Tubin tells JNS. “But I am enriched.”

Tubin worked in data and project management at Bank Hapoalim for 15 years before becoming chief technology and innovation officer at Pangea IT, a digital identity, services and security company. In January 2021, he quit to run HackAutism, where he is “founder, dreamer and performer.”

He decided to devote his professional life to the cause that was at the forefront of his personal life. His 22-year-old son Yuval is on the autism spectrum and Tubin wanted to help Yuval and others with autism worldwide, so he created HackAutism, whose mission is to encourage and facilitate the creation of innovative technologies to help people with autism and their families.

By some estimates, one in 44 children is on the autism spectrum. Tubin believes 200,000 Israelis have autism.

“If the Start-Up Nation is so good at technology, entrepreneurship and innovation, why can’t people with disabilities also benefit?” he asked.

Tubin seems to be seeing progress each year, particularly in the annual hackathon, which is now in its fourth year. So far, the hackathons—24-hour entrepreneurship competitions focusing on solving autism-related challenges—have produced 42 ventures, 15 of which have raised initial funding.

The annual process includes the hackathon, a startup accelerator and a demo day, with winners going on to incubator and investor evenings. What begins as 100 ideas gets winnowed down to 25 (the “semifinals”) at the hackathon.

Participants from various disciplines sit at a roundtable and think jointly about a challenge. After that, they present a product or service to the judges. Of the 25, 10 reach the finals, where judges then select three winners.

“The goal is for these three to raise funds and establish companies,” Tubin said.

This year, first place at the events, held recently at the College of Management Academic Studies in Rishon Letzion, went to Dive, an artificial intelligence platform that helps employers identify and hire workers with autism. Cristalix, a personalized, virtual, cognitive behavioral therapy platform to treat social and intellectual difficulties in children and adolescents won second place. And third place went to It’s Time To, which helps autistic children navigate stressful transitions.

The competition judges included academics and entrepreneurs, as well as Lihi Lapid, the president of SHEKEL, a community organization for people with special needs. She and her husband, Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid, have a daughter with autism.

Yuval Wagner, founder and president of Access Israel, which promotes accessibility and inclusion, was one of this year’s judges.

Life-improving technologies

“Access Israel chose to help the HackAutism organization and its founder, Rimon, because this organization focused on technologies and innovation specifically focused on solutions for autism,” Wagner told JNS. “We believe that the HackAutism hackathons and accelerators will bring life-improving technologies for people with autism.”

HackAutism also raises awareness about autism.

“Over the years, thousands of people have been involved in HackAutism. They include judges, mentors, volunteers and more,” Tubin told JNS. “Some had come into contact with autism in the past and were happy to use their knowledge, experience and entrepreneurship to help. Others had not been involved with people with autism and became involved through their participation.”

Tubin hopes, with support from the Foreign Ministry, to create an international HackAutism.

Benny Alon, CEO of the College of Management Academic Studies, was also a judge this year. At the event, he announced the expansion of the cooperation between the college and HackAutism.

“For the first time an innovative academic course for managers, the Start-Up Nation incubator, will be launched at the college, which will focus on entrepreneurship and technological innovation for people with disabilities,” he said. The course will be open to students from all disciplines, and will involve development of a product, he said.

Tubin always remembers that HackAutism began with inspiration from one person, his son.

“When Yuval was born in 2000, I told him that he was my gift to the world. When he was diagnosed with autism in 2008, we were advised to give him as much love as possible,” he told JNS.

There are challenges, but Tubin remains focused on doing what he can to help his son and others who have autism.

“I remain the father of a young child and will remain so forever,” he said. “We are not always asked if we want to do something or not. Sometimes we must live with it, or learn to live with it.”

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Original Article Published On The JNS

The Abraham Accords have made a major impact on international relations in the Middle East. They are also proving an ace for Israeli tennis.

Last month, young players and coaches from the Israel Tennis & Education Centers flew to Bahrain—the nonprofit’s second trip to the island kingdom, with which Israel normalized relations in Sept. 2020.

The Abraham Accords impacted the centers (ITEC) both domestically and abroad. First, ITEC decided after the accords debuted that its vision ought to include all Israeli kids. That included Arabs in Israel, who also ought to have “the chance to be winners in life through tennis,” Erez Vider, the group’s CEO, told JNS.

ITEC enlisted Alam Ibrahem, a resident of the Druze village Sajur in northern Israel, as Arab society coordinator to launch tennis programs in Arab communities.

At first, Ibrahem was nervous about teaching tennis, but Vider assured him that other ITEC staff, including coach Ronen Morali, would handle the tennis. Ibaham’s job was to teach the ITEC leadership and staff about Arab society.

“It is win-win,” Vider told Ibrahem. “Ronen knows how to teach tennis and you know the Arab mentality.”

Working with Israeli-Arab communities builds upon ITEC’s nearly five decades of work trying to strengthen Israeli society and foster piece through the sport. The nonprofit’s approach blends tennis playing, education, mentorship and support services for more than 7,000 children each week.

The nonprofit’s programs currently reach Arab, Bedouin, Christian, Druze and Jewish kids in Arad, Haifa, Jaffa, Jerusalem, Kiryat Shmona and Tiberias. Its Abraham’s Bridge empowers the next generation of Arabs to lead in their communities.

In a period of violence and unrest in May 2021, ITEC found its bonds were deep enough to host partners from Tayibe, one of Israel’s largest Arab cities, in its Ramat Hasharon headquarters for a day of cross-cultural discussion.

Again in Ramat Hasharon, ITEC leaders and colleagues from the Bedouin city Rahat convened in June 2021 for a partnership forum.

“The goal of Abraham’s Bridge is to help build a stronger society in Israel. At the core of that strength is human connection, which starts with our children–the next generation of leadership,” Vider told JNS. “We hope that providing children with opportunities to collaborate in a diverse setting will help nurture and celebrate new bonds that will lead to a better future for all.”

After doing some research—and with a bit of luck—Ibrahem, who had his sights set overseas, secured the phone number of Khalid Yusuf Ahmed Aljalahma, Bahrain’s ambassador in Tel Aviv. Ibrahem introduced himself and asked for a meeting.

“He visited my house with his family and children, and that’s how the relationship started—on a family level and not only in the field of tennis,” Ibrahem told JNS.

Last July, the ambassador visited ITEC headquarters. “From the first moment we met, there was an indescribable, strong click,” Ibrahem said.

“He came to Ramat Hasharon and saw Arabs from Tayibe with the Israeli flag, and Israeli kids with the Bahraini flag,” Vider said. “We are ambassadors of peace. He was emotional and impressed.”

“There is no limit to the fields in which Israel and Bahrain can build common

bridges, on which to walk together,” Aljalahma said.

The kingdom’s ambassador connected Ibrahem with the chairman of the Bahrain Tennis Association, and three months later, last October, Morali, the coach, joined an ITEC delegation to Bahrain. The group met the Bahrain Tennis Association chairman.

“They asked me to come for one week to train them for a Davis Cup event taking place in November,” Morali told JNS. “It was a very intense week, and a very productive week as well.” (The International Tennis Federation’s Davis Cup is a major team event; an Israeli team pulled off a come-from-behind victory against Latvia this month in Riga.).

The Israeli-Bahraini tennis bond has continued to yield fruitful volleys that score points.

Israeli coaches and players traveled to Bahrain last month to train with nine

local coaches, native-born Bahraini players and tennis-playing immigrants to Bahrain from the Philippines, Romania, Tunisia and Yemen.

Ido Samimiyan, 17, remains in touch with some of the new Bahraini friends he made on the trip and is excited some may visit him in Israel soon.

“They were good players and nice kids. We really bonded,” he told JNS. “We played together, ate together and played Davis Cup-style tennis.” (They spoke in English, but not about politics. Samiyan was proud of winning “by a lot,” and in awe that his new friends lived in a kingdom.)

Vider hopes ITEC will be able to offer scholarships to two Bahrani players to train in Israel.

“Sport is different from politics. You bring kids on a court, and they don’t care about color or religion,” he said. “It is amazing how fast they forget who they are playing with.”

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Original article On Jewish Times

Even 35 years later, Jonathan and Lisa Pierce cannot agree on all of the details of their unusual first encounter on the campus of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore that winter day in early February 1988. As Jonathan tells it, the national AEPi fraternity’s “fix it and rebuild it” man arrived on the JHU campus and woke up Lisa at 10:30 a.m. while in pursuit of “the list” of Jewish people on campus.

According to Lisa, she never sleeps that late but had a very good reason to still be doing so on that particular day; she was up until 2:30 a.m. as part of her own sorority pledge event.

The one thing that they can agree on is that their first “date” took place at Shabbat services, and that something magical, life-changing and permanent happened during that visit to campus.

Fast-forward to 2023, and the Pierces are happily married and the parents of three children: Hannah, 28, who got married this past fall to Justin Shaw (they met while working together at the Jewish Federation in Columbus, Ohio); Dan, 26, who is engaged; and Rachel, 22, who graduated college last May. The couple is Jewishly active in their home community of Albany, N.Y., and AEPi has been a continuous thread in their marriage and family life.

After Jonathan graduated college in 1986, he worked as a consultant to the AEPi for two years. The well-known Jewish college fraternity, founded in 1913, boasts 100,000 living alumni and operates chapters on more than 150 college campuses in four countries. “I was mostly helping them start up chapters on the West Coast and some in Florida,” reports Pierce. Then, he received a call from his boss directing him to Baltimore. “He said, ‘Go to Johns Hopkins. The chapter is not doing well and wants to quit.”

Jon and Lisa’s wedding, August 1990 (Courtesy)

At the time, he was living in Ohio and remembers that he had no idea how to get to Baltimore (these were long before the days of Google maps). He was instructed to: “Fly to Newark, rent a car, turn right and go up a hill. The university will be on your left. With those directions and a Thrifty (car rental) map, I got to Baltimore on a Thursday night and stayed at a hotel in Towson.”

Pierce never lost sight of his reason for being in the city in the first place. “The first thing I needed to do to start a chapter was to get a list of Jewish male students on campus. And so I called the Jewish student union president at 10:30 a.m. … and woke her up!” he recounts. “I am on campus restarting AEPi, and I would like a list of Jewish students.”

He recalls not receiving a list of names directly; Lisa Proskin, as she was known at the time, was not permitted to disclose such information. Nevertheless, she invited Pierce to come to Shabbat dinner later that evening, and they met at the KDH (the Kosher Dining Hall).

“We started a friendship and stayed in touch,” recalls Pierce.

That initial friendship continued to grow into more than a friendship — and Jonathan needed to continue making excuses (creating reasons?) to get AEPi to send him to back to Baltimore. “I kept telling them, ‘We are almost ready to restart the chapter. You need to keep sending me there. By then, she and I were going out.”

Piece’s two-year contract with AEPi was ending in the summer of 1988, when he moved to Columbus, Ohio, for law school. “We kept dating and when Lisa graduated, she moved to Columbus for law school, too, and we got married in 1990.”

Their kids followed in their parents’ footstep: All three graduated from The Ohio State University, with their oldest getting her master’s degree from there as well.

The Pierce family at Rachel’s graduation from The Ohio State University in May 2022 (Courtesy)

A prominent role in their lives

Lisa patiently sat by Jonathon’s side as he recounted their story of meeting (done as part of a Zoom call). Then it was time for her side of the story.

“He did wake me up,” she confirms, “but we had Alpha Phi sorority rush the night before. I was sorority president, and I got to sleep at about 2:30 a.m.”

Lisa recalls meeting in person that Friday before services — at the library.

“I couldn’t give him the list,” she reports, but they found a mutually acceptable way to check the names on a list he had against her master one.

“He asked: ‘What do you do for fun around here?”

And I said: “Go to Shabbat services.”

Lisa brought him to an Orthodox service. “There was a mechitza between us,” she recalls, but this worked to Pierce’s advantage as he was trying to recruit males for the fraternity.
Following Shabbat dinner, the two went to Baltimore’s famous Louie’s Bookstore Café for dessert. They next tried to go to an on-campus party. “I wasn’t 21, and the dean of Greek Life didn’t let me in,” she says.

The cover of a publication the AEPi international magazine geared towards its 2001 convention, shortly after Jon was installed as the group’s international president (Courtesy)

Lisa recounts that the two were very creative in keeping their relationship going. “He drove a lot and used a lot of frequent-flier miles. And we used AEPi’s 800 number to talk.”

Jonathan and Lisa recall going to Harborplace at the Baltimore waterfront on their first “official” date. They both enjoyed watching the seals outside of the National Aquarium in Baltimore. They enjoyed the spot so much that Jonathan brought her back to in 1989 — to propose!

So many years later, AEPi continues to play a prominent role in their lives. Pierce is past national president; he was installed as Supreme Master in 2001. His firm does public relations for AEPi. Their son was in AEPi at Ohio State. Whenever Pierce sports his AEPi kippah — both in the United States and Israel — he attracts the attention of past and current members. He notes that the fraternity currently has more than 110 chapters in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, and that there are six to eight chapters in Israel.

He is also proud of AEPi’s commitment to developing future leaders and to philanthropy: “All of the money we raise goes to Jewish and Israeli causes like Sharsheret and Magen David Adom.”

This past November, Alpha Epsilon Pi International Fraternity celebrated its 109th anniversary with 110 chapters around the world virtually celebrating Shabbat together. During the event, “Shabbat Across AEPi,” chapters from the United States, Canada, Israel and the United Kingdom joined together on two Friday nights (Nov. 4 and Nov. 11) to celebrate the weekly Jewish holiday.

“Bringing so many of our Brothers together virtually to simply say the Shabbat prayers and break bread as one is especially important in our world today,” said Rob Derdiger, AEPi’s CEO. “In light of rising antisemitism on college campuses and in our individual communities, this program makes an important point about being proud of our Jewish heritage and traditions.”

In fact, he said as much in a Dec. 2 opinion piece in the Baltimore Jewish Times titled, “Fighting Back Against Antisemitism on Campus.”

As for the Pierces and their work for the Jewish community, they will never forget how and where their life together started. “I like to say that we met because I was just doing my job,” notes Jonathan. For them, Baltimore will always be Charm City.

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