Published Articles

Original Article published at The Jerusalem post

How is a World Baseball Classic Qualifier game featuring Israel and Great Britain playing at MCU Park in Brooklyn different from a typical Major League Baseball game?

Thursday night’s Israel vs Great Britain WBC game featured three national anthems and two first pitch ceremonies, and a robust Maariv minyan after the third inning with scenic views of the Coney Island cyclone, Nathan’s Hot Dogs and the fifty person-long kosher food line.

Fans draped in Israeli flags chanted “Let’s Go Israel!” – and greeted friends from summer camp, youth group and the neighborhood. Of course there were also fans cheering for Team Great Britain – mostly sitting in section three.

Team Israel received special Shabbat accommodations – they played both Thursday night and Friday at noon to avoid a potential play-on-Shabbat issue. With both games ending in victory, the blue-andwhite will play in Sunday night’s final with a berth in the WBC main draw on the line.

Welcome to the Qualifiers of the World Baseball Classic double elimination tournament.

One team – Israel, Great Britain, Brazil or Pakistan will advance to Pool B in the first round of the 2017 World Baseball Classic taking place March 7-10, 2017 in Seoul, South Korea.

It is not so easy to get to MCU Park in Coney Island, along the Atlantic Ocean, at the tip of Brooklyn.

Fans battling rush-hour traffic and a 90-minute commute from Manhattan exited the N and Q subway trains at Stillwell Station in Coney Island, affectionately marked “Last Stop.”

My train car coincidentally included Michael Zalta, the Yeshiva of Flatbush graduate selected to sing the US national anthem. Some groups in attendance Thursday night included Yachad-National Council for Jewish Disabilities, Solomon Schechter of Westchester, Manhattan Day School, Yeshiva University, USY and the choir of Yeshiva of Flatbush, who sang Hatikvah. No one seemed to mind the long security lines and extra police presence outside of MCU Park.

Once inside, fans experienced baseball with a few surprises.

Jeremy Posner, attending with wife Paulette and three sons – Harry (10), Jacob (8), and Isaac (5) – was moved when the players on team Israel removed their caps for the national anthems to reveal blue Team Israel yarmulkes on the heads of each player and coach.

Steven Cohen, vice president of the Single-A Brooklyn Cyclones of the New York-Penn League, and affiliated with the New York Mets, is pleased that Major League Baseball felt that MCU Park would be the perfect venue for the World Baseball Classic.

Making his way around the stadium, speaking with fans and watching from many vantage points, Cohen could hardly contain his excitement.

“The event is exciting, it is well-received and it is great for baseball.”

Two old friends sitting five rows behind home plate, Seth Golob and Joe Orenstein have enjoyed playing sports together since their days as campers at Camp Ramah.

“Playing in a game like this has always been a childhood fantasy. Having a chance to see Team Israel play is amazing,” said Golob.

Friday’s noon game for Israel vs Brazil game offered Jewish day schools a unique opportunity to come out and cheer on the blue-and-white.

Magen David Yeshivah in Brooklyn attended with 350 students. School principal Rabbi Alan Berkowitz saw the game as “an opportunity to fully enjoy the great American pastime at its best while connecting with Medinat Yisrael.”

While the Posner children, sporting Team Israel hats, were enjoying Team Israel’s Thursday night comeback victory, the Posner parents realized the homework they had packed for the ballpark was not yet completed.

By the time they arrived to their subway stop in Manhattan, two of three boys were asleep in their parents’ arms. They still made it to school on time Friday morning.

When Israel plays in the final on Sunday night, expect five Posners in section 3, row C, with all their homework already done!

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Original Article Published at The Jerusalem Post

When the going gets tough, the coach stays calm. Even during a heart-breaking loss for Yshai Oliel in the junior boys’ doubles semifinals at the US Open, coach Jan Pochter appeared relaxed.

Pochter accompanied the 16-year-old Israeli tennis player to New York for his week of juniors’ singles and doubles play at the US Open.

Pochter sat in the stands and maintained eye contact with Oliel.

Pochter studied each point Oliel played in his singles and doubles matches. Pochter will bring his thoughtful analysis and insight back to Israel and use it in his work to help bring him to the next level of play.

During their week in New York, Pochter watched Oliel come back from one set down in both the first and second rounds, even taking out the tournament’s second seed.

Pochter calmly watched Oliel receive a medical timeout to treat his leg early in his third round singles loss to No. 13 seed Nicola Kuhn.

And Pocther calmly watched as Oliel won two pulse-raising doubles matches in a super tiebreaker.

Fridays’ later afternoon doubles semifinals match against Juan Carlos Manuel Aguilar of Bolivia and Felipe Meligeni Rodrigues Alves of Brazil was the ultimate testament to Pochter’s calm demeanor.

The doubles teams battled to a 4-4 tie in the first set on the way to a 6-4 Oliel/Bergs win.

In the second set, Oliel and Bergs’ 3-2 lead faded as their opponents battled back to a 6-6 tie, and crushed Oliel and Bergs 7-1 in the tiebreaker.

Pochter never flinched. Even trailing in the 10-point super tiebreaker 5-0, then 6-0, then 7-0, Pochter’s only response was a reassuring, “Fight ’til the end.” The end was near.

Aguilar and Alves won 10-2 to advance to the finals. Oliel, who won this year’s Roland Garros junior doubles title in June, left New York for Israel late Saturday night.

Pochter was doing double duty at this year’s US Open.

He also filled in for coach Tzipi Obziler. Oblizer was unable to coach Israeli junior girls’ player, Shelly Krolitzky through her two doubles qualifying matches and her US Open main draw singles and doubles matches.

Krolitzky returned to Israel on Friday.

For a coach, tournaments like the US Open are learning opportunities.

“The tournament was a good experience for Yshai,” said Pochter. “I think he learned that he needs to get stronger physically and mentally and to improve all parts of his game. If he does, he has a chance to become a very good player. We look forward to him playing on the professional level. I think he can do it.”

Pochter was impressed with Yshai’s performance and partially credits the Israeli and Jewish crowd who consistently filled the stands.

“The US Open is one of the best places to play. The atmosphere is amazing.”

Oliel, the tall, hard hitting left-hander with solid ground strokes and serve, showed the New York crowd how much potential he has.

Unlike the biblical Samson, who lost his strength after his hair was cut, Oliel seems to get only stronger post coiffing.

And Yshai’s motives for cutting his signature long hair were more earnest than in the Samson story.

“I cut it because one of my sister’s told me it is too long and I need to be more like a man. I donated it for children with cancer,” said Oliel.

Yshai is the youngest of five Oliel children.

While coach Pochter may have some specific areas for Oliel to focus on, he is not likely to address an area in need of improvement which was very obvious to members of the media. The sweet, modest player of humble roots could use some media training.

After he took out No. 2 seed and spoke to The Jerusalem Post and Haaretz journalists, another four writers, including US Open staff reporters, requested a press conference.

While Oliel was pleasant and cooperative, and his English was quite good, he didn’t have much to offer. He answered all questions, but didn’t elaborate, share or come across as full of life and great stories.

A trusted writer colleague present at the interview shared: “He could use some media coaching.”

Oliel will likely continue on a path of tennis success and will represent Israel tennis and Israel in many venues around the world.

The David Squad, ITA and various top coaches are working on his game.

I would love to see English speakers with media training reach out to Yshai and volunteer to help him get to the next level.”

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Original Article Published at The Jerusalem post

This year’s US Open attracted more than 30,000 fans each day of the two-week tournament. And any time a Jewish or Israeli fan saw “ISR” next to a player’s name, they raced to the court to watch players like Dudi Sela, Yshai Oliel and Shelly Krolitzky. The same is true when such Israeli players as Shahar Pe’er, Julia Glushko and Amir Weintraub are in action.

Perhaps more significant is the fact that hundreds of non-Jewish, non-Israeli fans also watch Israel tennis players in action each year at the US Open and at dozens of other tennis tournaments around the world.

Israeli tennis players are excellent emissaries for Israel and can do amazing things for Israeli hasbara (public relations).

The Israeli tennis establishment can take a lesson from the Jewish Agency Shlichim (the Hebrew word for emissaries) program. In some ways, they are already doing a great job sending tennis ambassadors around the world. There is more work to do and some pretty easy solutions.

The Jewish Agency does a great job screening and training post-army (and in some cases, pre-army) young men and women to serve Jewish communities, camps and schools. They bring the multi-faceted people, cultures and stories of Israel and Israelis to these various communities.

The Israel tennis establishment, consisting primarily of the Israel Tennis Association, Israel Tennis Centers and the David Squad is blessed with a talented group of well-liked and well-spoken professional and amateur players of all ages who travel the world.

While their primary job is to play tennis, they represent Israel in tournaments around the world.

The Israel Tennis Centers sends a delegation of young players several times a year to exhibitions in various communities across the United States.

The group tends to reflect the diversity of Israel and Israel Tennis Centers, including players who are Ethiopian, Israeli Arab, Bedouin, people with disabilities, and children from poor backgrounds.

These groups help people better understand the many faces and stories of Israel. It is important to keep these emissaries – professional and amateur – trained and ready to speak about Israel.

There is an untapped group of tennis players from around the world who our Israel tennis establishment, Ministry of Culture and Sport and Ministry of Tourism, should also nurture as tennis ambassadors.

The more foreign tennis players have a positive experience with Israelis and Israel, the more Israel stands to make progress on the PR front.

Last February, I spent four days in Eilat covering the Fed Cup Group I Europe/Africa Zone event which included teams from 14 countries.

In Eilat, players from all countries as well as coaches, umpires and members of the media stayed in the same hotel and ate all their meals together. I interviewed many top 100 players, coaches and ITF (International Tennis Federation) staff.

I wanted to find out about their experience in Israel and with Israelis. All loved Israel but wished their busy travel and playing schedules would allow more opportunities to explore the beautiful, historically significant country of Israel.

Shlomo Glickstein, the CEO of the Israel Tennis Association and former 22nd ranked player in the world, observed that “it is very important for Israel to host such competitions and we love to host large events. It attracts sponsors, media and role models for our young players.”

These players return to their countries as great spokespeople for Israel.

Israel has an unprecedented opportunity to use tennis to teach the world about all the Holy Land has to offer. Israeli players should be coached and trained in hasbara, and players who come to Israel for tournaments should be wined and dined.

If they can’t get to see Israel, they should at least return with gift baskets stuffed with “I Love Israel” shirts, IDF hats, and such Israeli products as Ahava, Bisli and Naot.

Tennis players know all about love from the tennis scoring system. Wouldn’t it be nice if players also love Israel and spread that love around the world?

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Original Article Published at The Jerusalem Post

Shelly Krolitzky’s dream run in New York came to an end on Wednesday in the second round of the junior girls’ singles at the US Open.

After winning two matches in the qualifiers and coming through the first round of the main draw, the 17-year-old Israeli was stopped by No. 5 seed Kayla Day of the USA, losing 6-4, 6-3.

Despite being ranked 70 places below her opponent, Krolitzky gave Day a real run for her money before succumbing after one hour and 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, Yshai Oliel has a script for winning matches in the junior boys’ tournament: Go down a set, easily win the second and fight with all of his might in the third set to win the match.

Oliel battled Alex De Minaur of Australia, the tournament’s second seed, on a cloudy Flushing Meadows morning with wind gusts up to 30 MPH.

De Minaur took the first set 6-4. Oliel easily won the second 6-2. In the decisive hour long third set, Oliel fended off match point, rallied to 6-6 and won 7-2 in the tie breaker.

Oliel surely noticed the wind but did not change his strokes to compensate.

“It was hard to play in the wind, but I am happy I didn’t focus on it. If I focused on it, I wouldn’t be able to do anything,” he told The Jerusalem Post.

The usually modest, soft-spoken Oliel was proud of his victory. “I deserved to win. I wanted to win more than him.”

Oliel’s mental toughness helped him defeat the recent boys’ Wimbledon singles’ finalist, even when he was trailing.

“I was down 4-1 then 5-2 in the first set and had a chance to come back to 5-all but my serve was no good. He broke me and then I started fighting and kept fighting. I told myself to keep fighting and try my best and it will be fine.”

Coach Jan Pochter offered similar advice from the stands. “I heard him say to keep fighting, try to be aggressive. Try your best.”

The fight paid off. Oliel moves on to the third round and faces 13th seed Nicola Kuhn of Spain.

Oliel’s usual script changed somewhat unexpectedly at the end of the match. Ordinarily, Oliel returns to the locker room to shower and eat.

On Tuesday, admiring fans cheered and asked Oliel to sign autographs and pose for selfies. Members of the media requested two separate press conferences.

And Oliel learned that his doubles match with partner Zizou Bergs of Belgian was unexpectedly moved earlier due to a walkover in the previous match.

Following a slight rain delay, Oliel and Bergs easily defeated No. 8 seeds Eduard Guell Bartrina of Spain and Genaro Alberto Olivieri of Argentina 6-2, 6-2 in 52 minutes. They faced the American doubles team of Oliver Crawford and Patrick Kypson on Wednesday.

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