Day 9: Tel Aviv

Great day in Tel Aviv! OK, slow start at the Diaspora Museum, but great shopping at the Carmel Market afterward. The boys showed off their bargaining skills in the Jewish shuk, so be prepared for lovely gifts from Eretz Yisrael. Scavenger Hunt followed, "the Great Race" leading teams of a dozen kids around the streets of Tel Aviv. Lots of walking eating drinking talking laughing. Finished at Maccabi national center in Ramat Gan (Tel Aviv suburb) for dinner and grinding, er, dancing. Many of the delegations flew home tonight--we are staying an extra day and Alex Sachs, our fearless Delegation Head, scored us a private bus trip to...MASADA & the DEAD SEA!!! Kids are totally psyched, as the entire Maccabi group was originally traveling down to the lowest point on earth, but the trip was scuttled. Somehow it is back on for about 4 delegations, including ours. We'll leave the Dead Sea, shower, eat at Burger Ranch, and head straight to the airport....

Day 8: The Road to Jerusalem

Day started in Latrun, a site of bitter fighting in both the war of independence and the Six Day War. The IDF (Israel Defense Force) has turned the old British prison/fort into a museum honoring the armored corps, i.e. tanks. The Ayalon Institute was the next stop: during and just after World War II, Jews manufactured bullets literally underground, under the cover of a laundry located on a kibbutz. Third up was a tremendous experience: doing actual archaelogical research digging up pottery from the time of the Maccabees (100 B.C.E., or 2,100 years ago). We discovered scores of shards, many of them rather sizable. We also did some spelunking, walking and crawling through a lengthy cave system lit by candles. In the evening, we went to "Mini-Israel," a sort of theme park in the shape of Israel with models of prominent cities and sites. Kids ate dinner there and watched a Cirque du Soleil-style show. Full day!

Day 7: Jerusalem

Terrific day of touring in the City of Gold! First stop was Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum. Powerful learning experience for everybody. Afterward we walked up the hill to the top of Mount Herzl, where dozens of former leaders of Israel and thousands of soldiers are buried.

Next stop was a super cool tour of the Western Wall tunnels, which we thoroughly enjoyed. Afterward we emerged to the plaza of the "Kotel," the Western Wall. Many of the guys put on tefillin for the first time (courtesy of the Chabad men standing near the Wall with tefillin, prayer books, and the like), and all prayed at the Wall. After leaving the Kotel, we walked through the Jewish Quarter learning about interesting sites from our guide Lital, who gave us a well needed break for chotchkis and shwarma.

In the evening, we had a big picnic in Independence Day Park and walked back to the Old City for a laser-light show at King David's Tower. Yerushalayim Shel Zahav!

Day 6: Bronze medal winners!

Great day to be from Phoenix!!!
The 1,500 Maccabi athletes arrived at Hebrew University in Jerusalem from far-flung corners of Israel. Our boys and girls had spent two nights with host families in Ashkelon, about an hour from the capital. After unloading the buses, the kids put their belongings in a baggage area and headed toward the stadium with one soccer field inside a big track and field track.
In our bronze medal game against Columbus, Ohio, we started well by playing great defense and controlling the ball. About 12 minutes in, Brett saw an opportunity to push up into the attack: he took possession at mid-field, passed ahead to Gino, kept running toward goal, received a perfect pass back, and curled a clinical finish around a diving keeper. 1-0.
In the game's last 15 minutes, Gino added two terrific goals to make it 3-0. Final goal tallies: Gino 6, JZ 2, Brett 2. Aaron played 5.5 quarters in goal and only let in 6 goals, which is phenomenal for his first games ever as a keeper! He has definitely found his calling.
After our game we cheered on Scotty Levine in tennis (lost in a tie-breaker but still won the silver medal) and the 15-and-under boys basketball team, which won a truly epic rematch with Boca Raton. With our soccer boys cheering and chanting non-stop for an hour and a half, Phoenix won the overtime thriller by ONE POINT to remain undefeated and take the gold.
THEN, enjoyed a fantastic closing ceremonies, replete with montages of highlights from the week and live performances from the Arts Fest participants. Excellent singing and dancing, with a special appearance from the hot new a capella singing group "The Maccabeats." Crowd sang along with many of the hits.
Finally, drove in buses to our youth hostel/hotel in Jerusalem, where we'll stay the next four nights.
Great tournament, Phoenix! Now let's enjoy sight-seeing in the Holy Land....

Day 5, Shabbat Shalom!

No pics from our athletes, as they are down in Ashkelon staying with host families Friday and Saturday nights. Many of the coaches got some badly needed Rest & Relaxation at a hotel in Netanya, just 20 miles up the coast from Tel Aviv. Two weeks ago, a disgruntled Israeli set up a tent along a street in Tel Aviv and told Facebook friends he was protesting the high costs of apartments, food, and taxes that are burdening the middle class. Each day, more tents sprang up, and tonight, 30,000 Israelis (plus Coach Adamo, pictured above) marched and chanted in the streets. It was equal parts political action, street theatre, and Woodstock, with the most popular chant being:
"Ha'am, doresh, tzedek chevreti!" ("The people demand social justice.")
Among others, Doctors have gone on strike in the past week, protesting relatively low pay and long hours compared to doctors in Europe and especially the United States. (Example: a highly-trained radiologist in Tel Aviv might 70 hours a week for an annual base pay of $70,000 U.S. dollars, while he or she pays $1,000 a month to rent a 1-bedroom apartment. With the current salaries, it is extremely difficult to support a family and/or purchase a house.)
One major bone of contention: the "charedim" (extremely religious, orthodox Jews including chasidics) receive massive subsidies from the government to support their large families, while they are not required to serve in the Army or even to work. Several religious parties represent important swing votes in the Knesset, however, and thus they are able to maintain control over subsidies for families with numerous children, payments to orthodox men who wish to pray rather than have jobs, the ability of a woman to be granted a divorce ("get") so that she can escape an abusive marriage and/or remarry, and the growth of controversial settlements in West Bank areas with Biblical significance.

Day 4, Sharing & Caring

Friday morning, the Phoenix delegation went with 100 other Maccabians to an underfunded community center in Kiryat Shmona. Our kids and those from Denver and several other cities worked to beautify the center: weeding and removing rocks then planting flowers and small trees; creating benches from old tires, cement, and pottery shards; and painting four LARGE murals on walls that previously featured only flecked paint and rust stains. After working our tushes off, we returned to the Maccabi games hub and loaded buses bound for our 2-day home stays. Phoenix went to Ashkelon down south--we'll reconvene in Jerusalem Sunday, where highlights will include the 15U boys basketball team and Scott Levine in tennis playing for gold medals, and the 17U boys soccer squad going for a bronze.

Day 3: FANTASTIC win in quarters!

Phoenix beats the "Continental Team" of strong players from 9 US cities!

Defense led by Brett and Bryan, terrific goal keeping by Aaron, and great hustle by everyone kept it 0-0 until 6 minutes to go when the magic happened: Lorenzo passed up the sideline to Gino, who beat two defenders to the middle and ripped a left-footed shot for the game winner!

Next game: 0-0 at halftime against very strong Memphis team in the semi-finals, with Brett and Gino coming tantalizing close to scoring. We lose 0-2, but play in JERUSALEM Sunday for the bronze medal in the consolation bracket. Kids are psyched!

Heading to community service project ("Sharing and Caring") at 6:30 a.m. Friday, then to host families for two nights.....