Changing the face of Israel – one new immigrant at a time

I was reminded of the potential of each new immigrant when I attended the World Lacrosse Championship in Netanya last week.

By DOV LIPMAN
New immigrants from North America, including some 70 who will serve in the IDF, pose for a group picture upon landing in Israel on a special flight organized by Nefesh B’Nefesh (photo credit: BAZ RATNER/REUTERS)
New immigrants from North America, including some 70 who will serve in the IDF, pose for a group picture upon landing in Israel on a special flight organized by Nefesh B’Nefesh
(photo credit: BAZ RATNER/REUTERS)
Watching the 232 new immigrants from North America, including 127 children, come off their Nefesh B’Nefesh flight on Wednesday, I couldn’t help but wonder about the incredible contribution this group could make to Israel’s development. Immigrants from North America have proven time and again that they have the ability, determination and zeal to make significant contributions to Israel’s story. I have no doubt that following their initial acclimation to life in Israel, this group too will make its influence felt.
I was reminded of the potential of each new immigrant when I attended the World Lacrosse Championship in Netanya last week. Teams representing 46 countries – including Russia, Turkey, and China – came to Israel to compete in this tournament. Talk about Israel being on the map.
The 2,000 players, coaches and support staff for each of these teams and the 5,000 fans from around the world had a spectacular experience, and many went home with a new and positive perspective on Israel. Many of the games were broadcast on ESPN, showing hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of lacrosse fans around the world a side of Israel they had never seen before.
And all of this happened because of one American immigrant.
Scott Neiss, from Long Island, New York, came to Israel on a Birthright trip in 2011, fell in love with the country, and even before making aliyah, worked to establish the Israel Lacrosse Association. He began by cold-calling Bill Beroza, a Hall of Fame lacrosse goalie, and asked if he would be interested in coaching an Israeli lacrosse team. “You don’t need a coach, you need a shrink,” Beroza replied, understandably, as he was being asked to coach a team with no players, no equipment and no infrastructure.
But that didn’t stop Scott.
He contacted the governing body, the Federation of International Lacrosse, to ask about membership requirements. At that time, the federation was trying to get lacrosse accepted as an Olympic medal event and needed more countries to sign up. So it gave Israel, with a non-existent program, an associate membership and an equipment grant.
WITH THE HELP of others who heard about his initiative, Scott raised $20,000 for a pilot program to teach lacrosse to as many Israeli children as possible during a one-month blitz, culminating in an exhibition game. Some 400 fans came to see the match between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv in August 2011, and from that point on the program soared. Traffic on the Israel Lacrosse website quadrupled, and a national team was put together.
The Israeli squad, made up of novices, made it to the quarterfinals of the 2012 European Championship. Those players returned to Israel and began visiting schools to teach the sport. The Israeli team came in seventh at the World Championship in 2014, and won the silver medal at the 2016 European Championship.
Scott founded the Israel Premier Lacrosse League, which includes teams from eight cities. The Israel Lacrosse Association has hundreds of Israeli youth under its umbrella, and Jewish players from all over the world come to Israel for a lacrosse winter break, for a one-month summer internship, and to play in the Premier League.
Teams from around the world also come to Israel to compete in friendly matches unrelated to tournaments. In 2013, a team from Turkey came to play against the Jerusalem Lacrosse Club, and while in Israel they visited Yad Vashem, the Western Wall, Masada and the Dead Sea, attended a Shabbat service and a dinner with their Israeli rivals, and coached youth players from Ashkelon.
The crown jewel of the project was the World Championships held in Netanya last week, the first time in the event’s five decades that it was hosted outside the United States, Canada, England or Australia.
Aside from the benefits of providing Israeli youth with a spectacular outlet and the positive promotion which lacrosse is now providing for Israel worldwide, the sport that Scott imported is also providing positive interaction between Jewish and non-Jewish Israelis. For example, a large percentage of the players in the Beersheba Lacrosse Club come from Hura, a neighboring Bedouin village. Half of the youth teams in Tel-Aviv-Yaffo are Arab. Quite remarkably, Rakan Aboneaaj, an American-Israeli-Arab who self-identifies as Palestinian, played for the Israeli 2016 under-19 men’s national team.
Nefesh B’Nefesh fittingly awarded Scott the Sylvan Adams Bonei Zion Award for youth leadership in 2017. He is proof that one new immigrant can truly change the face of our country. I look forward to seeing the contributions that will be made by this year’s olim and encourage all English speakers who have moved to Israel to be courageous and be the source of the change that they want to see in our incredible country.
The writer immigrated to Israel via Nefesh B’Nefesh in 2004 and served as a member of the 19th Knesset.