Proud Jewish Canadian Zionist Hockey Advocacy

Howdy, Shalom and Good Day, Bobs and Betties. Our international junior hockey championships are taking place right now in Canada, and many proud members of our Jewish community are or have been excellent hockey players and avid hockey fans, even in Israel!

Disclosure: I wear my Team Canada hockey jersey with a Team Canada hat and my Sherwood hockey stick EVERY Halloween by popular demand to shell out candy to the neighborhood kids. I call out “Car!” to replicate our childhood road hockey games in our old neighborhood in Dundas, Ontario. The Hebrew school kids are awesome hockey players, and so were my family members. When we sold our family home in 2006, I looked wistfully at the slapshot marks on the basement walls where my brother and I practiced our shots.

The kids love it, and so do our apartment building superintendents, who use me as Miss Team Canada to help socialize some of our new immigrant kids and diverse families to our Canadian values and culture most happily.

I spent most of the evening kibbitzing and eating candy on the lobby couch in the ‘penalty box’ which is probably where I belong. (No smart remarks! Wear a poppy for Remembrance Day!) Don’t mess with our smart and sassy Jewish kids! My face is still young and pretty and I still have all my own teeth! My name is Joanne Cohen.  And I. Am. Canadian. So there!

But anyhow, let’s kick things off with an archival version of the iconic Hockey Night In Canada theme written by Dolores Claman which many in my generation grew up with. Hit it! It makes me feel fit and intrepid, young and courageous and Canadian, almost like a breakfast cereal commercial. My elbows are UP! How about you?

For our international hockey fans, here are some details of the IIHF International Hockey Championships taking place right now and soon to be held in Alberta:

https://www.hockeycanada.ca/en-ca/home

Also, CBC has recently forfeited the rights to broadcast NHL games as Hockey Night In Canada, but they are featuring the growing PWHL (Professional Women’s Hockey League) on Saturday evenings, with an impressive roster of commentators. My kind of gals! (Smirk.) Here are some details:

https://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/pwhl/hockey-night-in-canada-pwhl-broadcast-team-9.7419253

But anyhow, while we were hanging out on Halloween night, I ‘casually’ mentioned to my neighbors at our impromptu Halloween party that I do have an impressive collection of hockey jerseys and t-shirts from Team Israel and from Israel’s own IEHL International Elite Hockey League, including a hockey jersey with the iconic State of Israel Coat of Arms and Knesset Menorah. I explained the names of many of the regional teams like the Haifa Mariners and Jerusalem Capitals.

The IEHL has recently played exhibition games in New York featuring the arch-rival Jerusalem Capitals and Tel Aviv Hockey Club. They wanted to mount a series in Toronto but had to cancel because they could not reasonably ensure adequate security for the facility, fans, and players. Sign of the times in Canaduh, eh?  Another embarrassment for Canada.

Follow the Israeli hockey teams here online and on Instagram:

https://israelhockey.org/

https://www.instagram.com/theiehl/?hl=en

Recently our Canadian PM has made remarks confirming that Team Russia will not be allowed to participate in the upcoming world junior hockey championships to be held in Alberta this December. God only knows what he might have said if Team Israel was in the running. I think we know.

https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/canadian-prime-minister-mark-carney-230722518.html?guccounter=1

Personally, I think that these empty virtue signaling protests and boycotts against entire countries and their players who often have nothing to do with politics are a discredit to Canada and rather an embarrassment. They prove nothing. Other hockey federations have also protested the October 30 decision by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruling that Russia should be allowed to return to IIHF sanctioned games and championships.

I know mine is likely to be a minority opinion, whatever Wayne Gretzky may say, but I am not moved by jingoistic boycott movements of any kind, and see no reason why promising young players (who are often later recruited to NHL teams in Canada) should have their careers negatively affected by these politicized and posturing decisions. They do not make us any more Canadian. It almost makes it look like we and other teams are afraid to compete. We grew up with exciting Canada-Russia games despite our political differences. We should have them again. And some of their players might ‘defect’! Another PR boost for democracy and a potential international hockey talent boost for Canada. Take that, Mr. Ovechkin! And Mr. Putin, while we’re at it!

We have many Russian Canadians in Canada who claim their Russian heritage proudly (and also in Israel) and they have nothing to do with the decisions of Vladimir Putin. There are many other ethnic and national communities in Canada who are allowed to celebrate their cultures and origins and athletes with pride and this makes them no less Canadian. Just watch our leading steamy and gay positive Canadian TV series “Heated Rivalry” if you don’t believe me.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt35495073/

As Jewish Canadians in support of Israel who have often been marginalized in our Canadian society and intimidated from our lawful purposes and threatened with exclusion and boycotts and hate crimes merely for displaying Israeli flags, we should know better than these goon squad tactics that are more reminiscent of adolescent bullies rather than civilized societies and sportsmanship. These are the same yobs who boo the national anthems of other countries. Shame on them.

That’s my opinion. And I’m sticking to it. With my Sherwood Hockey Stick.

Ciao for now and Lehitraot! Am Yisrael Chai. We send our love from Canada.