Team Israel Hockey and My Zionist Sneaker Style
As a welcome respite from our usual security concerns, I wanted to pass along a few proud and sporty lifestyle and fashion tips from my real life experience as a proud but discreet and safety minded Canadian Zionist to warm things up in what is becoming Our Winter Of Discontent with rising hate crimes in Canada.
Growing up in my Hebrew dayschool, I was the first girl to break the gender barrier on our school playground to play sports with the boys in 1972, when modern feminism was growing and we regularly debated the equality of the sexes in our classrooms. It was an enlightened Orthodox dayschool.
I was the tallest kid in our class (and later in the whole school) so that was a plus. I was not terribly athletic but a reasonably coordinated tomboy and secretly in love with my cool classmate Ira in fourth grade, as were all the girls. So when Ira asked me to play baseball for his team in choosing up sides, naturally I said yes.
Later this included Canadian football with a pee-wee sized yellow and black Hamilton Tiger-Cats plastic football and then, floor hockey and dodge-ball (which we called Murderball – it was high stakes and is probably illegal now).
We had to overcome some resistance among some of the traditionally minded boys, but Ira was my coach, and insisted that I would be a great addition to the team. Ira liked to win, and I was his protégée! And then we won!
I still have the fondest memories of the first touchdown pass I threw to Ira in the end zone next to the shul after several unsuccessful tries. I also had to ask my parents for a baseball glove. I think they might have been happier if I had asked for a Barbie doll, but they went along with it, and my hockey stick, and so much more. God bless them.
Then all the girls started asking why I got to play with the boys and they didn’t. Some of them were also in love with Ira. We had some very enlightened and creative teachers who said it would be fine. This was the “Free To Be You And Me” feminist 1970s. The HHA girls today are still lively and athletic! And we all learned to bake chocolate cake together, in Metric measurements, when that came out.
We legislated gender equality on and off the playground. The teachers went along with it, and some of the boys (especially adorable Ira with his Beatle mop top hair) even tried jump-rope and Double Dutch, outdoing many of the girls, including me. We taught them all the skipping rhymes and songs.
Our rule was that the girls could play sports with the boys if they wanted to, and some very athletic rabbis’ daughters became much better players than me, to my great delight! Even our teachers and rabbis played against us!
This was a precursor to so much more in my life and spiritual and political journeys, including egalitarian traditional synagogues and human rights advocacy, but I didn’t know it then. Thank God for the HHA.
But, getting back to hockey culture. If you are Canadian or know Canadians, you probably know hockey. It’s our national game! This was also a key part of our lives and still is for many of us. My younger brother and I both had hockey sticks and worked out in our suburban basement when we weren’t playing road hockey down the street.
When we sold our family home I looked wistfully at the slap shot marks we had made on our basement walls. Even now, every Halloween I wear a Team Canada hockey jersey with a red Canada toque (winter beanie hat) with my carefully taped Sherwood hockey stick and call out ‘Car’ to shell out Halloween treats to the kids. It’s iconic. The kids love it and think of me as heroic!
Ira always had better sneakers than me. It was quite a proud moment for me when I graduated from striped canvas tennis shoes to real leather and suede striped Cougar and North Star sneakers made in Canada, and then to Adidas and other more exclusive brands. Back then, our school uniforms were blue and white, like the Israeli flags that flew outside our classroom windows. They still are! I still feel most at home in blue sweaters and blue jeans, or blue suits with white shirts, or navy blue sweatpants with Team Israel t-shirts for all sports.
Back then, our Ontario car license plates were blue and white and alternated each year between blue text on white background and white text on blue background. My 1968 CCM Supercycle bike with the banana seat and motorcycle handlebars was also Zionist blue and white. Naturally! One day in our family garage I had an idea. I would ALTERNATE my Zionist sneakers to match my gym shorts and school uniform and magic bicycle, just like our car license plates! Blue stripes on white shoes and white stripes on blue shoes!
I have revived this trend of Zionist blue and white sneakers! I invite you to join me in this trend, in any brand you like! They will match your Israeli flag and Team Israel jerseys (for those like me who wear them proudly, at least at home where it’s safer) and give a special ‘down low’ boost to your Jewish pride and confidence and also to your pro-Israel advocacy or any activity in times like these when many of us are cautious about personal safety or looking visibly Jewish out in the community.
Trust me, it works! You will feel intrepid and connected to Israel and the Jewish people with every step you take, wherever you go! True, many people do wear blue and white sneakers for other reasons, but this will be our little secret. Ask carefully to ensure your sneakerhead friends are genuine Zionists. Great for Hillels and Hebrew schools everywhere! And it all started in Hamilton!
Getting back to Team Israel sports culture (and trust me, you Israelis are generally far more fit than most Canadians), I revived this Zionist sneaker trend in Canada with Team Israel jerseys during the last Summer Olympics and added the fundraising challenge to support Leket Israel (Israel’s National Food Bank) with additional donations for each Israeli medal won. Join us, won’t you? https://www.leket.org/en/about-leket/
It was fun and wonderful to cheer Team Israel online on Facebook’s Follow Team Israel page with so many Jewish fans from around the world. Some of us cried! While Israel is not necessarily a medal contender in many sports for the upcoming Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy, I will be cheering on Team Israel’s athletes, especially the figure skaters, and hope you will too. Join us here: https://www.facebook.com/FollowTeamIsrael/
I am extremely excited about the upcoming debut of Team Israel’s IEHL Israel Elite Hockey League Canada Challenge Cup match between The Jerusalem Capitals and Tel Aviv Hockey Club to be held in Toronto’s Coca Cola Coliseum on February 24, just after their US Challenge Cup match to be held in New York City on February 22. Follow them here. https://www.facebook.com/IsraelNationalHockeySociety/
I have been spreading the word to friends, complete with Israeli pop songs celebrating the cities of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, and adore my IEHL Team Israel gear. Go to https://theiehl.com/ for details or look them up on Instagram or Israel National Hockey Society on Facebook. Go teams go! B’hatzlacha!
