It's Been Over a Month... Baseball in Israel

That sound of silence on my blog after the High Holidays should not be mistaken for lack of activity.  In fact, I am having a hard time remembering a period of time so active in our congregation.  Here's a quick sample (in no particular order):

* Temple Emanuel held its Third Jewish Festival.  Thousands from our area attended.  Yashar koach and Todah Rabbah to the 500+ volunteers who made this possible.

* Yevgeny Kutik performed a beautiful concert, the proceeds of which benefitted our local March of the Living scholarship fund.  You can view clips from his performance on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=429RWS0t1QM AND http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6H35n9PQTw)

* Tal Becker delivered a talk about the changing landscape in the Middle East and its implications for Israel.  This event, sponsored by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), was a showcase of pro-Israel activism and concern from our congregation and community.

* Speaking of AIPAC, I recently took three students from our area to Washington for AIPAC's annual High School Summit.  While in DC, they learned about the importance of the US-Israel relationship.  They also went to the office of Representative Brad Miller where they spoke with Ashely Orr, one of Representative Miller's Legislative Assistants about supporting the Foreign Aid bill, increasing sanctions on Iran to impede their nuclear ambitions, and standing by Israel by supporting calls for direct negotiations (instead of appeals to the UN).

* LGBT Shabbat which featured a talk by Joanna Blotner of the Human Rights Campaign as well as music from Noteworthy (a sub-group of the Triad Men's Choir).

* Local candidates for Greensboro Mayor and District 4 representative to City Council appeared at our Candidates Forum in advance of our recent elections.

* A successful launch of our second year of Melton adult mini-school classes in Greensboro.

* Pet-A-Palooza - a Sunday morning gathering in our outdoor chapel as we held our morning Religious School assembly and blessed our pets.  We did this on the Sunday morning immediately following Shabbat Noach, the Shabbat when the weekly reading includes the story of Noah's Ark.

I am sure that I am missing many things on this list.  Suffice it to say, we have been a beehive of meaningful and engaging Jewish activities.  What a blessing!

I will conclude this posting with a piece that I saw from the Forward:

Jewish Players Aim to Boost Israel Baseball Team

You can view the article here: http://forward.com/articles/146099/ or below where I have posted it in its entirety:

 

Three Jewish former major leaguers will help Israel field a competitive team in next year’s World Baseball Classic.

Shawn Green, Brad Ausmus and Gabe Kapler met this week in Los Angeles with Israeli baseball officials and promised to help out, the players told The Associated Press.

 

It is unclear whether any of the three would play for Israel themselves, the A.P. reported, though Green said that he would help “in any capacity.”

 

“If I felt like that was a role that the team needed, I would prepare for it…,” he told the A.P., adding: “I feel a strong connection to Israel and it would be an honor to put on the uniform.”

 

Peter Kurz, the Israel Association of Baseball’s secretary-general, told the A.P. that one of the three former ballplayers will likely be the Israeli team’s manager, and that all of them will help with coaching, recruiting and fundraising.

 

Israel will be one of 16 countries invited to play in next year’s qualifying round, and the top four teams advance to the 2013 World Baseball Classic.

 

“Today, the idea of bridging the gap between the generations of American/Jewish baseball fans and baseball fans in Israel is an enticing prospect,” Ausmus wrote in an e-mail cited by the A.P. “Hopefully, this is the beginning of renewed and long interest in baseball in Israel.”