Some 300 religious and ultra-Orthodox ice hockey enthusiasts from across Israel travel all the way to Metula twice a month to play their favorite game
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Every Thursday evening they take off their kippah and put on a helmet, replace their daily clothes with hockey uniform and go on the ice rink at the Canada Center in Metula.
They are 300 religious and ultra-Orthodox men from across Israel who decided to establish an ice hockey league of their own, after discovering that the national league holds its games only on Fridays.
Danny Spodak, who made aliyah to Israel from Canada several years ago, was hoping to be able to continue playing his favorite sport in the Holy Land. “I’m an ice hockey fanatic. Unfortunately, when I started inquiring about ice hockey in the country I found out that the local league hold its games on Friday,” he said. “Because we’re religious, we couldn’t participate.”
But Spodak did not give up and decided to form a group of religious amateur players that would play hockey on Thursdays. “It started out with very few people. People took out gear that had been stored up in their attic for years.
“Gradually more and more people joined, and now we have some 300 members in our league,” Spodak stated proudly.
The players use the internet to coordinate rides from all over the country, and once every two weeks drive up to the northern town to play.
According to Spodak, a lot of the players grew up in the United States and Canada, where ice hockey is practically a national sport. “This was part of our culture, so we decided not to give it up. This isn’t a professional league, and people don’t play for the medals but for sports. We play for fun. During the game we feel like we’re abroad.”
Kol Hakovod to the participants in this program since it provides a positive outlet and good excerise for frumme yidden who might not otherwise participate in organized sports. There is also a women’s group forming that will play at the same location on another night so if you are interested you might wish to contact the Canada Center directly. Frumme women need this type of activity as much as men. Right now, they only have basketball and soccer leagues for women so having a hocky league for frumme women would be a real kiddush hashem
Do Russian frumers join in with this?
and we thought we sent our boys to learn 🙂
same goes on in brooklyn every thursday night, http://www.thejhl.com
This is so awesome to hear. I used to play ice hockey, love the sport. I have Much support for our brethren back home in their new and exciting venture. Maybe one day when I make aliya. G-d Willing, if the league is still on I’ll join.
In Montreal we also have a group of religious men who play hockey weekly. They recently used this game to raise money for an organization.
My husband is one of the guys who go and we were up there for the tournament late last month. It was a lot of fun. The people are wonderful and really span the globe. Kol Hakavod to Danny for pulling it off… I just wish it was not a 8 hour ordeal of a trek for my husband to play an hour of hockey.