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JNF aims to turn Israel baseball
diamonds from rough to ready.

WINTER
CLOSEOUT SALE !!

FROM 10-4

Rachel Tepper
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

7421 Orchard lake Rd - West Btoomfiekt. MicKgrm 48322

Jerusalem

p

eople historically have associ-
ated the Jewish National Fund
with planting trees in Israel.
Now the century-old charity is also
working to make sure that Israelis will
have decent places to put good wood
on the ball.
The organization's latest venture,
Project Baseball, aims to develop base-
ball facilities in Israel for the country's
nearly 2,300 amateur players.
Baseball has seen a rise in populari-
ty in the State of Israel, but inadequate
and unmaintained facilities have ham-
pered its progress.
"People really love it," said JNF
spokeswoman Jodi Bodner, who
described baseball as "great team
sport" and credited its recent spike
in popularity to the fact that it offers
Israelis "a different kind of recreation:'
With funds raised by Project Baseball,
JNF has helped refurbish several fields
across the country. Work is under way
on a state-of-the-art sports park in
Kibbutz Gezer, north of Jerusalem.
JNF also recently completed work
on Sportek Field just outside Tel Aviv,
which hosted the 2009 Maccabiah
Games baseball competition.
Baseball was introduced to the Holy
Land in 1927, when the governess of a
Jerusalem orphanage tried to engage
her children in a game. According to
popular accounts, the sport was so
alien to the children that they dropped
the baseballs to the ground and kicked
them like soccer balls.
It wasn't until five decades later, in
1979, that the first true Israeli base-
ball field was erected. The sport has
found a strong base in Jerusalem,
where hundreds of residents — adults
and children — take part in league
play. However, the city has only one
baseball field and it's in poor condi-
tion, devoid of grass and covered with
rocks, dust and thorns.
Other fields in Israel face similar
problems. Baseball is regularly played in
Bet Shemesh, but the town's lone field is
constructed on a slope, forcing players
to run uphill to first base. A field in Tel
Aviv is not equipped with lights, forcing

Israeli children play baseball, a game

becoming increasingly popular in their

country, on JNF fields.

play to end at dusk. The cities of Haifa,
Beersheba and Tiberias also boast play-
ers but no fields on which to play.
Inadequate facilities have not been
baseball's only obstacle. Project Baseball,
though now a solo effort by JNF, at one
point was working in conjunction with
the Israel Baseball League. The profes-
sional league's only season came in 2007,
attracting players from the United States,
Canada, Venezuela, the Dominican
Republic, Australia, Europe and Israel.
Financial difficulties struck out the
2008 season, and the league's front
man, David Solomont, is facing legal
challenges. Solomont filed for Chapter
11 bankruptcy in April, accord-
ing to papers submitted to the U.S.
Bankruptcy Court in Boston.
Despite the hiccup, Project Baseball
is working toward advancing Israeli
baseball. The JNF says its motivation
stems from the belief that baseball is
more than just a game.
In 2005, the Israel Association of
Baseball hosted a clinic for 80 Israeli-
Arab and Jewish students, teaching
them the game's basics and then having
a game on a Tel Aviv field. According to
JNF's Web site, "the setting of a baseball
field gave them a rare opportunity to
interact and work together."
Instances of cooperation and unity,
JNF says, are what make baseball a
unique fit for the land of Israel.
Bodner says there is a need for the
diamond game there.
"We see a need," she said of JNF,
and we try to go fill it:'

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I

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''`
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Michael A. Jonas Photography 248.647.5060
www.jonasphoto.com

December 10 - 2009

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