AUGUST 15 • 2024 | 31
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names. Ultimately, it was the
Hebruisers, Tefillin Tough Guys,
Edmonton Mohelers and Pastrami
Penguins that took to the ice.
To even the playing field, Lorkis
offered weekly classes to help
improve the skills of players, if
they wanted.
“I heard from many players who
were pretty new to hockey that
they would never have had the
confidence to say, ‘I’m going to
play ice hockey on a big league,’
but they felt comfortable saying,
‘I’m going to play a game and this
is just going to be a fun time,’”
Lorkis said.
After 10 weeks of league play
on Monday evenings, they hosted
the playoffs — and the Edmonton
Mohelers and the Pastrami
Penguins faced each other at the
championship.
About 50 people, mostly family
and friends of the players, were
in the stands enjoying the kosher
munchies that Partners supplied
as they watched the Pastrami
Penguins score their way to
victory.
According to Linkner, one of the
highlights was seeing how players
improved throughout the season.
“One guy, Zvi Hershberg, had

never really played before,” said
Linkner. “We were all sending
him videos on tips and giving
him tricks to help him score.
On Monday, at the consolation
game, while his whole family was
there watching, Zvi scored for
his first time! He was over the
moon, waving at everyone from
the ice. It was incredible to see his
transition! To be honest, seeing
that was much more important to
me than winning the trophy!”
Just like there were no
requirements about experience on
the ice in order to join the league,
there was likewise no minimum
requirement of Jewish knowledge
or practice in order to join —
as is the case with all Partners
programming.
“The entire goal of the league
was to have a fun, low-key space
to meet and make friends with
other Jews, and that goal was
met from week one,” Lorkis said.
“Friendships formed in both a
competitive and non-competitive
way, beginning from that first time
we met in the locker room.”
There was an incredible
camaraderie; the ice seemed to
link the players in a way that
nothing else could.

Although it wasn’t required,
some players did start turning up
at the famous Partners in Torah
Tuesday night learning program to
study Torah with their teammates.
“I like to joke that Avrumi and
Noam bought in all the Orthodox
guys and I bought in all the
secular ones,” laughed Linkner.
“But now I’m a lot closer to the
Orthodox guys who I didn’t even
know until the league! What’s nice
is that each week there’s more guys
from the league at the Partners
Tuesday night learning program.
One week, I saw one of the guys
at Partners and said, ‘I didn’t
know you did this!’ and he said,
‘I didn’t know you did it either!’
He’d signed up the day before after
hearing talk about it in the locker
room.”
Lorkis, Gross and Linkner now
laugh that they once worried about
finding enough players.
“It turns out that here in
Michigan, ice hockey is practically
its own religion!” Gross joked.
“So, we met a lot of Jews who were
playing lots of hockey but were not
involved in other programming.”
The league was successful
beyond what any of them had
dreamed and it earned rave
reviews from everyone involved.
“I thought we’d be using our
community to get more hockey
players, but it turned out we
used hockey to get people more
involved in the community. This
really metastasized into something
so much bigger than we imagined
and we couldn’t be happier about
it,” Linkner said.
“We’re definitely doing it again
next year, but none of us want
to wait that long,” Lorkis added.
“We’re hoping to start another
tournament right after Labor Day.
And we’re always looking for more
people to join!”

For more information, email Avrumi Lorkis at

alorkis@gmail.com or Noam Gross at ngross@

partnersdetroit.org.

Noah Linkner
brings the puck
up the ice.

ROBERT BRUCE PHOTOGRAPHY

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