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.

Yeshiva Beth Yehudah Special Edition NOVEMBER 3 • 2024 | 15
J
N

Alan Posner keeps a watchful eye 
on goalie Noam Gross as players 
battle in front of the net.

Noah Linkner 
brings the puck 
up the ice.

ROBERT BRUCE PHOTOGRAPHY

Winning team, Pastrami Penguins

