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Last update - 10:47 30/07/2008 Holocaust, history and hoops By Teddy Weinberger Tags: Rebecca Ross, Basketball  My daughter Rebecca Ross is a member of Israel's Under-20 national basketball team. This year, the European championships were held in Poznan, a city in western Poland, between July 11-20. My maternal grandparents were both born in eastern Poland, and they immigrated to America at the beginning of the 20th century; family members who remained behind were killed in the Holocaust. My first trip to Poland, however, was destined not to be either a roots trip or a Holocaust-related trip. I was going to Poland's fifth largest city - with a population of about 600,000 - my daughter, Rebecca Ross, play basketball at the European Championships for the Israeli national under-20 team earlier this month. Clearly, one cannot overlook the past in a trip to Poland, and so Rebecca and her teammates, after flying to Warsaw, spent several hours in that city, visiting Ghetto-related sites before boarding their plane to Poznan. Advertisement Rebecca, the only non-native born Israeli on the team, acted as translator for the English-speaking tour guide. This was her second time in Warsaw, the first having come toward the end of a 12th-grade trip to the concentration camps. This time, she says, "I was not filled with pain at what the Jews experienced or hatred for our enemies, but I was more interested in the historical details of exactly what happened." The girls on the team didn't think it unusual to mix Holocaust history with basketball; as Mor Saida put it: "We are representing the country, and this is part of our history." Poznan is a jewel of a city. On the one hand it has several exquisitely ornate Baroque churches, as well as a traditional Old Town square, complete with a pair of mechanical goats who butt horns each day at noon on the clock tower. On the other hand, it hosts World Cup competitions in canoeing, kayaking, and rowing on Malta Lake, and its impressive "Old Brewery" mall won the top award this year for European shopping centers and is a favorite to win the world title in December. I was also delighted to learn that English is Poland's second language: signs in Poznan's large art museum are in Polish and English, as are restaurant menus, and even the announcements in my hotel's elevator were in English and Polish. But just remember that Poland was freed from the Soviet Union in 1989; so unless you also speak Russian, don't expect to do a lot of communicating with Polish people who are over 35. Of course, it's tempting to walk around Poland and think about what would have happened to you during World War II, to eye anyone over 80 with suspicion, and to look around for hiding places - just in case. One's mind can't help playing games, such as when I happened to find myself riding a tram illegally (only after I boarded did I find out that payment had to be made beforehand). As I watched my fellow passengers dutifully stamp their own tickets in the self-service machines on the tram, I have to confess that the thought did occur to me: if I am caught without a ticket, will they take me out and shoot me on the spot? But I have to admit that these are just games that a Jew plays in contemporary Poland, and frankly these games have no basis in today's reality. Israel has full diplomatic relations with Poland and is constantly looking to upgrade its economic and cultural ties with Poland. So does it really make sense to view all Polish people as latent anti-Semites? I prefer the attitude of Huki Nir, an Israeli sports agent in attendance at the Poznan championships. Born in Germany in 1946 to two Polish parents - his mother lost a brother and father in the Holocaust, and his father lost both parents as well as eleven siblings - Huki told me, "I know the history and one shouldn't forget what happened, but it's history. It's a different world today." One win in seven The basketball games themselves were held in Tarnowo Podgorne, a small neighboring town outside of Poznan. For some reason, Polish authorities did not view the championships as an opportunity to expose their youth to quality international basketball and attendance was sparse. Apart from the Polish team, only the Dutch team brought a significant number of fans; of the remaining eight teams, Israel, with six parents was more than fairly represented. The Israeli team traveled with two undercover security men who combed the gym for suspicious objects and who each stationed themselves at one of the gym's entrances during games and practices. Joanna Kedziora, a 21-year-old university student from Poznan, who was working as one of the scorekeepers, told me that all the locals found it strange to see security men with the Israeli team. "I can tell you that this is the first time that security men have been to Tarnowo Podgorne," she said. "Why are they here?" Joanna asked me, and I told her of the dangers facing any official group from Israel. When she persisted and asked whether two security men could stop a terrorist attack, I gave her a short lesson about the security calculus (concerning low risks and high risks and general threats versus specific threats) that comes as second nature to all Israelis. The first game I saw was the only one - of seven - that Israel won in the tournament, beating Portugal 57-56. Before the game, each of the players was introduced. For some reason, when Rebecca's name was called, her middle name was also announced. And perhaps it was hearing that full name, Rebecca Rachel Ross, that triggered my tears, because suddenly I was crying there at the Tarnowo Podgorne gym in western Poland. Because here was my little girl, the same girl who was born in Atlanta, Georgia, who moved to Israel from Miami, Florida at age 8, now playing basketball for the State of Israel in a country that was used to try to destroy the Jewish people. While it would have been nice if Israel had won a game or two more, few people expected Israel to do better than it did, and clearly the main reason for the team to go was to play, to compete, and to have fun. A main factor against Israel was height. Israel had the shortest team in the tournament, featuring the three shortest players - with a certain Rebecca Rachel Ross the absolute shortest, standing proud at 1.57 meters. Though Rebecca was perhaps also the fastest and most energetic player in the tournament, her coach mainly preferred to play the 20-year-old point guard over her (a mistake of course, in my completely unbiased opinion), since Rebecca is only 19. Not to worry. Rebecca, all-around athlete that she is, was able to fully release her competitive energies at the ping-pong table in the hotel in Tarnowo Podgorne where all the teams stayed. One after another, players, coaches, and trainers were all trounced by Rebecca, as the crowd around the table cheered her on. 'The Nazis failed' There was an added element to the championships this year, in this place, and it was expressed to me by one of the stars of Israel's team, Nofar Shalom: "I think that in some divine way it's not just by chance that we played here in Poland this year, the 60th anniversary of the founding of Israel. Precisely here in Poland, with all the history, it's a privilege to represent the State of Israel." And Vito Gilic, Israel's 49-year-old non-Jewish assistant coach (originally from Croatia), added: "The Nazis wanted to wipe out the Jewish people in the Holocaust, and here in Poland they killed millions of Jews. But this symbol of Israel on our shirts tells everyone that the Nazis failed, that the Jewish people lives." Summing up her trip, Rebecca said, "My first visit to Poland in high school was incredibly charged emotionally. After going to Auschwitz, Treblinka, and Chelmno, you don't have a very good feeling about the Polish people and Poland. This time it felt like a totally different country. The same people whom I would have looked upon as bad now seemed nice and normal. You can't forget about what happened 65 years ago, but it's a totally modern, pretty country. Plus, they have a pretty good mall there." As for me, I have to say that I had a surprisingly good time in Poland. I'm already looking forward to my second trip, and I hope that it too will be a normal one, to 21st-century Poland. Bookmark to del.icio.us   'Weeds' whacking The Showtime series has steered away from Jewish stereotypes - until now. Stepping stones Hizb ut-Tahrir, which calls for a worldwide Islamic state, marches through Gaza.   1.   Biased 22:41  |  Greg 29/07/08   2.   memory and feeling about history and the Jews 17:28  |  reba wulkan 30/07/08   3.   Biased??? 17:20  |  Jonathan 31/07/08   4.   You`re right Greg. They write antiPolish bulls--ts 03:49  |  accustomed to it 01/08/08   5.   You`re right Greg & that`s all what I can say 05:08  |  accustomed to it 01/08/08   6.   re 3 @ Jonathan - 1 06:33  |  Greg 01/08/08   7.   Jonathan - 2 20:06  |  Greg 01/08/08

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