Knitting under fire
A 12-year-old girl from New York City journeyed to Sderot this week to meet with a group of girls she has been working with on a joint knitting project that has helped them cope with the trauma of constant rocket fire from the Gaza Strip. Noa Mintz helped create the therapeutic knitting class through the UJA-Federation of New York's "Give a Mitzvah - Do a Mitzvah" program, along with a donation from her family. "When I visited Sderot three years ago and saw how close it is to Gaza, it was a very moving moment for me," said Mintz. "I recently fell in love with knitting as a group bonding and therapeutic thing, and decided that I wanted the same for the girls in Sderot." Mintz, who arrived in Israel with her family as part of her bat mitzvah trip, finally met the girls in the class face-to-face and had the opportunity to knit together. "Noa's project is truly amazing," said the Federation's Sheila Devore, noting that it provides a great example of how youth can become more involved in philanthropy.
Play nice
The Israel men's national lacrosse team combined its international debut this week with community service in The Netherlands. Working in conjunction with Maccabi Nederland, team members conducted a private youth lacrosse clinic for Jewish children at the Amsterdam Bos on Monday morning, Israel Lacrosse announced this week. The youth group stuck around to root for Israel in its exhibition match against Switzerland. "It might have been the best youth clinic we've ever conducted," said midfielder David Lasday, who also serves as Israel Lacrosse's director of youth development. "The children were excited and our players were equally enthusiastic to serve as ambassadors of Israel to the international Jewish community," added Lasday, who is originally from the United States. Israel Lacrosse also announced this week that the International Sports Committee has conditionally approved the addition of men's lacrosse to the 2013 Maccabiah Games.
Lead the way to ra'anana
Some 40 graduates of Hamachon, the Institute of Youth Leaders from Abroad, met in Ra'anana last Thursday for the organization's annual general assembly meeting and a tour of the city, hosted by Mayor Nahum Hofree. Hamachon, a year-long leadership training program for the Zionist youth movements, has long been based on the Kiryat Moriah campus of the Jewish Agency. The elected chair of the assembly was New York native Hillel Schenker, who now lives in Tel Aviv. Other officers include vice chair Milke Gross, originally from Colombia; chairman Emanuel Gerstner from Chile; and treasurer Ralph Phillips, a Rishon Letzion resident who hails from the U.K. South African Ruth Stern, who participated in the first group in 1946, provided colorful stories about her participation in one of the Choma U'migdal (Tower and Stockade ) operations by Zionist settlers in the British Mandate of Palestine. Other alumni at the meeting included Rita Loon, who came from the United States to go on the second cohort; British-born Yehuda Guy; Arieh Azoulai, a former mayor of Ashdod, who grew up in Morocco; Argentine Mario Lev, chairman of the Latin American Immigrant Association; and Danny Hakim, a martial arts champion from Australia and founder of Budo for Peace.
(Rank and File was compiled by Steven Klein.)
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