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our football association would manage the games
and the Jerusalem Foundation - keen on promoting
sport facilities - would be the conduit for donations.”
Kraft liked the plan and “since 2005, Kraft Stadium in
Jerusalem is the only state-of-the-art American football
field in Israel.”
Today there are some 95 teams playing on a regular
basis at Kraft Stadium: 57 men’s teams, 16 women’s
teams, (Israel’s national women’s team is regarded as
one of the top teams in the world, taking first place in
2009 at Big Bowl III in Germany), 16 high school teams
Goodman Footprint
The most anticipated first-round playoff this year for
the AFI Holyland Bowl XXI was between Big Blue –
eventual winners – and 1993 champions, Pizzeria Efrat.
Pizzeria Efrat’s captain and quarterback and a Hall of
Famer, was Mordechai Goodman who has been in
the league since its inception in 1987. A New Yorker,
who immigrated in 1986, ‘Mordi’, as he is affectionately
known, attributes his successful absorption into Israeli
society to his involvement in the football league.
In 1993, as a result of a 12-0 undefeated championship
season, Mordi was named that year’s The Jerusalem
Post’s ‘In-Jerusalem Athlete of the Year’.
Special for Mordi, was to play alongside his sons,
when they were old enough to join the men’s league.
However, in 2006, tragedy struck the Goodman family
as well as the entire AFI community. Modi’s 21-yearold-son,
Yosef, an IDF soldier in the elite Maglan unit
and a gifted league player, was killed in a parachute
training accident.
and six teams in the coed league. And there are over 200
additional kids that come from Jerusalem and elsewhere
to play at the stadium.” To be sure, “Kraft Stadium has
been huge in developing football into a major sport in
Israel.” It has emerged as the headquarters of the sport
in Israel.
“The future of the sport,” continues Leibowitz, “really
lies with the development of tackle football. This is what
attracts the native-born Israelis – they like the game’s
aggression. Every Thursday night the tackle football
matches are packed with spectators while our day
matches on Fridays and Saturday nights, its flag football
- a different crowd.”
Popular worldwide, the rules of flag football are similar
to those of the mainstream game (“tackle football”),
but instead of tackling players to the ground, the
defensive team must remove a flag or flag belt from
the ball carrier to stop the action. “We have come a
The Inbal Jerusalem Hotel
Fall-Winter 2010-11
35
long way from our humble beginnings and the big news
is that Israel will become the host of the Flag Football
World Championships for 2014.” Flag Football is played
competitively in some 35 countries. “Most of the games,”
says Leibowitz “will be played at the Wingate Institute,
with the final at Kraft Stadium. We will be hosting teams
from at least 30 countries; wonderful for Israel.”
Nurturing Coexistence
In a major tackle football match this past January
The young Goodman died a hero. When Yosef’s
parachute entangled with that of his commander’s, he
cut the ropes of his chute saving his commander’s life
while plummeting to his death.
Following the shiva (period of mourning) week for
Yosef, Mordi returned to Kraft Family Stadium and
before throwing out the first ball for that night’s playoff
games, he addressed the players and the fans. He spoke
of how Yosef loved playing football, especially teaching
young children from his neighborhood the game.
Not a single eye in the stadium was dry.
That same night, AFI co-founders Steve Leibowitz and
Danny Gewirtz named the newly-formed AFI High
School League in Yosef’s memory, as it was Yosef,
who almost single-handedly, organized the high school
division as a preparatory league for the next generation
of men’s players.
Gone but never forgotten the legacy of Yosef lives on in
the players of tomorrow.
between the football team Judean Rebels, the eventual
winners of the 2011 Israeli Football League and the
Big Blue Jerusalem Lions, the star players lining up on
opposite sides certainly added another dimension to the
game. On the one side - in the Big Blue Jerusalem Lions
- was Itai Ashkenazi, the son of the former Chief of Staff
of the IDF, Gabi Ashkenazi and on the other - the Judean
Rebels - were three Palestinians from Ramallah.
“Ashkenazi’s son? That doesn’t really concern us,”
expressed the one Palestinian. “We’re not into politics,”
he said.
For 31 year old Ashkenazi, “I separate football from
everything else,” he told the Yedioth Ahronoth daily
before the game. “On the field it doesn’t help that my
father is the army chief; it’s not a big deal. I don’t care if
the players on the opposing team are Christian, Muslim
or Druze. I see them only as football players who are
playing against me.”