Shavei Israel and “the Sports Rabbi” bring Bnei Menashe to Maccabi Tel Aviv for professional soccer
Over the summer, Shavei Israel launched a partnership with Josh Halickman, better known as “The Sports Rabbi” and the new head of Israel’s leading soccer team Maccabi Tel Aviv’s charitable organization, to enable young Bnei Menashe immigrants to meet, greet and participate on the field with some of Israel’s biggest sports stars.
In their first outing, Elad Israel and Yoel Kolshing, two Bnei Menashe youth, donned Maccabi’s distinctive blue and yellow uniform and paraded with the Maccabi Tel Aviv mascot in front of thousands of ecstatic fans.
During Sukkot, a different group of young Bnei Menashe got to meet their heroes and have their soccer balls signed.
And several of the kids got to pose with team members on the field itself.
Here are Amita Khaute, Golan Colney, Shai Haokip and Or Navon Touthang (along with Tzvi Khaute, Shavei Israel’s coordinator for the Bnei Menashe, and another huge soccer fan).
Over the past few months, Halickman through the Maccabi Tel Aviv Football Club Foundation has worked with the Bnei Menashe, providing after school programing and soccer camps for the enthusiastic new immigrant youth. The program kicked of with an invitation to 50 Bnei Menashe to watch a Maccabi Tel Aviv game.
Here are some pictures from that emotional event.
“To have the privilege to walk onto the field with the other players in the team’s uniform is not something any child can do,” Halickman says, proud of what he made happen so far.
May the next year be filled with more soccer (and more Maccabi Tel Aviv wins!)