Showing posts with label 2014. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2014. Show all posts

Thursday, October 23, 2014

Maccabi Haifa in Toronto to play the Raptors

From: Raptors.com
It was a fun night in Toronto for fans of Israeli basketball.  The Maccabi Haifa basketball team was in town to play the Toronto Raptors.  Led by point guard Brody Angley, Maccabi put up a spirited fight.  After having been lambasted in Sacramento 91-59 a few days earlier, Maccabi almost beat Toronto.  Although Toronto had a 16 point lead at one point in the game, Maccabi fought back and built up its own 5 point lead with less than 10 minutes to play.  In the end, the Raptors prevailed, winning 92-85.

This was a sparsely attended exhibition game but since I was in town, I couldn't resist supporting this type of event.  There were several Israeli flags being waved around, quite a few kippahs and lots of Hebrew being spoken in the stands.  There were pockets of enthusiastic supporters of both teams though probably more Raptors' fans than fans of Haifa.  The game began with the singing of two national anthems -  Hatikvah (Israel's national anthem) and the Canadian national anthem.  It was quite fun hearing the Israeli national anthem at the Air Canada Centre.

For the Baldwin Street Kosher hot dog stand (with one location on the lower level only), this was the Super Bowl of Toronto sports events.  Hundreds of day school students, observant Jews and others lined up to buy strictly Kosher hot dogs and french fries.  Unfortunately, the vendors were ill-prepared for the onslaught and poorly organized.  The line-up barely moved.  We waited on line for about twenty minutes, trying to support  the Kosher kiosk.  But the line-up only inched forward. There were still at least 20 or 30 people ahead of us, even after all that time.  We gave up and went back to watch the game hungry.

The Toronto Raptors have hosted other Israeli basketball teams in the past.  Maccabi Tel-Aviv has played in Toronto twice, beating the Raptors in one of those appearances.  For Maccabi Haifa, the 2014 Toronto appearance was the last game of a four game NBA tour which has included stops in Washington, Sacramento, Portland and Toronto.   

This was not a thrilling basketball game, especially for those of us who are not really big basketball fans.  But it was fun watching Maccabi draw close and keep the result in doubt until the end of the game  (or close to it).

Many of those in attendance enjoyed some photo opportunities - including these friends of ours, who are seen here posing with the Raptor mascot.

The day was somewhat marred by the news of a terrorist shooting incident in Ottawa earlier in the afternoon.  But the basketball game proceeded with a special appeal for remembrance of the victims of the earlier incident.

Overall, it was a fun evening and a much closer game than anyone might have expected.




Monday, October 13, 2014

Sukkot 2014 and Tulip Winery

There is little doubt that the holiday of Sukkot is about the best time to be in Israel, whether as a visitor or a resident Israeli.  Known in Hebrew is "z'man simchateinu" - "the time of our happiness," Sukkot is really quite a special holiday.

There are festivals across the country geared to a whole range of different demographic groups, from children's music to wine and beer festivals.  A quick glance at the newspaper shows a Yemenite Culture festival in one city (B'nei Ayish), a wine and beer festival in Ashdod, an Uzi Hittman sing-a-long event in Tel-Aviv and many other events in towns and cities all over Israel.  Many are free, city sponsored events.  For example, Israeli singer Eli Botner performed a free concert at the city centre stage (Yad L'Banim) in Ra'anana last night.  We dropped in to watch some of it.

Students of all ages have lengthy school breaks.  Many go on camping or hiking trips with different youth movements.  Two of our children participate in Noam (the youth movement affiliated with Conservative Judaism - "Masorti" in Israel).  This year, they are on a two day trip to the Negev - camping, hiking along or through rivers and enjoying the outdoors - in terrific weather conditions.

Before the tiyulim began, we managed to squeeze in a five family sukkah hop starting on shabbat afternoon, which was quite fun.  Each family was charged with preparing one course of the meal.  All of the sukkot were located in Ra'anana though in some cases the walk from one sukkah to the next was more than a half hour.  While many families try to put these events together in other countries, the conditions are often less than ideal.  (We once spent the night in our Sukkah in Toronto when it was close to 0 C).  Here in Israel, the weather was perfect for this type of event. The families were close enough to each other to allow for walking from one place to the next and the atmosphere all over Ra'anana was quite conducive to this type of celebration.  As we walked from stop to stop, we passed by hundreds of sukkot all over the city.

During Sukkot, many people also travel to other places around the country for visits to all kinds of different attractions, including national parks, wineries, nature reserves and other tourist spots.  We decided to visit the Tulip Winery yesterday.  Tulip is in Kiryat Tivon, about an hour north of Ra'anana.

Tulip is one of my favourite Israeli wine producers.  It was founded in 2003 by the Yitzhaki family. The winery was built in Kfar Tikvah ( the "village of hope"), a community for special needs adults.  The winery employs many residents of Kfar Tikvah and helps integrate them into the community.  Tulip has an annual production of approximately 220,000 bottles.   The Tulip visitor centre also features a range of products that were made by Kfar Tikvah residents. 

Tulip Winery
The visitor centre staff were knowledgeable, friendly and helpful.  They were also quite generous with tasting samples of a whole range of Tulip wines.  Almost all of the wines we tasted were delicious.  Starting with a white wine, White Franc, we worked our way through a tasting of Cabernet Sauvignon, Reserve Cabernet, Reserve Shiraz, Mostly Cabernet Franc and two of the winery's finest blended wines including a special anniversary edition called "DNA 2011."  All of the wines were quite good.  The visitor centre was featuring a "buy three get one free" promotion, so we picked out four interesting bottles.  The prices ranged from 60 N.I.S.-100 N.I.S. for most of the wines (about $20 to $30) to 210 N.I.S. for the DNA 2011 (about $65).  We were tempted, but decided not to take a bottle of the DNA.

Tulip does not offer a daily tour though arrangements can be made in advance for groups.  But the winery really does offer a unique mix of social responsibility and excellent wine, which makes it a very highly regarded and popular institution and one that seems to me to deserve support.  The wine is certified kosher by the circle K organization as well as several Israeli kashruth authorities.  (The story of the process the winery underwent to receive kosher certification in a fascinating story by itself but one for another time). 

The holiday of Sukkot continues for two more days in Israel before culminating with the joyous festival of Simchat Torah.  That will bring the holiday season to a close as well as the annual cycle of Torah reading.  Sukkot marks the official start of rainy season in Israel (in theory, at least), just after harvest season ends. 

So we have two more days to enjoy eating meals in the Sukkah, waving the lulav and etrog and, of course, sharing the appropriate mid-Sukkot greeting - "mo'adim l'simchah" -  (Times of happiness), to which the little known but proper response is "chaggim u'zmanim l'sasson" (Festivals and times of joy). 

A happy and healthy new year to all and - "moadim l'simcha"...