Israeli Hockey Scores in L.A.
By Josh Marks    March 24, 2005

The Israeli Ice Hockey Federation took their mission to Los Angeles in late February. Through the Israeli junior national ice hockey team they want to show the world that there is more to Israel than terrorism.

In that spirit, Israel took on Mexico in four exhibition games at the L.A. Kings practice facility, Healthsouth Arena in El Segundo, and Ice-O-Plex Arena in Panorama City. The games in Los Angeles and three games in Toronto were practice for the world championships in Sofia, Bulgaria. The Israelis went on to beat the Bulgarian juniors 16-1.

The team is made up of 14-17 year olds, some of whom travel up to two hours to  get to the only ice facility in Israel. Located in Metulla, on the Lebanese border, the rink was built with donations from Canadian Jews. In the beginning, most of the players were Russian Jews - 1.5 million Russians live in Israel. However, now the team is 80% Israeli-born. The team is coached by Jean Perron, who led the Montreal Canadians to the Stanley Cup in 1986.

The Israeli Ice Hockey Federation has plans beyond just representing another side of Israel. They are going to build an arena in Tel Aviv, Richon le Zion or Ramat Gan. The goal is to develop Olympic Hockey and Figure Skating teams to represent Israel in the next Olympics. With their impressive showing at the world championships, that goal might not be far off.



Josh Marks writes for a community newspaper in Long Beach. He is webmaster and actively contributes to the Southern California birthright israel alumni association website. Besides professional writing, his day job is at Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters of Los Angeles