With Super Bowl in rear-view mirror, signature football event in Israel lies ahead

NEW YORK-Days before Super Bowl XLVIII in northern New Jersey's MetLife Stadium, a New York City room filled with players, coaches, and supporters of the Israel Football League (IFL)-a group spanning several generations of Israeli sportsmen-looked forward to an upcoming signature event for American-style football in the Jewish state.

The Jan. 29 event marked the announcement that Jerusalem will host the 2014 International Federation of American Football Flag Football World Championships from Aug. 13-15. Thirty teams, comprised of 500 athletes from some 20 countries, are slated to participate in the largest world-championship sports competition ever to be held in Israel. The Olympic-style event will face political challenges-already, Saudi Arabia has withdrawn from the competition. A Turkish team is scheduled to participate.

American football in Israel began in 1989 with flag football games started by American olim (immigrants) looking for a taste of their homeland on the sports field. Within ten years, 35 IFL teams were in place. Israeli flag football league teams have had reasonable success in competition against international teams. At the moment, the Israeli men's team is ranked fifth in the world, and the women's team is ranked sixth.

In less than a quarter-century, "football has become an important strategic partner to the State of Israel," said Ido Aharoni, consul general of Israel in New York. Aharoni called sports "the number one, most effective bridge builder [that] establishes camaraderie and teaches responsibility, caring, and protection-all the things Israel thrives on." Sports are also a means to help "make sure the world understands that Israel is a real country, not just a place plagued with conflicts," Aharoni said.

"The partnership between the United States and Israel is unbreakable, and is intensified through sports," said Rabbi Michel Miller, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York.

In 2005, pioneers who wanted to play American tackle football founded the IFL introduced the game to Israel. Initially, players hit the field without proper equipment or an official governing body for the sport. But within two years, a league was organized under the umbrella of American Football in Israel (AFI). In 2007, when players began using regulated protective-tackle equipment, only four teams-the Big Blue Jerusalem Lions, Real Housing Haifa Underdogs, Dancing Camel Hasharon Pioneers, and Mike's Place Tel Aviv Sabres-competed. The Big Blue Jerusalem Lions won the first championship. By 2009, the league had expanded to seven teams, and 11 teams now compete. The annual championship game is broadcast on Israeli television.

Eli Groner, now Israel's Minister for Economics in North America, was the quarterback of the Big Blue Jerusalem Lions. Recalling the feelings of making aliyah 15, he said football was "a place to call home, a place where people can get integrated into Israeli society ... The league is a great absorption center, a real story of integration."

The IFL counts the family of Robert Kraft, owner of the National Football League's New England Patriots, among its major sponsors. The Krafts endowed the Kraft Family Stadium in Jerusalem, the league's first permanent home.

Football and Israel are "two of [Robert Kraft's] major loves," and the IFL gives him an opportunity to have both, said AFI President Steve Leibowitz. American tackle football in Israel is "a great combination-a development of teamwork that started a dream then added instruction and support, and is powered by determination," Leibowitz said.

Betzalel Friedman, commissioner of the IFL, grew up in Indianapolis and became involved with football after he completed his service in the Israel Defense Forces. During the last six years, he has witnessed a 300-percent growth in participation in American football in Israel.

"Jews, Muslims, Christians-everyone is a team player," Friedman said.

Leibowitz anticipates that $400,000 in funding is needed to ready an Israeli team for competition in the European Federation of American Football in 2016. Steps are actively being taken to enhance the team's personnel and equipment. Yonah Mishaan, who has coached Israel's men's and women's flag football teams, has been hired to coach the Israeli national team for 2016.

"We expect to play well, but need professional equipment and help encouraging development," Mishaan said. University of Michigan Quarterback Alex Swieca, who holds dual U.S.-Israeli citizenship, is expected to be part of Israel's national team in the 2016 European competition.

Leibowitz looks forward to establishing football centers in every Israeli city, similar in concept to the successful tennis throughout the country.

"There is an active and growing football community in Jerusalem," Leibowitz told JNS.org. "We hope to have centers from Nahariya to Be'er Sheva. We need to create a youth football league, [and] high school and adult teams." While Israeli teams play a 60-yard, nine-on-one football game (as opposed to the 100-yeard, 11-on-11 American version), the IFL "must expand to a 100-yard field in order to be competitive in international play," he said.

Leibowitz anticipates that within a decade, 10,000 players will be involved in American football in Israel.

"What started as a part of bringing a piece of the U.S. to Israel has become much more than that," Eli Groner said.