I was born in Milwaukee, lived in Madison from age 4 to 19, and attended the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Towards the end of my college years, I got involved in Tagar and became more involved in my Jewish heritage.
I attended rallies promoting Israel and the like, and that helped me decide to make the big move and make aliyah — move to Israel — in 1995, when I was 26.
I remember my first few years in Israel. I would meet many people who moved here from the States. When I would meet them, every conversation had me asking where they’re from in the States.
The answer was always New York, New Jersey or Los Angeles. I would also get the occasional Canadian who would be offended, saying “I’m not from the States!” I was the only one from Wisconsin.
I adjusted to life in Israel, but it was a difficult transition. The culture is very different and the customer service is something I still have trouble getting used to, although it’s improving.
In college, I majored in mass communications and I started off working in the hi-tech industry as hi-tech in Israel was on the rise and there was a big demand for technical writers.
A technical writer writes user manuals and guides in English. Thus, being American was advantageous and with my background in writing, the position was perfect for me.
I remember going from being the only “Oren” in all of Wisconsin to being one of five at one of the companies I worked for. Because of this, I was given the nickname “Wisconsin.”
The work environment in Israel is more laid back and flexible than I remember in the States. The companies here really invest in the employees by offering various company events and fun days. They even allow you to bring your kids to work during the summer break.
After moving to Israel and getting a job, the natural progression was to meet someone and start a family. After getting married to Heli, we moved to Modi’in. It was a brand new planned city between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
Modi’in is the perfect place to raise a family. There are many parks and best of all, there are many Anglo-Saxons living in Modi’in. Heli and I have three children: Tahv, 12, Rohm, 8, and Liah, 4.
Being the typical American, I’ve always been into sports. While growing up, I used to play organized basketball, football and baseball.
I managed to find a group of Americans that play basketball every Sunday night, which helped me cope with the culture shock of living in Israel. After my son was born, I dreamt he would follow in my sports footsteps.
In Modi’in there is an email list mainly for Anglo-Saxons and that’s when I was first introduced to baseball in Israel.
The Israeli Association of Baseball started in 1986 and has grown rapidly ever since. Modi’in now has plans to build a proper baseball field in 2015 with the city of Modi’in covering half the expenses.
One of the representatives of the organization sent out an email trying to recruit more players. Currently, it has more than 1,000 players of all ages on 80 teams in 16 centersand in five leagues throughout Israel.
At the time, my son, Rohm, was going into first grade. The Minors league is from second grade through fourth grade, so my son was too young.
However, they do make exceptions if the player is good enough and as my luck would have it, one of the previous coaches of the Minors was leaving and a spot was opening up. I saw this as a great opportunity to coach baseball and spend more time with my son.
The Minors league is made up of 12 teams throughout Israel. There are teams from Bet Shemesh, HaShmonaim, Ra’anana, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and more. There is even a team from the American International School in Even Yehuda.
We play around 12 games a season and two rounds of playoffs. Since the weather in Israel is perfect for baseball year-round, we actually get started in September and finish in June. This gives us an ample amount of time to practice and get the kids ready for the season.
In my first season, our team, the Modi’in Miracles, finished in fourth place. My son had a pretty solid year, hitting mainly singles since he was still learning the game.
We usually start out practices with 30 minutes of basic drills. We spend 10 minutes each on hitting, fielding and base running. As we have more practices, we identify the talents of the various kids and split them up accordingly.
This past season, we had seven returning players. Combined with the experience of these players and my two exceptional assistant coaches, who also had kids playing on the team, David Feuerstein and J. J. Sussman, we had an amazing season.
We started out by winning the Chanukah tournament, held at the beginning of each season. Then, we plowed our way through the regular season going undefeated (12-0), beating teams by an average of 10 runs.
My son hit .729 including one home run and five triples. I’m not embarrassed that I kept statistics for my son. Baseball is a numbers game after all.
After each game, we would hand out candy to the most valuable player. It wasn’t always the best player; rather, a player who showed improvement or made a few good plays. We would also have our players hand out candy to the opposing team, to teach them good sportsmanship.
After the great season, we entered the playoffs undefeated and won our first game against Ginot, 12-8. It was our closest game of the season.
Everything was set as we made it to the championship game against the Jerusalem Lions. Unfortunately for us, two of our key players traveled to the States, leaving us shorthanded. We put up a good fight, but ended up losing 13-10.
The players took the loss well and still drenched the coaches with water after the game. We had a party at the end of the season where we handed out trophies to all the players for their hard work and dedication.
So as you can see, baseball in Israel is here to stay.
Oren Ben Ami is a project manager for Fiverr.com and lives in Modi’in, Israel. This article is one in an occasional series by Wisconsinites who have moved to Israel.
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