By Arkady Hasidovich, Yokneam-Megiddo Partnership2Gether

Hosting Birthright delegations from the Jewish communities of Atlanta and St. Louis through the Jewish Agency’s Yokneam-Megiddo Partnership is always a special experience for both the hosts and their guests.  But this time, the visit was in the big leagues.

In order to get to know the residents of Atlanta's partnership community of Yokneam, fifty of the Birthright delegation participants who are visiting Israel for the first time were asked to roll up their shirt sleeves and pants, to put on their sneakers and display their athletic talents in four different sports: soccer, basketball, tennis and baseball.  The guests joined young local players from the HaPoel Yokneam Sports Club and the local Tennis Center, and competed against each other in mixed teams.

Many of the Yokneam youngsters receive athletic scholarships sponsored by the Jewish Federations of Atlanta and St. Louis, who have been connected to the Yokneam-Megiddo region for 17 years.  This gave the students from Atlanta an opportunity to experience the contributions from their own community to the kids in Yokneam with their own two hands (and feet).

The two local baseball teams were the subject of great interest for the guests, since this sport is less familiar in our part of the world, but is gaining momentum all over Israel, particularly in Yokneam, and we have already reported about this recently.  By the way, our two baseball teams have chosen names with special significance – the “Yokneam Braves” and the “Yokneam Cardinals” – as a gesture towards the baseball teams in Atlanta and St. Louis.

We in the Yokneam-Megiddo partnership hope that this was a brief but exciting sample of the Partnership community for our guests from Atlanta, because for the young athletes from Yokneam, the visit heightened their curiosity and enthusiasm for additional encounters with the Atlanta and St. Louis Jewish communities.