Touring days ahead of gold medal game on Sunday

We have been off for the last two days due to Shabbat and scheduling. The women’s hockey team played in the finals on Friday morning and fell 6-4 to Canada. It was great to see so many other Team USA teammates across divisions support them. The boys open division (college) defeated Canada for gold on Saturday night (after Shabbat ended of course!) before several thousand fans at Pais Arena. They headed off to Tel Aviv at 1 AM after the medal ceremony and photos on the ice. According to one of the team mom’s I spoke with, they were treated like celebrities at the Tel Aviv bars before returning to our hotel at sunrise! The U18 team plays in the finals versus Canada today (Sunday) before the premier matchup of the tournament, of course, USA versus Canada masters division, which wraps up the Maccabi Games at 8:30 PM (1:30 PM EST)!

Here’s the streaming link for our game tomorrow:

I’ve spent my final few days in Jerusalem continuing to explore and learn about this great country. On Thursday, I took a guided tour this time of the Old City with an excellent tour guide who works for my cousin Matt at BBYO. His knowledge of all things Israel – the history, the culture, the politics – from the beginning of time to today is extraordinary. If I retained 10% of what he talked about during our 3 hour tour, I still will have learned a ton. Much of what I did learn helped to further appreciate and put into context just how much history across so many cultures and religions sits inside the walls of the Old City.

On Friday, following the women’s hockey final, I went to the Shuk (Mahane Yehuda) food market. It was a hectic scene as local Jews were food shopping prior to Shabbat. The food hall was packed with all types of colors and scents and can be quite overwhelming before even considering the crowds of people. It was a food scene like no other I’ve experienced.

Today, I joined some teammates on a trip to Caesarea which is an area of Roman ruins from the era King Herod in the time of roughly 50 BC. The ruins lay along the water just north of Tel Aviv and south of Haifa. I learned about Israel’s Roman roots while at the same time savoring the splendor of Israel’s beaches along the Mediterranean Sea.

Sunday will be a day of rest and stretching ahead of our big gold medal game at night!!