The team recently competed in the 2019 Women’s
Lacrosse U19 World Championship in Peterborough, Canada. In the playoffs
against Kenya’s national team, Israel won handily, 13-4. But instead of
rejoicing in their victory, the Israeli players left the game disturbed. They
realized that they’d enjoyed an unfair advantage: while the Israeli players
wore state of the art sports shoes with cleats, their Kenyan opponents wore
plain old gym shoes.
After the game, three of the young Israeli
players called their parents asking if they could help pay for new shoes for
the Kenyan players. Without proper cleats, the Kenyan players found themselves
sliding in the muddy parts of the field. One Israeli player, Ella Duvdevani, in
particular was in a position to help. Her father Michael owns a ped-orthic
clinic in the US. He was concerned about long-lasting damage the Kenyan players
might be doing to their feet by playing in improper shoes.
That night, Michael Duvdevani called the team’s
coaches, committee members and some other parents, and soon the parents of the
Israeli players were all pitching in to buy new shoes for the Kenyan team. They
asked the Kenyan coach for a list of each player’s shoe size and asked them to
keep the gesture secret overnight.
It wasn’t easy to find so many specialty shoes
at such short notice. The Israeli team turned to a specialty store which stayed
open much of the night in order to source the shoes and fill the order quickly.
By the following morning, the Israelis had bought shoes for each member of the
Kenyan team. The next day, the Israeli team surprised their Kenyan friends on
the field; each team member gave a bag containing a brand new pair of shoes to
their Kenyan counterparts. It was an emotional moment, with the Israeli and
Kenyan players hugging and crying together.
The bond they formed was lasting. Lielle
Assayag, Israel’s goalie, said, “This is what I’ll remember in 20 years: my
friends. My old ones and my new ones.”
The athletes didn’t seek publicity but Kenya
Lacrosse posted a video on Twitter of the Israeli women delivering the new
shoes to the Kenyan team on the field the day after they played. “Yesterday we
played @Israel_Lacrosse and had no cleats...after supporting their game today,
Israel surprised the whole Team on the sideline with brand new cleats!” Kenya’s
team announced.
Even though Kenya’s Women’s Lacrosse Team only
has a few hundred followers, the moving video went viral. Within days, hundreds
of thousands of people had watched it.
After donning their new cleats, Kenya went on
to win their second game in the championship, beating Belgium 16-9. “1 came in
cleats today = 1 win!” they Tweeted, adding “You can’t help everyone but
everyone can help someone.”
That comment resonates with Hillel's statement
in Ethics of the Fathers, “In a place where there are no leaders, strive to be
a leader” (Pirkei Avot 2:6). We each have to make a difference wherever we find
ourselves. As the Israeli Women’s Lacrosse Team just showed, sometimes even a
small gesture can make a huge difference in the lives of others.
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