Congregation Ohav Sholom

The Israel Experience - David, Goliath, The Stern Gang, and the Philadelphia Phillies

The Israel Experience - David, Goliath, The Stern Gang, and the Philadelphia Phillies

by Michael Rosenbloom (spidermr@aol.com)

Israel is a small and intimate country. Not infrequently, a friend of a friend, relative or neighbor seems to be or know someone nationally prominent.

It was the evening of October 21, 1980. I was living in Jerusalem at the time, when I received a call from a friend of mine, Joel Burstein, a fellow Jerusalemite and ex-Philadelphian. He asked me if I wanted to see a live broadcast of Game 6 of the World Series between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Kansas City Royals. Now keep in mind three things:

Satelite dish TV hookups in private homes were still a thing of the future in Israel; Baseball is one of my great passions and since making Aliyah more than two years earlier, I had not seen a major league game, because baseball was of no interest to the Israeli public and therefore not broadcast on Israel T.V.; and The game was scheduled to start around 3:00 A.M. Israel time.

I at once replied in the affirmative and received the details and instructions. It turns out that Joel, a Phillies fan, knew Yair Stern, who at the time was either the head of the Israel Broadcasting Authority or head of its Sports Division. Yair is the son of Avraham Stern, after whom the Stern Gang was named, the same Stern Gang, which fought underground for the establishment of the State of Israel. The Stern Gang was known also by its acronym F.F.I. (Freedom Fighters of Israel) or Lehi (Lohamei Herut LeYisrael).

Avraham Stern was one of the more controversial figures in Palestine during the British mandatory period. In his eyes, the British were the chief obstacle blocking the establishment of an independent Jewish state. This made the British the primary enemy, even more so than the Nazis. Avraham Stern and his followers split from the Irgun (the underground movement led by David Raziel and later Menachem Begin) in 1940, when the Irgun called for a cessation of hostilities against the British until World War II would be over. Stern was against this policy and indeed continued in the planning of underground activities against the British in Palestine. Because of this, the British put a price on his head. His life came to an abrupt and violent end at the hands of the British on February 12, 1942. After learning of Stern's whereabouts, the British burst into his hiding place in Tel Aviv, bound and gagged him and finally shot him in the back, killing him.

Yair, the son, was a casual, jeans and sandal-wearing regular guy like most Israelis. His ten-year old son happened to be a big Phillies fan, a devotion which sprouted during his father's working stint in the U.S. With the Phillies up three games to two on the Royals, Yair's son desperately wanted to see what might be the final game of the World Series.

My friend Joel wanted to witness the end to Philadelphia's long championship drought. And so, it is here, that our plans dovetailed to produce one of the more unusual nights/mornings I can remember of my ten-year stay in Israel. Our rendezvous with Yair and son was scheduled to take place in the wee hours of the morning, at the satellite station of the Israel Broadcasting Authority in Emek HaElah (The Elah Valley), where the game would be broadcast. Emek HaElah is an area first mentioned in the Bible, in the book of Samuel, as the place where David and Goliath waged their epic battle 3100 years ago.

Emek HaElah is situated south of Beit Shemesh, and is accessed by continuing south on the Shaar HaGai-Beit Shemesh Road for about 25 minutes after passing Beit Shemesh.

Joel and I left Jerusalem at about 2:00 in the morning. There was hardly any traffic on the highway leaving Jerusalem. The smaller road from Shaar HaGai to Emek HaElah was completely deserted, adding a clandestine mood to the unfolding evening. The satellite station contained one huge satellite dish and several small ones, pointed toward the skies. This is where the entire country received live satellite feeds of events from all around the globe, be it sports like soccer's World Cup and the Olympics or music like the annual Eurovision Song Festival. If Israel were a Thirld World country, this is one of the first places that would be taken over by rebels in a coup.

When we arrived at the gates of the satellite station at about 2:45 A.M., we were stopped by a guard who checked our identity cards. We were allowed entry since all was pre-arranged.

I thoroughly enjoyed the game, despite having no rooting interest. Although the game was played over twenty years ago, I still remember a few things about the game itself, such as Dallas Green's removal of lefty Steve Carlton from the game in the eighth inning and ex-Met Tug McGraw keeping the Royals at bay, despite causing severe heart palpitations. I also remember a foul pop with one out in the ninth inning, bouncing out of catcher Bob Boone's mitt near one of the dugouts, only to land in the glove of the ubiquitous Pete Rose, for the penultimate out

But I guess what I remember most was the strange feeling that I was one of only four or five people in the entire country to be treated to this American sports spectacle, 6,000 miles away, at three o'clock in the morning, with the son of one of the nation's legendary pre-State figures, in the country's main satellite link to the outside world, in a place where 3100 years before figures like David and Goliath had roamed.

I wouldn't call this a typical encounter in Israel. Yet, when one spends time in our small, intimate homeland, encounters similar to the one described above are not unusual. The reasons are quite logical. First, biblical settings are omnipresent, wherever you turn. Second, the country is small enough so that it's not unusual to meet nationally known figures. Third, Israel is a modern country interacting with the world at large, hence, the mixing of modern and ancient.

June 2001

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