After two years of travel being prohibited by a global pandemic, Prof. Joel Kaplan’s international reporting class of 10 students returned to Israel for a 10-day trip, sponsored by the Jerusalem Press Club, where they reported on such diverse topics as the Israeli response to Covid; the art on the Palestinian side of the wall that separates Palestinians from Israelis in the West Bank and the treatment of Ethiopian Jews. This year there was particular focus on Ukranian refugees coming to Israel in the midst of war.
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REPORTER: In Israel religion keeps people separate in famous places like the western wall. That extends to sports, but not at the Jerusalem Skater Park. Paola Ruiloba and Maayan Levi created Jerusalem Skater Girls to support female skateboarders in Israel. When the two of them first started skating there weren’t many girls to look up to in the skateboarding community. The Jerusalem Skater Girl’s goal was to fix that.
PAOLA RUILOBA: Israel has a lack of skater girls and here they have very big potential so our work is to give them awareness about skateboarding and all the culture. It’s not only about skateboarding it’s about being a family, a sisterhood and working together.
**Natural sound of Ruiloba and younger girl talking in Hebrew**
REPORTER: Speaking of sisterhood…The skate club consists of females from ages 7 to 53. These females then work together to grow both on and off the skateboard.
RUILOBA: When you’re going to skate with little girls on the street I feel like a big sister or a mom or a babysitter or whatever because with them they’re going to talk to you like you’re their big sister. They’re going to come up with their problems like I’m really scared to do that trick or jump those stairs because it’s fear. It’s known that women have fear…they are more to get more fear than boys but sometimes we need to get them empowered. If they see another girl doing it they’re going to think the same cause they’re just proving that if that girl did it, the other girl can do the same.
REPORTER: Skateboarding is a male oriented sport though which causes many girls to face sexism. This includes the prize money given out at male competitions versus female ones.
RUILOBA: Sexism depends on when. Sexism is about the trophies when girls have the same prize and sometimes you can have a contest here that the girls have first place but won’t have the same prize as the men because they will get judged by like oh I can not give her a high prize because her level is low when it has to be the opposite. You have to give them the same prize as men because they’re going to work harder.
REPORTER: On average male skateboarders get prizes at competitions that are about ten percent more than female skateboarders. This led the Jerusalem Skater Girls to start its own competitions.
RUIOLBA: It’s obvious that we’re going to give the same prize to a little girl because she’s rocking it and also the same prize to boys. But other people think differently.
REPORTER: The Jerusalem Skater Girls have gained so much recognition that last summer they launched their tour sponsored by Vans. Paola said it was exciting traveling to promote females skateboarding because she was able to grow her friendships as well as meet new people in the skateboarding community.
RUILOBA: When you’re doing it together it brings flowers. When you’re alone it’s a dead sea.
REPORTER: But skateboarding isn’t the only opportunities for girls in sports in Israel Catch ball is a sport that combines volleyball and newcomb and was created in 2008 right here in Israel by women for women. Catchball is a sport with 6 girls against 6 girls on a volleyball court but instead of bumping the ball you catch it. According to data from Israel’s Culture and Sport Ministry. Catchball leagues in Israel boast more than 12,000 female members. That is twice as many adult women as belong to basketball, soccer, volleyball and tennis leagues combined. It doesn’t matter what age you are, anyone can play Catchball.
SARIT GROMAN; That’s the main idea. Like I told you before we have woman in the age of 30 and women of 60…60 +. Everyone can do it, catch the ball, pass it on and pass it on over the net. It’s a very social game. It’s about women spirit together. We’re helping each other and we’re trying so it’s like anyone can do it.
TEAMMATE 1: I love ball games.
TEAMMATE 2: I love the competition. I love the girls. I love the ball.
REPORTER: Without Catchball these women would be at home taking care of the children. The game creates a sisterhood for these women of all different ages to connect each week.
GROMAN: The girls are like pulling each other, helping each other, encouraging each other. It’s great.
*Sound of Groman coaching in Hebrew*
GROMAN: Women that can’t they come here and they see they can.
REPORTER: Sarit Groman believes Catchball is a metaphor for greater roles for women in society.
GROMAN: We’re struggling for power in Israel but we’ll be there. It starts with Catchball. There are some kind of businesses or other things that special women can do. But catch ball every woman can do. That’s the biggest difference- difference between sports catch ball or job.
REPORTER: Each woman looks forward to their weekly practice or game as a time to get some exercise and clear their head.
GROMAN: This is a way to first get out of the house, leave the husband and the children and come and enjoy yourself for at least one or two hours. That’s empowering of the women and of course they get in shape…not too much but very nice.
REPORTER: Catch ball has expanded across the globe even to the United States in cities such as Boston where are large Jewish populations.
GROMAN: Israelis all over the world are very uniting group so it’s easier to get there. I think I have a friend in Boston-it’s not only Jewish, starts in Jewish but now everyone.
REPORTER: Unlike catch ball cross fit wasn’t necessarily created for women. Crossfit was started in California as a workout to gain muscle and has transitioned to Israel recently as a male-oriented sport. Nikki Pettel is the Fittest Women in Israel, a title she earned through Crossfit competitions. Pettel is now trying to show sweating doesn’t have a gender.
NIKKI PETTEL: in Israel its growing and its really cool to see a lot of women getting stronger and trying to show the guys that we’re you know part of the game.
**Natural Sound of Pettel coaching**
REPORTER: Nikki both competes and teaches Crossfit. She tries to empower women with her social media by showing them that they can do it also. She posts daily videos and pictures of her intense workouts that have led to her being named Fittest Women in Israel.
Nat sound: Nikki coaching
PETTEL: I try to share a lot of my videos and process in general and share my progress from where I started and where I am now to show people that its possible if you just put the work into it. And I look at a lots of other women from Israel, from all over the world-people I inspire to be and my own goals in life the women I want to beat and inspire.
CLIENT: I come in here once a week and every week I see the muscles. She’s getting bigger and bigger. Wow Nikki!
REPORTER: As the Fittest women in Israel, Nikki’s body doesn’t look like the typical feminine body type. Nikki is a trailblazer in the Israel Crossfit community and often has to prove to other women that is OK.
PETTEL: Males, I’ve had everybody tell me that. Mom, grandma. At first, they didn’t understand…they think if I lift weights I can’t have kids. I’ll never have a boyfriend so many random things and then they’ll come and they’ll touch you and be like ohhh. But you know it’s something I love doing and its cool to see my body transform and see the things I’m able to accomplish is really cool. It’s hard to see when I just stand there. The moms will be like what do you do? You don’t have the lunch lady arms but until see someone sees what I do every day, they don’t really understand what I do.
REPORTER: Reporting from Israel…Brittany Ehrlich NCC News.
How anti-racism organizations are working to end police brutality in Israel
By Darian Stevenson
About
Team
Moriah Humiston
Ambre Winfrey
Krizia Williams
Darian Stevenson
Oscar Offerman
Calvin Milliner
Brad Klein
Christopher Scarglato
Ava Hu
Madelyn Geyer
Nat Bono
Simon Perez
Associate Professor
Award-winning bilingual reporter Simon Perez is a 20-year news industry veteran. His professional experience includes work in television (KPIX CBS 5 in San Francisco; WRIC ABC 8 in Richmond, Virginia.; WGXA Fox 24 in Macon, Georgia.; and Canal de Noticias, NBC NewsChannel in Charlotte, North Carolina), newspaper (ABC Prensa Española in Madrid, Spain; Daily News-Record in Harrisonburg, Virginia.; and Danville Register & Bee in Danville, Virginia) and magazine (Macworld/España in Madrid, Spain). He also served as a reporter for the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games in 1996.
He is a recipient of 2007 and 2008 Northern California Emmy Awards for best evening and daytime newscasts, and attended the Knight Digital Media Center’s Multimedia Reporting and Convergence Workshop at the University of California at Berkeley.