As reported in the Tampa Bay Times…
TAMPA ÔÇö Jack Ross raised his hands in the shape of a camera and took a mental snapshot as he looked onto the tennis court where an Israeli Jew and an Arab Muslim played together, at peace.
It’s a moment the Tampa Jewish Community Center executive director wanted to remember.
“I get a sense of hopefulness,” he said, looking at them. “Our conflict rages as we speak.”
Daniella Shved, 12, a recent immigrant to Israel from the Ukraine, lives in Jaffa, where a Palestinian terrorist killed a U.S. tourist Tuesday and wounded 10 others. Luai Mussa, 11, lives in Jerusalem, where two Israeli Border Police officers were shot that same day in a drive-by shooting.
As the Israeli-Palestinian conflict rages around them, the two find sanctuary in their community’s tennis center ÔÇö and a chance to learn how to coexist, organizers say.
For four decades, the Israel Tennis & Education Centers have been safe havens for children in poor and war-torn cities. In celebration of the foundation’s 40th anniversary, the group took talented young players on a three-week tour across Florida, landing them in Tampa on Wednesday.
Balls flew as they played doubles with some local league and club players at the Sandra Freedman Tennis Complex on Davis Islands. The group of four children has a stop in Palm Beach Gardens today before they head back to Israel. They held an exhibition Wednesday night to show off their skills at Harbour Island Athletic Club.
The children have dreams of becoming professional players. Daniella is already in the top 10 of her age group in Jaffa. Luai is a firecracker on the court, challenging players five times his age.
But Yoni Yair, the centers’ vice president of development, is quick to add: The group is about more than just tennis.
Noam Yitzhaki, 27, of Kiryat Shmona, said the center saved his life. It wasn’t only a place he could play a sport in a crippled community, but a place he could stay safe. He grew up seeing rockets fly overhead. His city’s proximity to Lebanon made it a target for attacks across the border.
“You couldn’t go outside by yourself,” he said. So instead, he practiced at the center. In 2005, he said, he was Israel’s No. 1 player. Now he’s a coach.
Daniella said she fled warring Ukraine with her father, but had to leave her mother and sister behind to care for her grandparents. The center helped her immigrate to Israel and excel at the sport her father started teaching her at 6.
The center gives Luai a chance to learn about religions and cultures outside of his own. “In school, we learn together: Arab and Jewish,” he said. “We are good friends.”
The centers have what they call “coexistence programs” in cities with mixed Arab and Jewish populations. They will pair Arab and Jewish children together on doubles teams or bring kindergarten-age children from different backgrounds together for different classes.
The group’s 14 centers start at Kiryat Shmona ÔÇö near the Syria and Lebanon border ÔÇö and snake down through Tel Aviv, ending in Beer Sheva. The group says it targets poor areas so children have an outlet and getaway.
Doug Cohn, CEO of Tampa Bay Trane, along with Ross from the community center and others in the Jewish community, organized and raised money so the group could make a stop in Tampa Bay.
Yair hopes the group’s message of peaceful coexistence can spread through Israel.
“Through this tough conflict that we are facing for many, many years, it’s easy to say nothing can happen, nothing is going to change,” Yair said. “But we do believe that we can make an impact and we can try to make a difference.”