Whatever the answer, Alon Day undoubtedly will bring his rich experience on Israeli roads to Belardi Auto Racing’s Firestone Indy Lights 2012 roster.

The 20-year-old Day grew up in Ashdod, and for his 10th birthday, his parents his parents bought him lessons. According to Racer website, Day, through his teens, he earned more than 60 titles and trophies in Israel and Europe before moving up to 2-liter cars in Formula Renault in Asia and Hungary. In 2009, the 17-year-old clinched the Asia Formula Renault Championship.

Last year, he was given a deferment by the IDF to delay his army service due to his career accomplishments. Instead, he competed in the German Formula Three Championship and was later selected by ex-Formula 1 driver Alexander Wurz to be one of 12 FIA Ambassadors as part of the FIA Institute Academy Initiative. This year, Day will compete in 12 events across the U.S. and Canada.

“I am very excited to welcome Alon to the Belardi Auto Racing family for the 2012 Indy Lights season,” team owner Brian Belardi said. “Alon really blew us away when he came down to test with us at Palm Beach in December. His very first time in an Indy Lights car could not have gone better, and we are very lucky to have him join our program. I think with Alon’s natural talent and determination, he will have a really great season as a rookie in the Firestone Indy Lights series.”

Since he’s managed to navigate through Israel’s treacherous highways and byways, he indeed should have a great rookie season in the US.

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New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning wasn't thinking about Sudanese refugees on the field Sunday against Green Bay. (AP)

Near the end of the wonderful game (for us Giants fans), I heard the SMS bell on my cell phone go off – curious, since I didn’t know any other Giants fans, or anyone else, who was still awake at 2:30 am.

The message was from my daughter, serving in the IDF along the border with Egypt. It read: “I just caught 38 Sudanese coming across the border, 25 men, 11 women and two babies. It was horrible.”

Sudanese refugees inside Israel - definitely not thinking about the NFL playoffs.

That sort of snapped me back into the reality that, no – I wasn’t sitting in an American den, watching football. I was in the country where nothing is taken for granted – where some people can be sitting comfortably in a warm house with a flat screen TV, eating the worst imaginable junk food that Mahane Yehuda sells, and at the same time, our children are out on patrols all night in the freezing cold, putting their lives on the line, and being forced into situations where they are ‘catching’ women and babies who are fleeing for their lives in the hopes of finding a new life in Israel.

I left the living room and called her to see how she was, and she sounded fine, explaining that it wasn’t so ‘horrible’ as she had written. They had given the refugees food, and helped the mothers with the crying babies. But from hearing her past experiences, I know that she had to be a soldier – not a welcome wagon – and that she had been forced to act tough in front of the refugees.

Talk about mixed emotions. On the one hand, I’m elated that the Giants are headed for certain victory in the final minutes of the game. And on the other hand, my heart is breaking that my daughter and her rifle are herding Sudanese refugees into a makeshift prison called by the soldiers “the Sudaniya.’

Somehow, I just don’t think Giants fans in suburban Jersey were experiencing anything similar.

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Before surfboards arrived on our shores, there was the hasakeh, a sort of platform on which lifeguards would stand and paddle. Used from at least the 1930s onwards, there are several theories as to how this banana-shaped wood vessel came into being: one that it was used by Arab fishermen, another that it was based on a 1926 design by legendary surfer Tom Blake.

Its use by the Israeli Navy was immortalized in song in 1972.

Hasakeh

Riding the waves on a hasakeh, however, was not surfing. According to an online essay about the History of Surfing in Israel, that began with Dorian “Doc” Paskowitz, an American surfer and physician visited Israel in 1956. Wikipedia states that he volunteered for the Israeli army during the Suez Canal crisis but was rejected. Nonetheless, during his year-long stay, he found happiness on the beaches of Tel Aviv where he conceived of a dream: to found the first Olympic surfing team from the young state of Israel. Paskowitz imported six long-boards imprinted with the Israeli flag and began scouting the beach for potential talent and for someone to manage the project.

“…he arrived on Frishman Beach, [where] he found a lifeguard named Shamai Kancepolsky, also known as Topsea, and presented the idea to him. Says [Topsea's son] Nir Almog, ‘There was an immediate chemistry between them and my father decided to take on the project.’

‘At that time, lifeguards caught waves using hasakehs alone. Dorian gave them lessons and slowly, the lifeguard booth gang began surfing. In those days, [before breakers were built] Israel had high waves that broke on the shore itself… and going into the sea to surf was considered an act of bravery bordering on insanity…”

“A few years passed and the gang gained experience… but there was still no Israeli representation abroad. Dorian [Paskowitz] returned a second time, bringing a load of surfboards with him that were distributed among the new members.”

“Nir Almog adds, ‘In the Sixties, a huge storm damaged the storeroom where the surfboards were stored, and broke some of them to bits. After that, my dad decided to restore one of the big ones and shortened it to 1.80 meters. I was the only one in Israel with a shortboard.”

“In the early Seventies, a paratrooper commander by the name of Yair told Topsea that the army used a material — a aerated plastic called polyurethane foam — made by a company in Haifa. The material was similar to that used to make surfboards. Yair raised the possibility of manufacturing surfboards made of this material… Topsea and Nir began trying to design surfboards… and began a small surfboards producing industry. Most were rented out, and so a new generation entered into surfing…”

Topsea managed a small workshop on Hilton Beach and, along with renting out Hasakehs, designed surfboards. He, his wife Naomi — Israel’s first female surfer — and their children, all became lifelong surfers.In 1977, son Nir founded Almog Surfboards, Israel’s first pro surfboard company. Topsea co-founded the Israel Surfing Association in 1986.

The sport has continued to grow in popularity; according to the Encyclopedia of Surfing, “Israel is home to about 15 surf shops and 10,000 surfers”.

Paskowitz, by the way, gave up practicing medicine to become a professional surfer. He and his family founded and run Surf Camps and are known as The First Family of Surfing. In August 2007, he founded Surfing 4 Peace together with his son David (along with Israeli surfer Arthur Rashovan and eight-time world surfing champion Kelly Slater) to deliver surfboards to the surfing community in Gaza.

A wonderful online photo archive, can be found at the Topsea Israel Surfing Center website. Topsea’s youngest son Orian runs the center, carrying on the tradition and legacy of his father. The Center also hosts a YouTube channel where there are more videos about the legendary Shamai “Topsea” Kancepolsky and the history of surfing in Israel.

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The Boston Celtics' Ray Allen is the king of 3-point shots.

According to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem study, players who try to repeat a successful three-pointer are more likely to be a missed shot. On the other hand, trying again after missing is more likely to end with a score. The findings were published in the latest journal Nature Communications.

Professor Yonatan Loewenstein and graduate student Tal Neiman examined more than 200,000 attempted shots from nearly 300 leading players in the National Basketball Association (NBA) in the 2007-8 and 2008-9 regular seasons. They also examined more than 15,000 attempted shots by 41 leader players in the Women’s National Basketball Association from the same seasons.

They wanted to test the conventional wisdom that a player who scores one or more three-pointers is more likely to make the next shot from beyond the arc and enjoy a scoring streak. “There was an idea that if you make three shots then you’re sure to make a fourth,” said Loewenstein, from the university’s department of neurobiology. .

“What we learned is that it is not always a good idea to follow your intuition,” Loewenstein told The Media Line. “We typically infer our future from our very recent experience and this is true sometimes, but not always.”

In other words, if a player makes a three-pointer, which is statistically about 30% of the time, then they are prone to try it again shortly afterwards. On the other hand, if they missed it, they are more cautious about giving it another shot, thus missing opportunities.

“What we concluded is that these players chase random fluctuations in outcome of the action. And as a result they sometimes taking risks they wouldn’t if it wasn’t for their recent history,” said Loewenstein.

According to the researcher, the implications of the study are not only for basketball players, but for any risk-taking profession.

“Stock brokers make investments according to past market performance, and commanders make military moves based on the results of past battles. Awareness of the limitations of this kind of learning can improve [people's] decision-making processes – as well as those of basketball players.”

So, if you see the percentage of three-point plays rising this year in the NBA, you’ll know that the players have been taking Israeli advice to heart.

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Contador won the first-ever Tour de Jerusalem criterium race – a shortcourse race – finished the 10 laps of a 2.8 km. loop through the Old City in only 53 minutes, 7 seconds.

Second and third places went to two local riders – Ran Margoliot, who signed a contract with Contador’s Saxo Bank team in September, and Israeli champion road rider Niv Libner.

According to The Jerusalem Post, Contador and his Saxo Bank team have been in Israel for a week for a training camp, including a community ride in the Galilee and laying the foundations for a cycling school for Jews and Arabs in Acre called “Cycling for Peace: With Love and Good Energies.”

“Everything has been really exciting, meeting [president Shimon] Peres and then going to Yad Vashem, this whole race and the fact that they’re closing the Old City for this event is amazing,” Margoliot said before the race.

The Tour de Jerusalem course was a rollicking ride through history: tight turns inside the Armenian Quarter, daunting downhills with hairpin turns, and an insane climb from the Dung Gate up and over Mount Zion.

“It was a nice experience through the Old City, it’s quite unique, really the only place like it,” Nick Nuyens, a Saxo Bank rider from Belgium, said after finishing the race. “Going through the city in the evening was beautiful but pretty hard. They were short laps but all ups and downs,” he said.

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat joined the racers for a warm-up lap, riding in front of the pack with Contador, pointing out landmarks along the way. The mayor vowed to make the Tour de Jerusalem race a yearly event. Roll on!

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While we were able to enjoy our NBA imports for a short while, there hasn’t been anything resembling the National Football League in Israel for those American sports fans who miss the gridiron action – until now.

The Israel Football League has just begun its fifth season, with 10 teams made up of Jews, Christians and Arab players shouting and cheering in languages ranging from English and Hebrew to Russian, Arabic and French.

While it’s not nearly on the caliber of the NFL, the IFL has captivated a strong following, with many games being played at the Kraft Football Stadium in Jerusalem. And many of the players are native Israelis, who had never played the game before.

“I was attracted to tackle football because it’s a sport for any given size or speed or weight and so on,” said Chen Doron, a wide receiver for the Beersheba Black Swarm, who took up the sport at age 23. “I also like football because of the team play that is required, rather than being a one-man game.”

JTA ran a full feature on the opening of the new season, quoting player Jeremy Sable, an offensive lineman/linebacker for the Tel Aviv-Jaffa Sabres, who quit playing high school football in Philadelphia because there were games scheduled on Shabbat.

“When I walked away from high school football, I thought I would never have a chance to play again,” Sable said. “Here in Israel, I am able to fulfill my dream of living in the Jewish state, while once again playing the sport I love.”

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The first was Givat Hamatos, or Hill of the Airplane, named for a plane that crashed there during the 1967 Six-Day War. Givat Hamatos is now known as the latest site for Green Line construction, as the prime minister is planning on extending his contiguous Jerusalem line that will cut off any possible Palestinian string of neighborhoods, as well as Palestinian East Jerusalem. But until a few years ago, Givat Hamatos was the caravan neighborhood for Russian and Ethiopian immigrants, as well as some down-on-their-luck Israelis, like Barak Hasid’s family, interviewed in the story.

What struck me about Barak Hasid and Givat Hamatos, is how close he is to my home, and our very different existences. His family has made do with very little for quite a while, and has found some kind of peace — or at least he has — in their story. A lemonade out of lemons kind of narrative. And then I drove through Beit Safafa, the adjacent neighborhood, trying to get a sense of the place, the people, and the location, which is sandwiched between Givat Hamatos and the Talpiot industrial zone on two sides.

It’s a nice neighborhood with fairly large homes, a very new soccer field (thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation), and is the home to Yad B’Yad, or Hand in Hand, the Jerusalem branch of Israel’s bilingual Arab-Hebrew schools. I can’t tell you much more than that, because I didn’t find anyone to speak to me. But I’m still working on that. I figure there has to be more to the Beit Safafa story, given its history and existence of coexistence.

It’s strange to think of a possible residential neighborhood down the road from me as a) settlement construction and b) possibly part of a future Palestinian Jerusalem. What I do know is real estate locations, and there’s no question that Givat Hamatos works from a geographical standpoint. It’s off a main road, close to a busy business area and has access to major transportation. But nothing is ever that simple in these parts, so we’ll have to see what happens in this particular section of my backyard.

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The exhibition features items from the personal collections of Israeli sports legends: basketball coach Ralph Klein z”l, soccer player Avi Cohen z”l, who died tragically only last year, and a collection of walking shoes courtesy of the still very much alive and kicking race-walker Professor Shaul Ladany — including his shoes from the 1972 Munich Olympics when 11 of his teammates were killed.

There is also a collection of fencing swords (including one from in the 1930s owned by Israel’s first fencing coach, who happens to have been a woman), trading cards, sports magazines, banners, trophies, matchboxes and even a special exhibit of matkot — that annoying beach-paddleball game played primarily by scantily-clad women and their banana-hammock wearing partners.

The display also includes a large collection of bicycles, courtesy of the privately owned Alon Wolf Bicycle Museum.

The question is, will they also have a place for the latest in Israeli sports memorabilia: this cereal box, recently spotted, featuring basketball player Omri Caspi. If I were a collector, I’d buy a gross of these…

Gan Hashlosha is a natural water park fed by underground springs. On the premises is the “Footsteps in the Valley” museum, subdivided into three branches dedicated to historical aspects of the Jewish State.

These include the archeological branch that deals with regional and Mediterranean archeology, presenting findings from Greece, Persia, Egypt and the Beit Shean area, the heritage branch, site of the Homa u-Migdal (Tower and Stockade) museum, a reconstructed site of the early settlement; and the water and environment branch: that includes walking routes along the stream, and among the gardens and orchards.

And of course, this week there’s the festival, where there will be special activities and sports for the whole family (including discus and spear-throwing, for those inclined), workshops and guided tours of the park and the exhibition. For more information click here.

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Washington Wizards forward Trevor Booker (right) is headed for Israel.

Washington Wizards forward Trevor Booker and the New Jersey Nets’ Jordan Farmar are the first NBA players to sign with an Israeli team in order to keep playing this year.

Booker signed a one-year deal on Thursday with Israeli Basketball League team Bnei Hasharon that has an opt-out clause that will allow him to return to the Wizards whenever the lockout ends.

The Wizards General Manager Ernie Grunfeld’s son, Dan, played for Bnei Hasharon last season. According to the Washington Post, Booker has traveled overseas to Turkey and Serbia and said he was “definitely open” to playing in Israel. After speaking with his parents, Booker decided to take advantage of the opportunity. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“I’m real excited,” Booker said in a telephone interview on Thursday. “I get to play against some competition again. I think it will be a neat experience, so I’m definitely excited.”

Booker plans to leave for Israel next month and his business manager, Oliver Hill plans to tag along and assist Booker with getting acclimated to the new country. Miller said he doesn’t expect Booker to have any problems in Israel. “I think the transition will be very seamless for him. He’s a very mature kid.”

Maccabi Tel Aviv also is benefiting from the NBA walkout by New Jersey Net guard Jordan Farmar to a contract for the duration of the work stoppage. The league’s only American Jew, the 24-year-old Farmar is eligible to be listed as a naturalized Israeli outside the limited quota of foreign players each Israeli team is allowed.

And even New York Knicks’ star Amar’e Stoudemire was a possibility of for coming over to Israel. Last month he asked fans on Twitter if he should play in Israel during the NBA lockout, “Should I go to Israel and play for Maccabi Tel Aviv during the lockout?” he wrote. Later, the star, who visited Israel last year as a tourist and explored his Jewish roots, decided to remain at home.

Maybe the walkout kills the NBA season, he’ll reconsider. I’m sure a team here will open up their roster for him.

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In addition, Blumsack serves on the media team of the Israel Football League… and if you didn’t know there was American-style football in Israel, then you haven’t been driving by Jerusalem’s Kraft Stadium. On any day of the week it is alive with flag football players – men, women, young boys and girls.

The stadium is named for Robert and Myra Kraft, owners of the NFL’s New England Patriots and one of the driving forces behind flag football in Israel. Sadly, Myra Kraft passed away this week of cancer at age 68. David has written more about this remarkable woman here.

It’s a point of great pride that IFL teams sing the national anthem, HaTikva, at every game.

Beyond the confines of the stadium, as he wanders through Jerusalem, Blumsack finds the encounters he seeks with people enjoying simple pleasures — like these two young men at rest, heads atop their cycle helmets…

Or this painter, working intently in the heart of Jerusalem’s Mahane Yehuda Market…

And children enjoying green spaces within the urban environment.

More works can be seen at Rick Blumsack’s website.

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