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Monday Aug 04, 2008
Modesty Blasé: Netball and Jewish women Posted by Modesty Blasé
Comments: 2
Recent news that the Israeli netball team found glory in Ireland brought a warm glow to my face that I almost confused with the beginnings of a hot flush. Apparently, new-comers are always given the less-favoured positions of GA or GS (goal shooter). After five minutes of play, I understood why. I was completely exhausted and ready to go home, willing to admit defeat and delusions of grandeur. But I persevered and made it to the end of the game, feeling very proud of myself and determined to return the following week. And I did. I have returned nearly every week, and have been upgraded to Goal Defence, the same position I had as a teenager and that allows me to run across two thirds of the court. However, there is one considerable difference between the delicacy of women's netball and the sweat of men's basketball. Women say sorry when they miss a catch, ill-time a throw or snuff a goal. It's sorry, sorry, sorry. It's as if they don't even believe they're entitled to be on the court. Some are much older than 40, and some are their teenage daughters. Some are devoutly religious while for others, chicken soup is as Jewish as it gets. Some have scarves tightly bound around their hair and are wearing a skirt on top of their long tracksuit bottoms, while others are in skimpy shorts and singlet tops. Some are single professional women, others are working at home looking after their large brood. Many are struggling to juggle work and family commitments. Some are married, some are looking for marriage and a couple are happily settled in lesbian partnerships. Some are avowed Zionists who visit Israel regularly, while others prefer Majorca. In the milli-seconds of friendly chit-chat between goals, our partners (or lack thereof), financial troubles, children and beauty anxieties are shared. This hour together is an opportunity to see each other as women, stripped of our Jewish allegiances that have so often served to separate and stereotype us. It is an hour that has spawned great friendships across these divides and if women in Israel can also use a game of netball to enable these sort of relationships, and also with Arab women in their neighbourhoods, then it's certainly a sport worthy of some funding from private and public sources.
1 | tzvi nokam/ amerikkka, Tuesday Aug 05, 2008
Jewish women should play a nice Jewish game like mah jang not netball
2 | J. Friedman, Thursday Aug 07, 2008
Some Jewish women might be interested in an upcoming lecture on the Dead Sea Scrolls, to be held at the Open University on August 20 in the evening. The lecturer, historian Norman Golb of the University of Chicago, was, along with other proponents of the Jerusalem theory of scroll origins, excluded, by virtue of being a "dissenter," from participating in a recent 3-day conference on which the Jerusalem Post glowingly reported without mentioning the biased policy of exclusion implemented by the organizers of the conference. For further information, see:
https://www.fee.co.il/Golb
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