Merage Jewish Community Center of Orange County • Samueli Jewish Campus • OC 2013 JCC Maccabi Games®
OC Wave Length Staff Blaze Bernstein (Layout Editor) Abby Steinmetz Deana Berman Lee-El Yehezkel Jeremy Frank Aaron Ratner Henry Passo Anne Berg Channa SchachetBriskin Deborah Frank Michael Kaplan Sydney Pomish Justin Kalvari Michael Sandor Daniel Gillman Joey Kleid Gabi Permba Lila Harris Matana Zwiren Coaches: Linda Cooper Kathy B Shapiro Abby Cutler
JOIN US! JCC Maccabi ArtsFests Showcase “Spirit” Today in the JCC Myers Theater At 3:00 Page 1
Star Reporters
by Deborah Frank and LeeEl Yehezkel Have you noticed those people who are always walking around with a camera and notepad? Yep, that’s us. We are the STAR reporters, and during the day, our duty is to capture the JCC Maccabi Games and ArtsFest experience by photographing and documenting your stories and daily activities. After a hard day’s work of taking buses to multiple school campuses, we return to our home base classroom and churn out the next day’s newspaper for your enjoyment.
Photo by Kathy Shapiro
Our crew consists of nineteen reporters from all over North America who all share a passion for journalism and photography. Together, we work hard at transferring our photos on the computer, editing them, writing articles and editing those, and then collaborating all of our work into a fun, visually pleasing newspaper format, as well as uploading photos and articles onto social media. We have also created a slideshow for the ArtsFest Showcase.
Maccabi Saved My Life
by Anne Berg and Aaron Ratner Meet Thelma Edell (pictured to the right), a resident from Heritage Point, who was sad until Maccabi came into her life. Two weeks before Orange County hosted the games in 2007 her husband died. She was incredibly depressed with her loss, but Maccabi managed to save her life. All the social activities kept her mind off her husband’s death. This is her second time volunteering at the JCC Maccabi Games in Orange County. She loves all the children she sees during Maccabi and the fun of the activities.
Photo by Abby Steinmetz
Meet the Coaches keep it undefeated. Earlier on at the JCC
by Justin Kalvari Shane Urowitz the coach for the Toronto inline hockey team with his good friend Bryan Robbins the coach of the Detroit inline hockey team have a friendly rivalry. But it never gets mean. They have nothing but good things to say about each other and each other’s teams. This is Shane’s 3rd year coaching and Bryans 5th year coaching. The Toronto teams record at the moment is 1-3 and the Detroit record is 3-0 and Bryan hopes to
Photo by Gabi Poremba
Maccabi Games Detroit beat Toronto. But even though Detroit beat them Shane still has faith in his team. Bryan says he thinks anybody could win once it comes to the playoffs. Bryan thinks that Shane’s team is always well prepared. Bryan also seems to think that the big competition for his team is Orange County. Both coaches are happy to be in Orange County.
Bryan Robbins (right) and Shane Urowitz Photo by Justin Kalvari (left)
Learn to be Strong, Smart, and Bold
by Gabi Poremba During a press conference today, several reporters interviewed athletes and girls from Girls Inc (pictured to the left). They shared with us what they have done connecting with JCC Cares and what their experience has been. Girls Inc. is an organization that teaches girls to be strong, smart, and bold. Athletes from the Greater
Wash ington Girls Basketball Team that we interviewed said that they participated in many activities such as art projects, relay races, and making cookies for the homeless. Besides the involvement with Maccabi, Girls Inc. participants learn how to run businesses and buy items from peers’ shops as well. In conclusion, it seems that they are all having a fantastic experience in Maccabi so far.
Catching Up With Greater Washington
by Deana Berman, Michael Kaplan, & Aaron Ratner We caught up with some of the players from the Greater Washington Baseball team; Noah Lerman and Zach Wiener. For Noah, it’s his first time in California, and he’s loving it! It’s also his first time participating in the JCC Maccabi Games. For Zach it’s his second time around. Both boys are planning on coming back next year. Their team has been playing with injuries, but are still playing hard. “Tearing it up in Cali” said Zach. In fact, yesterday they turned a triple play, which is one of the rarest plays in baseball. Their team has great chemistry and lots of heart. They couldn’t have done it without their wonderful coaches who give inspirational pep talks, that bring great energy. Baseball has been lots of fun for them! Photos by Deana Berman
Philidelphia’s Youngesters Come Through
by Henry Passo and Daniel Gillman Steve Mendel the coach of the Philadelphia 14u baseball team and his players came ready to play ball. Steve said, “ Our only desire is to win!”. His job is not easy because nine out of twelve members of his team are thirteen year olds. The team was determined because one loss and they would be done for this year. The team beat Page 2
Detroit 3-2. The pitcher pitched a complete game for Philadelphia in their win. Philadelphia had a golden opportunity to score more runs with the bases loaded but failed. Their defense was amazing when they got a Detroit runner in a run down during the last inning. The coach urged his players to continue their good work in the next round.
Photo by Henry Passo
Jazz and Dance Wroking Together by Syndey Pomihs and LeeEl Yehzhak Jazz and Dance are working together on a masterpiece—Jazz is creating the music, and dance is creating an interpretative dance, expressing the emotions and feelings of the music. The chosen song (Ze Kore) is about disrespect, but later transitions into a song about repairing the world, or Tikkun Olam. The dancers are working very hard to adjust all of the different kinds of dance into one song. “Jazz is the most collaborative art specialty, they are working with the visual arts and the dance ensemble” says Mattan Klein, the director of the Jazz ensemble. However, they are all
very excited to work together and showcase their talents. One of the jazz musicians, Sam Sitzmann, has had a passion for music particularly for own instrument, the cello, since he was three years old. He says that, according to his mother, he just started to like cello music and so his mom signed him up for 5-minute cello lessons. Ever since then, he’s loved playing his instrument, even asking for Chicago Symphony tickets for his birthday! One day, Sam hopes to become a professional cello musician, preferably in the Chicago Symphony, but he is open to other ideas as well.
A Tennis Girl’s Honor by Gabi Poremba and Lila Harris Fourteen year old, Gabrielle Bur- good shot, she was kind and complimentkholz, from San Diego demonstrated her ed her. That made it clear to us that she is positivity and determination during her friendly both on and off the court. At UCI, we learned that the scormatch today. She has been playing tennis ing system for the tennis matches is based for seven years, two of which she played on the honor system. This means that the competitively. Today she was nervous but competitors keep track of their own score she stepped onto the court with confidence. status. At the match today, Gabrielle and “Even when you are down in a her opponent had a disagreement about a game, don’t give up. The more you try, the play. Quickly, they were able to talk it out, more you will succeed,” said Gabrielle, as come to agreement, resolve it and continue advice to future tennis players. When Gabrielle’s opponent took a on with the game.
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Meet the Athletes Josh Bernstein by Jeremy Frank and Blaze Bernstein
Josh Bernstein is an orange county Jew and an extremely talented singer and keyboard player. He is the lead vocalist for the Alpha Males, the band in room 103. Josh has been coming to the JCC Maccabi games three years. The OC games will make up his fourth year. When asked if this will be his last year he said that it may or may not be, Depending on what’s going on next summer.
Artist!
The Alpha Males write their own songs. The songs they are currently writing are about their summer experience at the JCC. Josh said that he really enjoyed his summers at Maccabi and that OC has an interesting culture. Another vocalist and guitarist from the Alpha Males, Jacob Wayne stated “I do vocals but he is so good that I don’t even need to”. Josh Bernstein is a very dedicated, nice and awesome Rock n Roll jew. We should all hope his name goes beyond the JCC.
Gold Medal Winners
Photo by Matana Zwiren
Photos above and below by Kathy Shapiro
Photo by Joey Kleid
Photo by Joey Kleid
David Sluszny Track and Field-
Noa Lihn Competitive Dance- Ballet
By Michael Sandor An old maxim says, “In a moment of weakness, you might surprise yourself ”. For Jake Pantic-Horne (pictured to the right) of Berkeley, CA this surprise came in the pool. Growing up Jake was a pretty average kid. Other then having a quick sixmonth stint in England when he was only one, life was normal. One thing that wasn’t normal was that Jake didn’t know how to swim. But that was OK. He had no qualms about being a child that preferred to spend his time on land. However when he was ten things took an interesting turn. At a local aquatic center one day, Jake’s mom
pushed him into the pool when he refused to go in. This was his introduction to swimming. Six years later on August 7, 2013, Jake Pantic-Horne has become unstoppable. At the Orange County JCC Maccabi Games he has participated in eight different events. He has medaled in every single one, winning gold three times and silver five times. The teen that had only started swimming competitively two years earlier was dominating athletes who had been competing all their lives. When asked about his journey to his success as a swimmer he said, “You can achieve anything you want if you truly believe in yourself.”
Jake Pantic-Horn
Photo by Michael Sandor
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