On March 29, the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame of Northern California will induct its second class of student athletes. These seven teens applied for the honor and were selected based on their athletic record, academic achievement and involvement in community service.
Daniel Lebe
At Temple Israel in Alameda, Daniel Lebe isn’t known for his athletic accomplishments in track and cross country; he’s known for his latkes.
“My dad has this really awesome recipe. So one day, he asked me to help make them and I said ‘sure.’ Last December was my third year in a row frying up latkes,” Lebe said.
His sights are not set on culinary school, however, but on a future that includes running for a collegiate team. Although Lebe doesn’t know what college he’s headed to next fall, he does know that he’ll do anything to compete.
“At first, I thought I’d be too busy,” said the 17-year-old. “But I’m really hooked on racing. I don’t think I would be able to give that up. It’s like a drug — you just want more.”
A senior at Alameda High School, Lebe expects to run the 400-meter, 800-meter, half mile and mile this season. He secured a spot on the varsity track team as a sophomore, but wouldn’t get any dirt on his running shoes until the following year.
That’s because before the season began, Lebe strained his groin, injured his Achilles tendon and developed plantar fasciitis, a painful inflammatory condition caused by excessive wear to arches of the foot.
He started a slow but intense rehabilitation process that included physical therapy, stretches and plenty of down time for healing. He refers to the ordeal as one of the hardest things he’s ever done.
“When you overcome a personal conflict or obstacle, and you do it by yourself, it’s so gratifying,” he said. “You feel different, more mature. I see my life and the world in a different aspect, with different eyes.”
Lebe remembers running and hiding from his parents in department stores when he was young, one of his earliest memories in a life that would be full of activity. When Lebe decided to narrow his focus to running, he was determined to be the best and see what personal barriers he could break.
Away from the track, Lebe runs “to get lost in the woods.” He treks through Joaquin Miller Park in the Oakland Hills and pounds the Bay Trail, which circles Bay Farm Island in Alameda. He prefers to journey that path at night, when San Francisco’s buildings are aglow.
Lebe is as familiar with Alameda’s trails as he is with his family’s synagogue. In addition to sizzling latkes, Lebe recalls climbing on the sanctuary’s roof to help wash the windows when he was young, and representing Temple Israel in Alameda’s Fourth of July parade.
He was also a student teacher for kindergarten, first- and second-grade Sunday school classes.
“Teaching brought back good memories,” Lebe said. “When you start learning Hebrew and going to bar mitzvah training, you forget about the little things, like the background of holidays. I got all nostalgic — it was kind of nice.”
Hannah Safford
It’s not unusual for Hannah Safford to be surrounded by bobcats, snakes, chinchillas, frogs and birds of prey.
A volunteer at the San Francisco Zoo’s animal resource center, which trains animals used for educational purposes, Safford has racked up more than 1,200 service hours. She’s moved her way up the ladder, at first caring for small animals of the pet store variety, and now handling raptors — falcons, owls and hawks, her reward for years of hard work.
“Once a bird hooked its talon to my thumb,” Safford said casually. “That’s why you wear the really heavy gloves; goggles for more aggressive birds.”
She dons similar protective gear, though in a much different capacity, when moving back and forth in a hallway-like space that fencers like Safford call “the strip.”
It took just one fencing lesson at a Renaissance Faire for Safford, then in sixth grade, to get hooked on the sport. These days, the 17-year-old competes, and often wins, with an epee, a modern version of the original dueling sword called the rapier.To score a valid hit, a fencer must fix the epee’s point somewhere on the opponent’s body. The first to hit the target receives a point. In preliminary rounds, whoever has five touches at the end of three minutes wins the bout. During later rounds, it’s the first to 15 touches.
“Some people describe it as physical chess,” said Safford. “When you’re fencing on the strip, it’s you and just you. It takes more psychological preparation than team sports. If you do well, it’s wonderful. If you start to mess up, there’s no one to help you.”
Safford’s a regular at the Golden Gate Fencing Center in San Francisco, where she’s been given the opportunity to take part in several national and international competitions. In April she heads to the Junior and Cadet Fencing World Championships in Northern Ireland, adding to the growing list of countries she’s visited in competition, which includes Germany, Austria, Sweden and Slovakia.
Since she’ll be in Belfast during Passover, Safford’s hoping to participate in a Chabad community seder. “It might be difficult to keep kosher,” Safford said. “No Irish soda bread for me.”
A self-described “aggressive fencer,” Safford is left-handed, which often provides an advantage over right-handed opponents. She’s constantly working to strike a balance between executing her own game plan and reacting to her competitor’s, a unique skill set that’s taken countless hours of dedication to perfect.
“I miss a lot of school,” said Safford, a senior at Lowell High School in San Francisco. “People ask how I manage to keep up with homework. I say, ‘How would I keep up if I weren’t fencing?’ If I don’t get my work done, I don’t get to travel.”
Before competing for Princeton University in the fall, Safford will participate in the Maccabiah games in Israel this summer — a decision that will require her to forgo the Summer National Championships in Texas.
It’s not the first time Safford has put her Jewish identity first. In the past, she has chosen Yom Kippur with her family over fencing in Budapest; she’s even packed a travel menorah to tournaments that have occurred during Chanukah.
“There’s not many Jewish fencers,” said Safford, whose family belongs to Congregation Beth Israel–Judea. “I want to be ‘Hannah the fencer,’ but also ‘Hannah the Jewish girl,’ among other things.”
Ilana Finer
It takes more than endurance, coordination and finesse for Ilana Finer to excel on the soccer and softball fields.
Underneath her uniform, a pump constantly dispenses insulin into her body. Sugar packets and energy bars are as necessary as shin guards and batting helmets. Diagnosed with diabetes at the age of 2, she learned early on that the more you exercise, the more your blood sugar drops.
“A couple of people thought it would be really hard with so many things to worry about,” Finer said. “But I love my sports so much that I persevered.”
Finer is the Hall of Fame’s recipient of the Aerial Gilbert award, presented each year to a Jewish female athlete who has overcome obstacles and is thus an inspiring role model for other athletes.
Finer strives to put at ease kids who have been newly diagnosed with diabetes. During two recent summers, she volunteered as a camp counselor with the Diabetes Society of Santa Clara Day Camp in San Jose, where she familiarized her campers with the disorder, in addition to making art and playing sports such as kickball.
She has also helped coach the junior high softball team at Pinewood School in Los Altos, where she’s a senior. The Woodside native first started playing baseball with the boys before joining her local softball squad.
Finer added soccer to her sports repertoire and went on to earn spots on the varsity softball and soccer teams as a freshman.
“They’re both really fun,” said Finer, who attended Gideon Hausner Jewish Day School before Pinewood. “People say I’m more aggressive, more of a leader and more talkative on the field. I’m good at what I do, and I love helping others.”
As Finer rattled off her list of role models, you’d never guess that she prefers soccer to softball and baseball. Two former San Francisco Giants make the cut — first baseman J.T. Snow and catcher Mike Matheny, who was forced to retire because of recurring concussions.
“J.T. does a lot of community service and was a really great player,” Finer said. “And even with all his injuries, Mike kept playing until he wasn’t able to do it anymore.”
Jesse Weiner
Odds are, if you ask a group of Jewish athletes to describe the moment when their sport and Judaism first intersected, it might take more than a few seconds to get an answer.
Unless you’re talking to 17-year-old Jesse Weiner. He remembers it exactly.
“I was standing in Independence Hall in Tel Aviv,” said Weiner, of Lafayette. “I spent a month traveling around Israel, but when I stood there, it was the greatest feeling in the world. Pretty powerful.”
Weiner replays this scene in his mind whenever he’s running, an activity he views as a reflection of life: “If you’re not willing to go the distance, then it will show up in your races,” Weiner said. “Just like if you don’t do your homework, you won’t pass your classes.”
It’s an attitude that’s taken Weiner to two Maccabi Games, in Washington, D.C., and Richmond, Va., and the 2005 Junior Olympics in Indianapolis. It was there that he and three teammates finished third in the 4×800-meter relay final.
A senior at Acalanes High School in Lafayette, Weiner secured a spot on the varsity track team as a freshman and will most likely attend the University of Missouri next fall. His focus has shifted from trouncing his high school competitors to decreasing his time in the half-mile, an event he’s hoping to run in college.
When he’s not circling the track, Weiner is volunteering for Shelter Inc., an organization working to prevent homelessness, promote self-sufficiency and provide affordable housing throughout Contra Costa County.
“I really like helping people out,” said Weiner, who delivers food and supplies to low-income families. “I’ve been fortunate enough, and I should give back to the community.”
Weiner is also a regular at Temple Isaiah’s Winter Nights, a rotating shelter program dedicated to making life more enjoyable for homeless families and seniors. Congregants cook meals and help out with the duties of hosting up to 30 residents.
A penchant for community service runs in the family. Weiner’s grandfather, Ernest Weiner, retired last summer after 38 years as regional director of the local American Jewish Committee.
“He’s always been there for me,” Weiner said. “He showed me why I should work hard in life and stand up for Israel.”
Tsipora Prochovnick
She was told she was too young. That it would be too cold. That she’d never finish.
Even as the tears streamed down her face in fury, Tsipora Prochovnick didn’t listen. She entered the Escape From Alcatraz triathlon when she was in the eighth grade, and that year completed the frigid, one-and-a-half-mile swim from the middle of the San Francisco Bay to Marina Green Beach.
Strong currents, 55-degree temperatures and huge sea lions can’t keep Prochovnick out of the water. She even prefers the bay to a swimming pool.
“It’s exhilarating and terrifying,” said the 18-year-old. “You know underneath your toes, it goes on and on and on. Some people think I’m crazy, but I think I’m somewhere in the middle.”
In addition to competing in Escape From Alcatraz, Prochovnick also swims for Balboa High School’s varsity team with a bunch of girls she calls her friends, but not her classmates.
That’s because she is currently a senior at San Francisco School of the Arts, which doesn’t offer a swimming program. This year, she scheduled her classes to end around noon, so she can attend swim practices and make time for her other favorite activity: rock climbing.
“Most people who swim usually do so in a pool,” Prochovnick said. “Most people who climb usually do it outdoors. I’m the opposite.”
She’s a regular at Mission Cliffs Climbing and Fitness in San Francisco, a place she considers her second home.
A third home is her family’s synagogue, Congregation Sha’ar Zahav.
Prochovnick celebrated her bat mitzvah with the Reform community, and graduated to classes every Sunday at Midrasha, a teen learning institute in the East Bay. As a Midrasha counselor-in-training, Prochovnick designed curriculums for weekend retreats based on well-known topics in Judaism.
“I love Midrasha,” she said. “I’ve learned so much, and I wanted to give others a chance to do the same.”
Colorado College in Colorado Springs is Prochovnick’s top choice for next fall. She’s intrigued by the liberal arts campus’ block plan, which allows students to take one class at a time over the span of three and a half weeks.
Plus, she added, it’s “really, really outdoorsy.”
Aly Caplan
It’s hard to believe a girl who plays three varsity sports and maintains a class schedule that rivals that of a college student would have time for extra-curricular activities.
Never underestimate the power of time management.
Aly Caplan is on the varsity volleyball, soccer and softball teams at Aragon High School in San Mateo. Her backpack is weighed down by books for AP biology, honors Spanish, AP English and AP government. You might also find a handmade ceramic teapot or sculpture in there, as well.
Outside of school, Caplan is a four-year member of the Peninsula Jewish Community Teen Foundation, a nonprofit that teaches young adults how to run a foundation by creating a mission statement and allocating money to groups that fit their cause.
Caplan, whose family belongs to Peninsula Temple Sholom in Burlingame, served on the foundation’s advisory committee for the past two years, and the leadership council before that.
“It’s such a neat program,” she said. “It’s a great opportunity to learn how to run a nonprofit, meet other Jewish teens and learn about Jewish values. I absolutely love it.”
But most of her free time is spent on the softball field, where she works on perfecting the “swoosh” in her swing with batting coach Christie Liu, who helped the Chinese softball team win silver at the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta.
Caplan thinks of both her high school and club softball teams as extended families, with each teammate playing a sisterly role on and off the field. Friendships aside, Caplan also loves the thrill of the making the perfect catch, or scoring the winning goal or kill.
“It was really exciting,” she said, referring to when she clinched a tournament championship for her volleyball team. “The best feeling I’ve ever had.”
Caplan will play softball at Brown University in the fall. Though she’s not sure what to expect from college, she’s excited to compete at a high level and knows the school will be a “great fit,” even with the chilly Rhode Island winters.
“It’s going to be cold,” Caplan said. “But I’m tough. I’ll layer, and it will be OK.”
Lauren Polansky
These days, basketball standout Lauren Polansky is known for both her on-court performance and her off-the-court friendships.
Polansky and Niveen Rasheed, whose parents are Palestinians from the West Bank, became close while playing for the East Bay Xplosion club team. The two have been dubbed two of the Bay Area’s top female basketball players.
“I’m happy to have her as a friend,” said Polansky, a Branson High School senior. “We’re both accepting of the other and understand where each other is coming from.”
Their unique friendship recently caught the attention of the San Francisco Chronicle, which profiled the pair.
“I guess there is hope if a Jewish girl and a Palestinian girl can be friends, but we’re friends because of who we are as individuals, not how we identify ourselves,” Polansky said.
The Hall of Fame inductee will play basketball for Princeton University next fall. Her success with the sport seems to be a natural progression, considering her family boasts a former member of the South African national team (mother Cindy Polansky) and a past coach at City College of New York (grandfather Dave Polansky). Her father, Jon Polansky, has also been instrumental in his daughter’s achievements.
“I had a little hoop in my crib,” said Polansky, of Mill Valley. “But I haven’t really felt much pressure to excel. Actually, I feel really lucky to have basketball in my genes.”
To instill a love of basketball in others, Polansky coaches younger girls through private lessons and camps. It’s her way of giving back to younger fans, who often fill the stands when she takes the court.
And when Polansky, a 5-foot-8 point guard, takes the court, she’s a force on defense. Racking up steals, locking down opposing point guards and passing are her specialties.
“I’ve gotten a lot out of basketball, physically and as a person,” Polansky said. “It’s a huge support system, has taught me a lot about leadership, how to work with people and never give up.”
Honoring athletes past and present
There’s not much missing from the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame of Northern California. In its short existence, the organization has built a strong board of directors, mentorship programs for kids, and inducted two groups of prominent Jewish athletes and sports-minded community leaders with Bay Area ties.
The only thing missing is the hall.
That will soon change, when the Oshman Family Jewish Community Center in Palo Alto makes a physical move from the JCC’s Middlefield Road location to the sprawling Taube Koret Campus for Jewish Life, scheduled to open next fall.
The 8.5-acre, $147 million complex will house the Hall of Fame, complete with a state-of-the-art interactive wall of touch screens featuring enshrinees, programs and events.
“To have come this far in such short time is really amazing,” said Hall of Fame president Jack Anderson. “An interest in sports really seems to be part of the Jewish culture.”
The third class of inductees includes: Mark Spitz, seven-time Olympic gold medalist in swimming, who grew up in Northern California; Mike Epstein, former first baseman for the Oakland A’s; Leigh Steinberg, prominent sports agent who attended U.C. Berkeley; Richard Goldman, philanthropist and past president of the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation; the late Abe and Monte Attell, and Al Emmick-Cohn, all title-holding boxers.
Robert Corrigan, president of San Francisco State University, will receive the Mensch Award for his leadership role in resolving issues involving campus climate and the Jewish community, and support of athletic facilities.
Honorees will be inducted during a banquet March 29 at the Four Seasons Hotel in San Francisco.
But the Hall of Fame offers more than just a once-a-year ceremony.
Student athletes, both Jewish and non-Jewish, can take part in the Hall of Fame’s Miracle Mentor program, which offers quarterly one-day seminars with an opportunity to shadow a select group of mentors, some of whom are retired professional athletes.
Notable mentors have included Kirk Reynolds, former PR director with the San Francisco 49ers; Eric Christensen, a retired KGO-TV producer; and retired 49er Dave Fiore.
“The whole idea is to build cross-cultural collaboration, one friendship at a time,” Anderson said. “This means there is someone who the student can always talk to, besides a parent.”
When the students leave for college, their mentors pledge to keep in touch.
“A lot of youth say that people don’t really listen to them,” Anderson said. “The mentors truly care about the students and communicate that they are important.”
Jewish Sports Hall of Fame of Northern California will induct its third class with a 5:30 p.m. reception and silent auction and banquet at 6:30 p.m. March 29 at the Four Seasons Hotel, 757 Market St., S.F. Tickets: $175. Information: Gary Weiner, [email protected] or (408) 374-1600.