Evan Wildstein’s passion for baseball, especially for the Atlanta Braves, began as soon as he was old enough to throw a ball. And though he fell asleep during his first World Series game (he was only 5 at the time), the intensity he felt for America’s pastime grew.
So, when looking for a bar mitzvah project, the Jewish National Fund’s Project: Baseball naturally caught his eye.
“My goal is to raise $5,000 for the bases for one of the fields JNF is refurbishing in Israel,” said the seventh-grader at Atlanta’s Greenfield Hebrew Academy.
“To do this, I’m going to sell these special pens we ordered that say Project: Baseball on them, and speak about the project in my speech in synagogue. Hopefully I’ll be successful so when I go to Israel for the first time with my class next year on the eighth-grade trip, we can go and see the field and the bases I helped buy.”
For the first time and beginning this summer, the Israel Baseball League is bringing professional baseball to the Jewish state. Jewish National Fund has partnered with the league to dot Israel’s landscape with community baseball fields and provide a place for every Israeli to enjoy the sport.
JNF will build new fields throughout Israel and improve or replace makeshift ones so that each city will eventually have its own baseball field. Construction will be done with attention to Israel’s environmental concerns, including its severe water shortage. All fields will be covered with synthetic turf to avoid the need for constant watering, and catch basins will be installed beneath the turf wherever possible to collect rainfall.
The Wildstein family is not new to JNF. Evan’s grandfather, Walter, and his brothers endowed Georgia’s State Pylon at the Kennedy Memorial in Jerusalem in memory of Evan’s great-grandparents, and his great-uncle Gilbert was a past president of the Atlanta JNF board.
“I think it’s great that JNF is trying to help out with the league and is redoing the dilapidated fields,” said Evan, who plays outfield and second base in the community league and in his school’s baseball team. A huge Braves fan, he shares season tickets with friends and goes to as many games as possible.
For Evan’s bar mitzvah celebration at home, he’ll have a baseball-themed party. “The decorations are brand new gloves, cleats and other pieces of equipment that Evan has been buying over time,” said his mother, Sherri.
“All of them will be collected after the party and brought to Israel next year by the eighth-graders, to be given to Israeli youth who can use the equipment. We are simply thrilled about the entire thing and of course, very proud of Evan.”
For information about Project: Baseball, visit www.jnf.org/baseball. To donate to Evan’s project, go to www.jnf.org/goto/evanbaseball.