By David E. Kaplan and Dr. Les Glassman
With Lawn Bowls being a major sport at this year’s 2017 Maccabi Games, discover how this sport was introduced to Israel by South African immigrants.
“HARD TO BEAT” was the message that resounded at the European Lawn Bowls Championships held in Israel in August 2015. Although England came out eventual champions, the mantra “Hard to Beat” referred to no particular country’s competing team but to the host country Israel. Said Maurice Lavin, an accountant and a former South African, who was the President of the Israel Lawn Bowls Association:
“Twelve European countries competed. It was the first time the championship was held in Israel and all the European players and their organizations said it was the best championship ever. They praised our efficient organisation and overwhelming warm hospitality.”
The Championships were hosted at the Ra’anana and Ramat Gan Bowls Clubs.
“What was quite amazing,” revealed Lavin “was that the teams arrived in the midst of a sudden outbreak of terrorist attacks all throughout Israel and not one player or team cancelled despite the many enquiries. In fact, the Israeli sports channels that were televising the championships were literally “bowled” over by this lack of fear and welcome support for Israel. The participants all said they never felt safer and we even took them before the championships to the Dead Sea. The loved it as they loved their entire experience in Israel.”
“Bowlers aren’t moffies!” quipped an Israeli spectator, exposing his South African pedigree. “Let’s hope it rubs off on the Bokke!” remarked another alluding to the Springbok team at the 2015 Rugby World Cup in the UK.
Hosting the championships in Israel was as one Israeli official commented “reaching the crest of Everest” and represented a long an inspiring journey of South African contribution to the founding and development of Lawn Bowls in Israel.
Genesis
The Four Musketeers. Participating in the 4th Maccabiah in 1953 are “the pioneers of Israel Lawn Bowls” – former South Africans (top (l-r) Percy Manham and seated (l-r) Jack Raphael and Max Spitz and Englishman Wellesley Aron (top right).
“The Founder of Israeli Bowls” Max Spitz (left) is seen here walking with Golda Meir (centre) in Ashkelon in the 1950s . It is uncertain whether Max was suggesting where to build a bowls club!
Playing a game of bowls may not have seemed an important priority to most Israelis after the War of Independence. There was the dire security situation and the desperate state of the economy but full credit must go to former South African Max Spitz who is revered as the “Father of Lawn Bowls in Israel’.
The late Norman Spiro, originally from Durbanville outside of Cape Town and former President of the Israel Lawn Bowls Association and the bowl’s correspondent to The Jerusalem Post and Haaretz over many decades, said, “In the early 1950s, Max dreamt of bringing bowls to Israel but did not anticipate the bureaucratic hurdles and what would have broken the back of lesser mortals did not apply to Max – he had nerves of steel.”
Supported with his ‘A Team’ of fellow South African immigrants Percy Manham, Jack Raphael and Lazar Braudo, the ‘trips’ and ‘skipper’ Max convinced the mayor of Ramat Gan Avraham Krinitzi – who had absolutely no idea what bowls was about – that the sport was vital for ‘Israel’s Survival’. To “schmooze” the mayor, they showed him slides of the Balfour Park Bowling Club in Johannesburg with its beautiful gardens and flowers. The mayor was delighted and said ‘’you want a park! Why didn’t you just say so? I love parks’’ and granted permission to lay down two greens on the banks of the Yarkon River.
Back in South Africa, Alf Blumberg the President of SA Maccabi Council and an international bowler formed the friends of the Israel Lawn Bowls Association.
However, there was the question of financing and this is where Spiro says that Max earned another deserving accolade – “The King of Shnorrers”. With his self-styled power of persuasion, he enlisted the support of Diaspora Jewry through Maccabi South Africa which led to the opening of the first club in Ramat Gan.
Pitch Perfect
This was all very well but nothing would go far without quality greens so South Africa sent “bowling green expert” Dave Millin to Ramat Gan to advise on the laying of the first green and brought with him grass from the Houghton Bowling Club in Johannesburg – and so in 1950, the first bowls club in Israel was opened by South African immigrants.
Men in White. Captain & Manager Jack Rabin (Centre top) with Harry Frankel, Joe Goldberg, Joe Lewis, and Fred Stein at the Houghton Club with members of the “Tots Rubinstein’ Wednesday afternoon players.
This was followed a few years later by a second club at Savyon outside Tel Aviv. Soon afterward bowls were recognized as a Maccabiah sport. “Interestingly,” reveals Lavin, “That same grass brought out from South Africa is still here today. How is that for longevity? What’s more, the grass grown on the side of the original Ramat Gan green to be used to fix dry patches as and when they occur were taken to other emerging clubs to be used as a basis to get their greens going.” These anecdotes reveal how literally ‘rooted’ South Africa is to bowls in Israel!
It was at the Maccabi Games in 1953 that saw the first Israeli Lawn Bowls team participate when they competed against South Africa and the former Rhodesia. The Israeli team consisted of the South Africans Max Spitz, Percy Manheim and Jack Raphael and an Englishman, Wellesley Aron. Aron enjoys an interesting connection to South Africa as he is the founder of World Habonim and it was a young student from Johannesburg in London in 1930, Norman Lurie, who heard Aron address a meeting on his concept of a new Jewish youth scout movement who within the year, introduced Habonim to South Africa. One of the finest boutique hotels in the Middle East, The Norman in Tel Aviv is named after Norman Lurie.
Ever since that fateful 1953 Maccabi Games, Lawn Bowls has been part of the Maccabiah.
As an aside with no connection to either bowls or Habonim but most certainly ‘music to one’s ears’, Wellesley’s grandson in Israel is none other than the famed guitarist and folklore singer, David Broza.
Going Green
Long before the environmental movement got going, greens started to flourish beyond the strictly Anglo-Saxon community. Instrumental in this drive was former Capetonian Jack Rabin, President of the Israel Lawn Bowls Association. During his tenure in the seventies and eighties, he oversaw the opening of five new clubs – Netanya, Ra’anana, Haifa, Jerusalem and Kfar Maccabiah. “At 43 years of age, I was the youngest person to hold the presidency by at least twenty years, and I set about encouraging younger players as well as reaching beyond the English-speaking community to native Israelis.”
Wonder Women. The women’s bowls team in the fours that took bronze at the 1981 World Bowls Championships. (-r) Edith Silverman, Molly Skudawitz, Helen Gordon, Rena Lebel and Bernice Pilimer.
In 1972, Israel participated in the World Bowls Championships and since then, both the men’s and woman’s teams have participated in the event which is held every four years. Eight years later Israel won the Rinks Bronze Medal in the woman section of the World Bowls Championships – a stunning achievement. A few years later ‘Bowls for the Blind and Visually Impaired’ was co-founded by another former South African, Alex Goldsmith. National, as well as International Championships and friendly international tournaments, are frequently held and in 2012, Goldsmith formed his own nonprofit focusing on spreading the sport for the blind among the younger generation.
Sauvé Cecil
The Exterminator. Cool and calculating in his dispatch of the competition, Cecil Bransky in his Springbok blazer before emigrating to Israel.
When Israel gold medalist Cecil Bransky was about to immigrate to Israel in 1980, an article in the Zionist Record referred to him as “One of the all-time greats of South African bowls,” and “one of the finest all-around players in the world today. The sport in this country will be that much poorer next year when Springbok Bransky moves to Israel.” He must have cut quite a character on the green. One sportswriter lamenting his departure wrote that “to watch him in action is like seeing a scene from an Al Capone movie. With his hat tipped forward resting just above the eyebrows, and his ever-present cigarette pointing from his mouth towards the target at the other end of the green, he looks the part of the cool, calculated killer.” However, Cecil’s terminal intentions were aimed at his opponent’s bowls not their bowels. Nevertheless, this Springbok’s ‘hit list’ was long and impressive. South Africa’s loss was Israel’s gain and within three years of his arrival, he was pipped to the post by The Jerusalem Post when it chose Shachar Perkis ahead of Bransky as their ‘Sportsman of the Year’. The explanation at the time was that bowls did not enjoy the same following as tennis although Cecil’s achievements were far more internationally impressive. He had finished sixth in the singles of the Men’s World Bowls Championships and was runner-up in the Worlds Indoor Championships which in no small way contributed to the rise in popularity of the game in Israel. Many titles and medals, both local and international would follow over the ensuing years – the magazine ‘World Bowls’ once described him as “one of the world’s most distinguished bowlers of recent years” – and in 1998, he was one of the illustrious recipients of the Telfed Sporting Awards held at the Ra’anana Bowling Club. Another was the inimitable Jeff Rabkin, a former Capetonian.
Israeli bowls hold the distinction as being the only sport in which an Israeli was ranked No.1 in the world! Listed at the top of the World Bowls Association rankings, Rabkin obtained five medals at World championship level. He won the Israeli singles championship seven times and the masters sixteen times as well as gold medal at the Hong Kong Classic Pairs.
The Norman Conquest. The Jerusalem Post sports correspondent on Lawn Bowls for many years, the colourful Norman Spiro is seen here in a local ice-cream commercial wearing his Maccabi bowls blazer.
All these achievements were documented and reported on by Norman Spiro who volunteered to fight in Israel’s War of Independence and immigrated to Israel in 1962. He served on the national executive of Israel National Bowling Association for 25 years and was honored being named its Life President for playing a major role in promoting bowls to Israelis.
Seeing Red on the Green
During the First Gulf War in 1992, Norman was driving to inspect a school in Petah Tikva that had been badly hit by an Iraqi Scud when the news came through on the radio that another Scud had struck the Ramat Gan Bowling Club. “Quickly, turn around,” he instructed his driver, “we have to stop on the way and see what the destruction is.” The driver tried to dissuade him, but he would not hear of it. They arrived at the club and saw that the Scud had landed in the middle of a green, totally ruining it. Clearly Saddam Hussein had now gone too far:
“Does that madman not hold anything sacred?” he bellowed.
So passionate was Spiro about bowls – something Saddam Hussein failed to understand – which only hastened Norman’s support for the dictator’s downfall.
Blue & White on the Green
The success of bowls in Israel is reflected in that today, most players are Israeli and the lingua franca on many of the greens is Hebrew. “Today we are attracting younger players who are Sabras (Israeli-born),” said Lavin. “Large clubs like Savyon, Kiryat Ono and even Ramat Gan are totally Israeli. At Ramat Gan where it all began in 1950, there are only two English-speakers – myself and an Australian. This is an excellent sign and bodes well for the future.”
This achievement is reflected in the current Israeli singles champion being a Sabra, Tzvika Hadar, who was also appointed President of the European Bowls Union in 2013 and who held the position for a two-year term. “Not only are Israelis competing with the best in the world but also sitting on the sport’s top world sporting bodies,” says Lavin.
Who would have imagined that planting grass from the Houghton Bowls Club on the banks of the Yarkon River would sow the seeds of bowling greens across Israel! While the future of the sport lies with Israelis, its proud legacy is embedded with those fine inspiring South Africans who chose to make Israel their home, bringing with them their talents and their passion for bowls.
Reflecting back over the years, Jack Rabin says one of the highlights was in 1992 attending the World Championships at Worthing in the UK “when Israel won its first and only Gold medal with Cecil Bransky, Lawrence Mendelsohn and Leon Blum in the trips. Jeff Rabkin took the Bronze in the singles; he should have taken the Gold but lost out ultimately to a South American.”
Regarding our illustrious heavenly bodies, we would like to believe that Max Spitz and Norman Spiro are smiling from their celestial perches and that Norman is probably still keeping scores.
As Israel turns seventy in 2018, the visitors to the 2015 European Lawn Bowls Championships collectively expressed it best:
“Israel is hard to beat.”
