Yeshiva Breaks Ground on New Basketball Park/Court on Campus

Physical fitness is not something that Hesder Yeshivot are set up to provide.  Our young men have to be in excellent physical form to survive the hardships of the army, and there is nothing better to help them achieve this than good and regular games of basketball.

Thanks to the generosity of the Balaban family of Calgary, Canada, a basketball court has been planned on site at our Yeshivah and can be utilized day and night. Until now, we have had to plead and beg to train at one of the other basketball centers in town, which are far from the Yeshivah, lack the necessary maintenance and lighting, and are only open at specific hours.

Our credo is, and has always been, to be part of the community, and we devote many of our resources to the underprivileged members of society.    Our hope is to make the basketball court available not only for our private use, but also for our neighbors, for whom this will be “a whole new ball game”.  Imagine – a Hesder Yeshivah where Torah study is of the essence, inviting everyone and anyone to use their very own basketball court for local tournaments in the community!

The park will also double up as a center for special outdoor events, and it will be built in an ideal location adjacent to our student dormitories where nobody else will be disturbed by the games.

We hope to raise additional funds for an outdoor fitness center at the park, something that has become increasingly popular in towns and villages in Israel.

In order to get an idea of the extent of basketball games that will take place at the new Balaban Basketball Park, imagine 250 Hesder students, stretching their legs after a 12-hour day  (and more) of sitting and learning in the study hall (Bet Midrash), all the with common desire to play a good game of basketball, knowing how this will improve their physical fitness.   We truly believe in “mens sana in corpore sano”, and we know that the Park will be a perfect fit for our ideology, enhancing the minds and creativity of our first-class students at the Hesder Yeshivah and involving the community in Kiryat Shemona.

The cornerstone for the Basketball Park was set in the presence of members of the Balaban family, Rabbi Tzfaniah Drori, members of the Yeshivah staff and Hesderniks.

Click on an image below to enlarge: