MAGAZINE

TheEqualizer August 2016

MAGAZINE

Photo Diary

PREFACE In the beginning of August 2016, a delegation from The Equalizer left for Brazil. The delegation was invited by the Sao Paulo Jewish Community, the Jewish Federation, and the Brazilian Football Association for a trip of football games, museum and stadium tours, past and present local football players, a visit to the Rio Olympics, and more. 22 delegates were chosen from four schools in the Jerusalem region – two of which are Jewish schools and two of which are Arabs from East Jerusalem. The children chosen were those who excelled in the recent school year – in terms of behavior and discipline, but also in terms of devotion, perseverance and proven improvement in various areas. The children were accompanied by staff – coaches and teachers. During the two weeks the delegation was far from home, the children and accompanying staff had unforgettable experiences, beyond their dreams. Some of the itinerary was planned, and some, like witnessing the Israeli judo competitor win a medal and meeting Olympic athletes and more, were unknown prior to leaving Israel. We wanted to share with you some of this incredible experience, and decided that there is no better way than a collection of amazing photos taken by the journalist and photographer volunteering with The Equalizer, Aviv Havron, who joined the delegation. The full albums will be on our Facebook page, so keep following us. Enjoy!

We thank our partners:

Photo Diary Day 1 – August 4th, South Africa

3am, Still in the Air We have yet to land, but the children are already having an amazing experience – a visit to the El Al cockpit during the night flight. The pilots explained the many buttons and controls in the cockpit and heard about the delegation and The Equalizer. Yossi and Ilai presented them with a commemorative flag of the delegation.

8am, South Africa En route to Brazil the delegation stopped in South Africa. The children went on a tour in Johannesburg during the 10-hour layover. The tour started at the national stadium which hosted the 2010 FIFA World Cup Final. At the stadium, the delegates visited a small museum, with an exhibit describing the tournament.

1pm, South Africa Still in Africa. During the city tour, the delegates learned about the struggle against the former apartheid regime. The students visited Freedom Square, memorials, and the late Nelson Mandela's house and learned about his important legacy.

Photo Diary Days 2 & 3 – August 5th-6th, Sao Paulo

9am, Football Museum

As in South Africa, the first tour in Sao Paulo was football-related, in the football museum adjacent to the municipal stadium. The children learned about the Brazilian football history, saw a beautiful exhibit about the Brazilian teams in different World Cups, and also visited the old municipal stadium.

Saturday morning, August 6th, Maccabi Center, Sao Paulo On Saturday morning, the delegation arrived at the Maccabi Sport Center of the Jewish community in Sao Paulo, where the children finally had a chance to play football. They had football practice with the local players followed by a practice game.

Photo Diary Day 3 – August 6th, Sao Paulo

2pm, Jewish Community On Shabbat afternoon, the delegation visited the Hebraica club of the Jewish community, where various sport activities take place and youth movements of the community meet. The youth movements organized a joint activity with the delegates, all were very pleased and exchanged memorabilia.

4:30pm, Meeting with Dima Kroytor At the Hebraica sport center, many Olympic athletes practiced, including Israeli athletes who wanted a bit of quiet and a homey atmosphere, prior to traveling to Rio for their competition. One of them was the Israeli high jumper, Dmitry Kroytor, who graciously gave of his time before a training to talk with the students and respond to their questions, and they wished him luck in the competition.

5pm, A Present for a Brother At the end of the meeting with Kroytor, Yossi, the brother of the Israeli Olympic marathon runner, Marhu Teferi, presented a shirt with pictures of all of Teferi’s siblings and wishes for success. Kroyter promised to deliver the shirt to Teferi, who would only be arriving toward the end of the Olympics, once the delegation was back in Israel.


10am, Plameiras’ Stadium The delegation arrived at Allianze Parque, the stadium of the Palmeiras football club, one of the most popular and successful teams in Brazil. Each child received a shirt with their name on it. Then the delegation was taken on a tour of the stadium, the press room, the dressing room – all, of course, in their new shirts.

1pm, Goal of Peace Game After the tour, the delegation played football. At first, they played against the national Brazilian youth team. Then they split into two mixed teams and played a “Goal of Peace” exhibition match. World champions joined in the game, including Joninio, Paulo Sergio, Mauro Silva and others.

4pm, Witnessing Victory The delegation went to rest in the stands and watch Palmeiras beat Vitoria. After watching the fast-paced match, with an incredible atmosphere in the stands, a surprise awaited the delegation – the Palmeiras’ captain, Ze Roberto, who also played for Bayern Munich in the past, met and took a picture with them. He presented his shirt from the game that day to the staff and requested that they give it to the child who acts the best throughout the entire trip.

Photo Diary Days 5 & 6 – August 8th-9th, Rio de Janeiro

4pm, Museum and Brazilian Football Confederation The delegation met with seniors of the Brazilian Football Confederation, and with the person who was instrumental in organizing the trip. The children took a tour of the museum, held some of the world cups, and took a picture with great football match photos in the background.

6pm, Olympics At night the children got their first taste of the Olympics, when they reached the Olympics arena and watched the ping pong competition.

Tuesday Morning, Globo Studio During the visit at Brazil’s biggest TV station’s studio, the children saw how TV shows and famous Brazilian telenovelas are produced – impressive sets, special effects, and make-up of wounds and tattoos, which the children tried out.

Tuesday Evening, Winning a Medal! The climax of the visit to the Olympics was without a doubt witnessing the Israeli judo athlete, Yarden Gerbi, winning the bronze medal. The continual cheering from the delegates, including the staff, during the battle and after the great victory – festive rejoicing that were even documented on video and aroused great interest, which we will return to later…

Photo Diary Day 7 – August 10th, Return to Sao Paulo

11am, Winter Camp On the way back from Rio to Sao Paulo, the delegation was hosted at the annual winter camp of the Rio branch of Habonim Dror’s Zionest youth movement. The delegates did activities with the camp participants, ate lunch and took a group photo together.

3pm, Ice-Breaker Activity During the long bus-ride, in order to reduce boredom and more importantly to unite the group, the staff ran a special ice-breaker between the Jewish and Arab delegates. The children split into “mixed” pairs and told one another about themselves, and then each child had to share their partner’s story, with as much detail as possible, to the entire group. In the end, of course one of the couples was crowned the winner.

5pm, The Voice The children did another activity – this time a singing activity – where each child taught his partner a song in his language. So, the competition was that each Jewish child sang an Arabic song and vice versa. The activity added greatly to the “team spirit” forging and the general atmosphere of the delegation.


9am, Sao Paulo Football Club In the morning, the delegation travelled to the Sao Paulo team’s fancy training facility, which raised a number of football players who are today in the European Football League. The children were amazed at the top conditions of the facility. They had a tournament on one of the football pitches and received great memorabilia from the team.

6pm, Meeting with Yarden Gerbi An exciting moment awaited the delegation and the staff at their second visit at the Hebraica Center. Yarden Gerbi, who had come to Sao Paulo and the club to thank everyone for hosting her and to show the medal she had just won two days prior, decided to have a private meeting with the delegation, where she answered questions and thanked them for rooting and cheering for her. At the start of the meeting, the children showed her the famous video of them celebrating after her win. 7pm, Gala Event At the end of another exhausting, but full of experiences, day, the Jewish Community Club had an award evening for the delegation and for members of the community who gave of their time, energy and money for the delegation and its success. At the end of the evening, a special shirt, prepared especially for the delegation, was presented to The Equalizer management with the autograph of no other than the greatest Brazilian player of all times – Pele!

Photo Diary Day 9 – August 12th, Santos 12pm, Santos Museum On Friday morning, the delegation arrived in Santos, the city for which the professional football club is named. The delegation first toured the team’s museum and learned about its history, including a number of famous players who were on the team throughout the years. Afterwards, there was an emotional meeting with a number of the team’s former players, champions of the world on the Brazil team, who came to especially visit the delegation. 2pm, The Stars Stadium The delegation got to visit Santos’ old but exciting stadium. Legendary football stars played in this stadium over the years, including Pele, Robinho, Neymar and others. The delegation even saw the dressing rooms and the press room of the club, where they had an unplanned press conference, where the staff answered the children’s surprising questions.

4pm, Pele Museum After lunch in the stadium, the delegation continued to an additional amazing museum – that was established to honor the greatest players throughout history. Some say the greatest player in Brazil, some say in the world – Pele. The children watched some videos about Pele and saw different displays about his career.


10am, Syrian Community On Saturday morning, the delegation visited the football clubs of the Syrian and Lebanese communities. In the Syrian community, there was first a ceremony where memorabilia and flags were exchanged between the delegation and the local club, followed by the coaches doing a practice and then a game between the delegation and the children of the local communities.

1pm, Lebanese Community The Lebanese community hosted the delegation for lunch and with such royalty, making the children want to go to Lebanon one day… Following lunch, the delegation and the children of the community had a tournament with mixed groups. It was amazing to see the cooperation between the players, despite the fact that there were three different languages on the pitch!

6pm, Summary Event In the evening, after a short rest, in the events hall of the hotel, the delegation met with the organizers of the delegation and thanked them personally. The children parted from the local counselors, and also from the security guards who accompanied the group throughout the trip.

Photo Diary Last Day – August 14th, Sao Paulo

10am, Touring in Sao Paulo On Sunday, in anticipation of the flight that evening, the delegates had some free time on the main touristy street of Sao Paulo – Paulista Boulevard. They shopped a bit and wandered between the stalls offering their merchandise to the many tourists, as on every Sunday.

3pm, Outstanding Delegates Ceremony After returning to the hotel and eating lunch, there was a short ceremony where an outstanding delegate was chosen from each school, and one overall outstanding delegate – Ihaab from the El-Omriya team in Jerusalem’s old City, who received Roberto’s shirt! The rest of the outstanding delegates also received worthwhile prizes, and no delegate left the room with empty hands. Each delegate received a book about Brazilian football. 4pm, Autographs Immediately following the ceremony, the delegates had an enjoyable activity to end their journey – autographing each other’s t-shirts as a memento of this unforgettable trip. Two amazing weeks with new and old friends – from different neighborhoods, backgrounds, religions – friends who never imagined they would have such experiences together...