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Aug. 19, 2011
Dragon boats race to Israel
Canadian Jews bring this fast-growing water sport to the Kinneret.
DANIEL BEN-TAL ISRAEL21C
Israelis are about to be exposed to the fastest-growing water sport in the world: dragon boat racing. The “ultimate team sport” will make its debut at the country’s first Dragon Boat Festival on Lake Kinneret (the Sea of Galilee) on May 17-18 next year.
“It will be a novelty. It’s not just about the race – because it will be international, it will be a fun two days,” said the event’s founder, Debbie Halton Weiss, in a telephone interview from Canada. “The idea is to bring people to Israel in a different way.”
Halton Weiss, chair of the Jewish Federation of Ottawa, had been searching for a novel, team-oriented activity to inspire greater group participation locally. Once she learned about dragon boat racing, it seemed to her a perfect fit.
“I realized that this is the type of activity we’re looking for. It’s fun, helps build teamwork and cooperation, and brings people together. I sent out an e-mail to members of our community. The response was immediate and brought in lots of our young leadership.”
Out of this grew a motley crew of community members, named the Sea Lions, who entered the 2009 Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival to raise money for a local charity.
“The Ottawa festival had 195 teams – it’s one of the largest festivals of its type in the world. At that first festival, we finished second in cheerleading and third in fundraising. We didn’t do so well on the water, but we didn’t care. It was a wonderful community activity,” she recalled. “That’s when we started to think about bringing it to Israel. Many dragon boat races are already held in the Middle East, in places like Cairo, Beirut, Dubai and Teheran, but not in Israel, so we decided to create one.”
For the uninitiated, dragon boat racing originated in China more than 2,000 years ago and has been preserved as a folk ritual. In 1986, dragon boats sent from Hong Kong drew international attention at Vancouver’s Expo 86 world exposition. International dragon boat racing now draws thousands of participants in 70 countries.
Traditionally made of teak and adorned with decorative Chinese dragonheads and tails, the boats hold 20 to 22 paired paddlers, a drummer at the bow facing the paddlers and a sweep, or steerer, at the rear. The pulsating drumbeats produced by the drummer, to which the paddlers synchronize their strokes, provide the boat’s “heartbeat.”
Victor Yagoda, director of projects and infrastructures at the United Israel Appeal of Canada, joined the Sea Lions at the dragon boat festival. “I first heard about this from Debbie, who told me of the plan, so I began to surf the web – and, frankly, I got hooked immediately,” he said. “I also feel that when I talk to people about this, they understand and want to join us.”
It’s no simple task to organize an unprecedented event, however.
“We created an executive, which created a business plan,” explained Halton Weiss, chair of Dragon Boat Israel. “I traveled to Israel, raised seed money, hired a project manager in Israel and linked with an Israeli tour operator. We’ve entered partnerships with local councils, who gave us their support from the outset,” said Halton Weiss.
Back in Canada, there was plenty of behind-the-scenes work to be done. “We started a national recruitment drive, working with federations across the country. I see it as a way to partner with Israel, promote tourism to the north and hold a charity event.”
The plan is to register a minimum of 20 and maximum of 40 teams, half of them from Israel and half from North America. “This is for everybody – from eight to 80,” Halton Weiss stressed. Three or four teams of breast cancer survivors have come on board as well.
Vancouver’s Jewish community and its supporters will also be registering a team of paddlers in the spring 2012 event. In fact, more than 100 people from the Lower Mainland Jewish community have already expressed interest in Israel’s first dragon boat festival, and community participation is being headed by Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver (for local information evenings, see Community Calendar). The festival takes place in the Galilee Panhandle, Vancouver’s partnership region and funds raised from local participation will go to Net@ and Youth Futures, two programs that support youth in Israel. The paddlers will ask friends and family to sponsor them.
Israelis will be recruited, also from the federation system’s Partnership 2000 program, the military, rowing clubs, colleges, industries and youth-at-risk organizations. Joint Jewish-Arab teams, families, people with special needs, members of kibbutzim and moshavim, cancer survivors and any other specialized team is welcome to participate.
“We are purchasing six boats as a present to the area, to help develop the sport in Israel,” added Halton Weiss. “They’ll be there in November. We’ll also bring some professional people and coaches.”
Meanwhile, Halton Weiss is still buzzing from the Ottawa festival, where her team finished first in the “spirit” category. “We had a tent [publicizing the event in Israel] and, as all the teams came to the shoreline, they went past our tent. There was so much interest; a group of police officers approached me and asked if they can paddle together with Israeli police officers. It’s opening up a whole new sphere of cooperation. It’s very exciting.”
To learn more, visit dragonboatisrael.com.
Israel21C is a nonprofit educational foundation with a mission to focus media and public attention on the 21st-century Israel that exists beyond the conflict. For more, or to donate, visit israel21c.org.
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