What happens when a professional Israeli basketball team plays a pickup game against a bunch of amateurs?
"Take a wild guess," says Helen Katz, executive director of the Women’s International Zionist Organization of New York, which sponsored the fund-raising event last week at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice gym in Manhattan.
The Israelis were from Hapoel Upper Galilee, in Israel’s leading pro basketball league. The opponents, WIZO supporters, paid $1,800 for a quarter’s worth of court time. "Some paid to play, some paid to coach, some paid to referee," Katz says. "We had spectators ó they also paid."
The pros, here for a playing tour against local colleges, beat the WIZO Champions.
The fund-raiser also included a clinic conducted by Mike Jarvis, head coach of the St. John’s University basketball team, and a silent auction.
"It was very festive," Katz says.
Proceeds go to WIZO’s program to support poor Israeli families hurt by terrorism.
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