Modiin, birthplace of the Chanukah story is also witnessing a modern day sports miracle, as the city’s Juveniles Israel Association of Baseball Little League squad (fourth through sixth graders), the Modiin Miracles have made it to the division championship, which will be played this coming Friday. The Miracles boasted the league’s best regular season record (13-1) and have defeated teams from Beit Shemesh and Yad Binyamin during the current playoff run. If they win this Friday, the Miracles will play for the state championship on June 24. There are over 20 teams across Israel who play LL baseball at the juveniles level. Several members of the Modiin squad hail from the metro New York-New Jersey region, including Netanel Aronoff and co-coach, Steve Walz.

“It is really fun to play baseball against other olim and Israeli kids from many cities all over central Israel,” Netanel Aranoff told The Jewish Link. “We enjoy the fun of Little League play like in America. But, it is really cool to also see native-born Israelis play baseball for the first time! At first I thought they would mess up all the time, but I was wrong. They can play and have been an integral part of our winning team.”