Jewish athletes celebrate women’s philanthropy at Federation event

Three elite Jewish athletes will take center court at “A League of Our Own,” an invitation only event sponsored by Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh to celebrate female philanthropy Sept. 3 at Highmark Stadium.

Professional basketball player Lior Halevi, former University of Pittsburgh gymnast Alisa Spector Angelo, and former Yale University diver Maya Ennis will engage in an after-dinner panel discussion about achieving excellence in sports and beyond, and how Judaism may have shaped their success.

“This is an annual fall ‘thank you’ we started last year for women who donate at a specific level,” said Emma Renfrew, Federation’s manager of women’s philanthropy and engagement. “It highlights the incredible role women play in sustaining the Pittsburgh Jewish community by creating a major network of support for Federation.”

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Beverly Block said she and her event co-chairs, Gail Childs and Frederique Ennis, chose a sports theme because of the success of the recent JCC Maccabi Campus Games, which brought thousands of Jewish teens from around the world to compete in Pittsburgh.

The timing is also perfect “to shine a light on girls and women in sports,” Block said, “because they are having a moment unlike anything we’ve ever seen. They’re soaring.”

Halevi, 27, grew up on Kibbutz Tirat Zvi in Israel’s Beit She’an Valley and was 15 when she began playing basketball in Israel, rising through the ranks to compete on the U16, U18, U20 and elite women’s national teams in both 5×5 and 3×3 formats. She helped her 3×3 national team win bronze in the U18 European championship, and eventually joined the women’s national teams in both 5×5 and 3×3 formats. She also played professionally in the Women’s National First League before being drafted into the Israeli army.

Representing Israel on the world stage was a source of pride, said Halevi, who just completed her latest contract. “I say, ‘Yes, I am Israeli’ everywhere I go. I am always honored to wear the team jersey, and I tear up when they play the Israeli national anthem.”

Halevi played four years for the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where she majored in marketing and earned an MBA, and was the only Jew on the team, which provided an opportunity to bridge cultural divides, she said.

“I’d describe how Friday night dinner is like having Thanksgiving every week, and how on a kibbutz it’s normal to knock on a door and ask for milk. You share everything, like one big family. I’d explain why I don’t drink milk with meat, and if I jumped a little when an ambulance would pass, why it sounds different to me as an Israeli.”

Some players were open-minded, she said. “With others, it was more of a challenge.”

Halevi moved to Pittsburgh in May and now works as the marketing manager for a healthcare and life sciences consultant. She is considering playing in Israel again and is keeping up her skills with pickup games at the JCC. Having grown up playing volleyball with boys on the kibbutz, she is comfortable competing with men, she said.

“Sometimes when I walk in they’ll give me a funny look, like ‘why are you here,’ but then once I start playing, they’re like, ‘wow,’ and they want to pick me for their team.”

Although she grew up playing sports for fun, once Halevi joined a national team, she turned her work ethic as a former kibbutznik to her competitive advantage.

“I knew I had to stay in the gym to be one of the best,” Halevi said. “I knew if I wasn’t there someone else would be working on shots or defense, so I put in extra hours.”

She has a “sky’s the limit” attitude and emphasizes the importance of family and friends. “When you have good people around you they will help you get the best out of yourself.”

Spector Angelo, now 60 and CEO of Compass Business Solutions, also emphasizes the importance of family, having grown up in a culturally strong, observant household in Buffalo, where she was supported in her passion for gymnastics.

“Life is about relationships and the values you have,” said Spector Angelo, who lives in the North Hills and has three grown children, including a daughter who made aliyah a year ago. “Relationships with friends, family, mentors, coaches and anyone else who helped you along the way make you able to do what you do.”

Spector Angelo came to gymnastics late, having started at age 10, and it quickly became “an obsession,” she said. “I loved the feeling of floating, flying, twisting, and dancing.”

Despite the rigorous training, which consumed most of her days growing up, it never felt like a hardship, she said. “I developed excellent self-management skills and self-discipline. I was extraordinarily goal oriented.”

Calling being Jewish “the compass in my DNA,” she is grateful to have been able to compete at a time “when Communists ruled gymnastics,” she said. “As a Jew I wouldn’t have had the opportunity in certain countries as I did here.”

Spector Angelo was recruited to Division 1 Pitt, where she received a Blue-Gold award for excellence as a student athlete, and where her name is inscribed in the walkway to the Cathedral of Learning.

She went on to earn an MBA at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where she coached gymnastics, developing skills that helped lay the groundwork for her career in human resources consulting.

She was eight months pregnant when she founded her firm in 1997.

“My gymnastics and coaching shaped the way I work with clients, and, just as importantly, with my team,” Spector Angelo said.

“The work we do is around the employee experience. We think of the human resources person as a head coach whose role is to recruit and develop talent to win for their team.”

She especially enjoys executive coaching, she said. “I love working with people one on one to help them maximize their strengths and unleash their potential.”

Anyone can learn to think like an elite athlete, she said.

“I want people to push themselves and to know it’s okay to fail as long as they don’t get stuck. I encourage people to dream and see where it takes them.”

Maya Ennis was traveling and couldn’t be reached. She spent nine years as a gymnast before she began diving for the North Allegheny School District at 14. She earned many awards individually and with her team while at North Allegheny and was then recruited by Yale University for its women’s swimming and diving program. She competed until she graduated this past spring.

The evening also will include Kristen Keller, immediate past chair of Federation’s Women’s Council, receiving the Natalie E. Novick Award for her commitment to the Jewish community through volunteerism and philanthropy. PJC

Deborah Weisberg is a freelance writer living in Pittsburgh.