In a synagogue, a respected congregant often has a makom: a fixed place. So too in the locker room at the ice rink in Tnuvot, near Netanya.
Nathan Eisner enters and takes his place. He often quips with a smile, “I don’t understand. I helped my kids tie their skates—why can’t they come and help me tie mine?”
Eisner, 76, is still playing, in the midst of a war, scoring and encouraging others much younger than he. Just before Passover, he scored a hat trick.
Drew Tick, who has been playing hockey with Eisner for almost four decades, said, “Nathan is our role model. He knows the game, has taught his kids and grandkids to skate and play, and he is still playing.”
Eisner is the son of Holocaust survivors who met in a Displaced Persons camp. His family moved to Canada after a brief stay in Israel. There, he helped establish a league for Jewish children and coached them.
“There were no leagues in Canada for religious kids, so we formed the Avenue Road League,” he recalled. “Both of my sons, Uri and Amnon, learned to skate and started playing there. As adults, we played outdoors, Motzei Shabbat, in the Zionist Hockey League of Toronto.”
When Eisner made aliyah in 1990, ice hockey was just beginning in Israel. The first rink had opened in 1986 in Kiryat Motzkin, near Haifa, followed by another in Bat Yam, near Tel Aviv, a year later. “We had no Zamboni to clean the ice in Bat Yam—we used boards to scrape it,” he said.
A league soon formed, with teams from Bat Yam, Netanya, Jerusalem and Haifa. Eisner played for Haifa and the Israeli national team. Paul Shindman recalled a 1990 game against Canadian peacekeepers attended by the Canadian ambassador.
The Israel Ice Hockey and Figure Skating Association was established, and Israel later joined the international federation. In 1992, the national team competed in a tournament in South Africa, with players from around the world, including the former Soviet Union.
Eisner noted that the Toronto Maple Leafs donated equipment to the Israeli team, which went on to compete in Spain, Slovakia, Turkey and Hungary.
“Through all of this, the biggest fan of the team was Nathan’s wife, Jozie,” Shindman said.
Today, Nathan Eisner’s Israel hockey sweater is on display at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto.
“In the 1990s, we drove every two weeks—two and a half hours each way—to the rink in Metula. We also played at the rink in Holon,” he said. “Danny Spodek developed hockey clubs where my grandchildren learned to play. Today, all my children and grandchildren can skate.”
He also recalled a visit from Toronto Maple Leafs figures Roger Neilson, Paul Henderson and Daryl Sittler. “It was wonderful to host them here in Israel,” he said.
Today, Israel has newer rinks in Tnuvot and Ashdod, alongside older facilities, and plans to rebuild a rink in Metula. Tick said he hopes to see a rink in Jerusalem to replace the former temporary one at the First Station.
Eisner added, “We are seeing new opportunities for ice hockey and skating across the country. If your concern is not making aliyah because of a lack of skating opportunities, there’s no excuse. Israel lacks nothing. Where else can you play a weekday game with players of all ages—English-speaking Jews, good friends? What a blessing. It’s a miracle.”
The writer plays hockey with Nathan Eisner.
