The city of Ariel has its very own women's only basket ball team, and to add to that it was started of by an ola chadasha in Ariel only a few months after she arrived in Israel.

Natalie Zacks had been thinking of aliyah for years, she had also been playing basketball with her girlfriends in Detroit for years.  Once Natalie and her family had decided to make the big move she started enquiring about basketball in Israel.  From one list serve to another she kept getting a negative answer, some communities had no idea what she was on about, some had a team, but not for women and some were just not interested. All this changed once she got on to the Ariel list serve (a very small one at the time) the first to answer was a man – Josh, and after checking with his Israeli wife gave Natalie the green light she was looking for – she had found a community who doesn’t have a team and is interested in starting on (well us here in Ariel are always looking for new adventures).

Let there be no mistake, the Zacks family decision to move half way around the world straight to Ariel was not made by the idea of having a basketball team.  But this was the icing on the topping.

A few months later after the kids were settled in school, Ulpan was over and Natalie felt at home in Ariel – she contacted the community center and got the ball rolling.

At the beginning it was just a couple of them shooting hoops once a week, but slowly the rumor spread and more women started turning up, not only English speakers but Israeli women, not only from Ariel but also from settlements close by. 
Now they meet once a week, they got the uniform they got the balls and they are loving it.

The best time they had was a month ago on Chanukah break when they got a chance to bring there kids along to see their Mummies play ball.  Apparently Jonna Zacks now insists on coming to every match.