From Bergen Catholic to the Ashdod Dolphins
Hockey star Erez Yacobi achieves his goals of aliyah, learning Hebrew, joining the IDF
As the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, Mara Yacobi feels “an immense responsibility” to ensure that Judaism is a solid part of her four children’s identity. Her husband, Ori, whose entire extended family has deep ties with Israel, feels similarly.
They therefore had some trepidation when their eldest son, Erez, was recruited by Bergen Catholic High School after his sophomore year at Northern Highlands Regional High School in Allendale, where the Yacobis live.
“Erez has been playing ice hockey since the age of five,” Ms. Yacobi said. “His commitment to this sport has been intense, almost cult-like, with little time for anything but hockey.
“Given his elite-level play throughout his career as a goaltender, it was not surprising when the Bergen Catholic hockey coach reached out to see if he would transfer to play for their high school team.
“As a traditional Jewish family, this was not an easy decision, but we knew the experience would be valuable for him. The school said they appreciated diversity and would help him connect to his own religious values more — and it was true.”
Spoiler alert: This summer, after graduating from Bergen Catholic, Erez Yacobi made aliyah. He tended goal for the Ashdod Dolphins ice-hockey team and is taking a crash course in Hebrew before his induction into the Israel Defense Forces.
His decision to pursue an active role in the Jewish nation came not in spite of his two years at Bergen Catholic but in many ways as an unexpected outgrowth of that experience.
As one of a handful of Jewish athletes in his grade at the all-boys private school in Oradell, “Bergen Catholic was probably the best decision I could have made, through the friends I made and the brotherhood I felt there,” Erez said. “Everyone was accepting and welcoming.”
How welcoming?
On February 7, during a shutout game where Erez deftly defended the goal against 41 Don Bosco Ironmen shots, helping to clinch the 2024 BCCA Championship for the Bergen Catholic Crusaders — yes, an ironic name for a team with a Jewish goalie — Ms. Yacobi heard Bergen Catholic fans chanting “Western Wall and Iron Dome!” to cheer on Erez.
“He had gone that morning to wrap tefillin with Rabbi Yosef Orenstein from our Chabad,” she said. Rabbi Orenstein, associate rabbi of Valley Chabad in Woodcliff Lake, “played an instrumental role in helping Erez at different points.
“He always knew the rabbi was there for him.”
Erez and his Jewish best friend from Bergen Catholic, Harrison Udis, were part of the Philadelphia ice-hockey delegation to the JCC Maccabi Games in Israel last summer, before senior year. He’d last been in the Jewish state when he was only 2 years old.
“Getting to be around so many Jewish kids in Israel was amazing,” he said. Erez also visited maternal and paternal relatives in Israel, including the families of the five siblings of his father’s father, Avi Yacobi of Englewood.
“After the Maccabi Games, I was sad to leave,” Erez said. “I talked to my dad a lot about it.”
Ori Yacobi has strong feelings for Israel too, and not only because of his relatives there. He and Mara met in Israel after college in October 1998 while waiting on line to register for classes at the now-defunct World Union of Jewish Students.
The family decided that Erez would apply to both Israeli and American colleges. The army was not yet part of the plan.
“We mentioned the army many times in our conversations,” Erez said. “I know the army shapes you and readies you for life, but I didn’t know enough about the IDF to really know that is what I wanted to do.
“Then October 7 happened.”
On that terrible day, “I was glued to my phone, texting friends and family in Israel,” he said. “I was sitting there feeling hopeless, wishing I could do more than sending prayers and thoughts. A few weeks later, my mom and I really started looking into the possibility of my joining the IDF. She wanted to make sure I thought it through.”
With his parents’ blessing, he talked to former “lone soldiers” — IDF soldiers without immediate family in Israel — and to his Israeli relatives. He applied and was accepted to Garin Tzabar, a program founded in 1991 to guide, assist, and support lone soldiers before they move to Israel and join the army, and during and after their service.
“I did not make the decision lightly,” Erez said.
At Garin Tzabar’s informational seminars, he met the cohort he’d be joining. These are “some of the best people I could ever ask for,” he said.
At the end of August, the group will move together to Kibbutz Ein Hamifratz on the northern Mediterranean coast, where they will be “adopted” by kibbutz families for the duration of their military service, which generally lasts about three years. The lone soldiers are free to move elsewhere after a year but many choose to stay for the family-like support this arrangement provides.
Accompanied by his parents, Erez arrived in Israel on June 17. He joined the Ashdod Dolphins and recently helped this professional team win the Israel Elite Hockey League championship for the first time. Erez was named Rookie of the Year.
Living in the Tel Aviv University dorms, he is attending Hebrew language classes for five and a half hours each weekday.
Once he and his group are drafted in November, they will continue taking intensive Hebrew lessons for a couple of months before starting their service.
Erez said he already knew how to read Hebrew because his grandmother, Diana Yacobi, is a Hebrew teacher, but becoming fluent in spoken Hebrew is the key to successful integration into the army and society.
He jokes that “people put up with it” when he orders food in Hebrew to practice his language skills.
“It’s very different here than in America,” he said. “I knew that coming in. There’s a lot going on, and it’s very chaotic at times. But I’ve only had positive experiences everywhere I’ve gone.”
“A lot going on” includes, of course, a war.
His mother said that on the night of July 18, “Erez called us at about 5 a.m. Israel time to say he was fine” after a Houthi drone hit Tel Aviv. “Those moments are hard.”
But they’ve raised Erez to be resilient, true to his name, which means “cedar” in Hebrew. “In my husband’s family, all the boys have names starting with alef. It’s a strong name, and he lives up to it,” Ms. Yacobi said.
Erez’s 10-year-old brother is Ethan, another alef name. His sisters are Maya, 16, and Leni Mae, 5.
“His siblings miss him, and the house is so different without him,” Ms. Yacobi said.
“But it gives us all great comfort that he was able to start his aliyah journey with hockey, something so familiar to him. Every team is about having a family, and he has so many new connections now in Israel.”
She noted that non-Jews saved her father’s parents in the Holocaust and that Erez “has such a strong desire to help and rescue and save people. I guess it’s the goalie aspect of his persona. It has given Erez an immense sense of pride to follow his heart to serve in the IDF.
“Maybe his story will inspire others to visit, give back, assist, volunteer, or even make aliyah at a time when Israel needs more support than ever.”
Ms. Yacobi used to do Holocaust presentations with her grandmother. “When she passed away, I carried on that torch. This past year, I went to a public school to talk to eighth-graders, and Erez texted me and said, ‘Mom, I want to come.’ It was so meaningful to me. I felt like I’d done my job.”
Erez said he is grateful to his parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles for assisting him in his quest to become an Israel citizen. He expressed special thanks to his grandfather Avi in Englewood and his uncle Ariel in Ramat Gan for their encouragement and guidance.
If he could send a message to his friends in New Jersey about how it feels to be in Israel right now, what would he say?
“Israel is definitely misunderstood; people think it is a very dangerous place,” Erez said. “In this day and age, I feel very safe being here.
“Israel is an amazing place and the people are the best.”
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