Event

Indie Film Project: Heading Home

Join us for a special screening of the independent film Heading Home: The Tale of Team Israel.

The film is the David-and-Goliath story of Israel's national baseball team as it competes for the first time in the World Baseball Classic. After years of crushing defeats, Israel finally ranks among the worlds best in 2017. Its roster includes many Jewish-American major leaguers, most with a tenuous relationship to Judaism, barely any ever having set foot in Israel. Their odyssey takes them from the Holy Land where they are hailed as modern-day Maccabees to the tournament in South Korea where they must debunk their reputations as has-beens and wannabes. The connection to Israel that the players forge pushes them to unexpected heights as they represent the country on the world stage.

About the filmmakers:

The three directors of Heading Home: The Tale of Team IsraelSeth Kramer, Daniel A. Miller,
and Jeremy Newbergerfirst met Jonathan Mayo, now an MLB reporter, sometime between the ages of eleven and thirteen. They were attending Camp Young Judaea Sprout Lake, a Jewish sleepaway camp in Verbank, New York. Jonathan was one of the few campers at Sprout Lake who focused on sports, particularly baseball. He was the best infielder at camp!

Well into their careers, Jonathan approached Seth, Daniel, and Jeremy with a film idea. He
wanted to take a group of Jewish professional ballplayers on their first trip to Israel and record
the experience. The World Baseball Softball Confederation ranked Israel a mere 41st of the
worlds teams. But Israel somehow defied the odds. It won the qualifier, joining the top sixteen
teams to compete in the WBC tournament in Korea. Suddenly, the world was following.
When the team went undefeated in Korea and moved on to Japan, the filmmakers felt like they were now capturing history in the making.