Jerusalem Lions

The name appears in three documented contexts: an American Football in Israel flag-football team active by 1999, an inaugural Israeli Football League tackle-football club identified in retrospective coverage as the Jerusalem Lions, and a men’s rugby union team.[1][2][4]

The relationship between the two American-football references is unclear. A 2007 account calls Jerusalem’s inaugural IFL franchise “Big Blue” and does not establish whether it was organizationally continuous with the AFI flag-football Lions.[5]

The Israeli Football League began with a group of American Jews living in Jerusalem who had grown up with football in the United States, immigrated to Israel, and gathered to play flag football.[2] Flag football is a non-contact form of the game played without helmets or pads.[2] The league’s four inaugural teams were the Haifa Underdogs, Jerusalem Lions, Tel Aviv Sabres, and Sharon Pioneers. Jerusalem won the championship that season, securing the league’s first title.[2]

A 2007 report calls the inaugural Jerusalem franchise “Big Blue” and says it was assembled from local flag-football players and people who answered an open-tryout call.[5] Big Blue defeated the Hasharon Pioneers 48–16 in the league’s first game at Kraft Stadium, with Moshe Horowitz scoring the first touchdown in IFL history.[5] Reflecting on hearing Hebrew spoken in the huddle, coach Eric Amkraut said, “It gave me the chills.”[5]

About seven years after the league began, it had grown from four clubs to eleven, stretching from Nahariya in the north to Beersheba in the south, with approximately 500 registered active players.[2] Children’s and youth teams also existed, and regular-season games were played on Thursday evenings and Friday mornings or afternoons in observance of Shabbat.[2]

A major development for the Lions and Israeli football broadly was the construction of a field built to international American-football standards in Jerusalem’s Emek HaArazim valley.[6] The project was funded by a $6 million donation from Robert Kraft and developed with the Jerusalem Foundation, Moriah Jerusalem Development Corporation, and Toto, with assistance from Steve Leibowitz, then president of the Israel Football Association.[6] The planned complex included a permanent spectator stand, changing rooms, management offices, pedestrian infrastructure, and parking, with a summer 2017 opening targeted.[6]

At the time of the report, the Jerusalem Lions stood first in the league with seven wins and no losses.[6] Head coach Gani Mid’ad said a dedicated Jerusalem stadium would help the team continue developing internationally. He also explained that fields available for training were often too small for full eleven-a-side play, forcing the team to practice in a nine-a-side format and leaving its players less accustomed to the format used in matches abroad.[6]

The Jerusalem Lions won Israel Bowl I, the league’s first championship game, but lost their next three Israel Bowl appearances before winning again in 2017.[7] At Israel Bowl X, nearly 1,000 fans watched Jerusalem overcome a 14-point deficit late in the fourth quarter to tie the Tel Aviv Pioneers and force overtime. The Lions ultimately won 42–36.[7] After the Jerusalem defense stopped Tel Aviv’s overtime possession, quarterback David Abell threw deep to Ezzy Jaski for the championship-winning touchdown on the Lions’ first offensive play.[7]

Abell was named game MVP after completing 15 of 34 passes for 237 yards and six touchdowns while adding 51 rushing yards.[7] The Lions then defeated the Petah Tikva Troopers 28–20 in Israel Bowl XI. A preview of Israel Bowl XII identified Abell as a three-time league MVP and reported that rookie running back David Fitoussi had rushed for a postseason-record 253 yards in the semifinal against the Tel Aviv Pioneers.[8]

Ahead of Israbowl 14 on July 15, 2021, the Lions and Tel Aviv Pioneers had met three times previously in championship games. Tel Aviv had won two of those meetings, while Jerusalem had won their most recent final encounter, Israel Bowl X.[3] The 2021 championship was scheduled for the Kraft Family Sports Campus at Emek HaArazim in Jerusalem.[3]

Separately from the American-football teams, Jerusalem Lions is also the name of a men’s rugby union team in Jerusalem.[4] The men’s club is distinct from the women’s Jerusalem Lionesses. Men’s rugby in Israel is played in the 15-a-side format, and the men’s league dates to the 1970s, although the available reporting does not establish when the Jerusalem Lions rugby club itself was founded.[4]

Dimitri Skobelev coaches the Jerusalem women’s team as well as the Jerusalem and Ashkelon men’s teams.[4] Ziggy Silverman has been involved in Israeli rugby for approximately three decades and has served as a player, captain, coach, manager, junior coach, and referee, including managing the Jerusalem Rugby Club.[4]

A 2023 report places a Jerusalem Lions flag-football team within American Football in Israel as early as 1999 and identifies Jonathan Hauser as a player on that squad.[1] It does not provide a separate founding date. The relationship between that AFI flag-football side and the tackle-football franchise in the IFL is not established by the available sources; the 2007 account refers to the inaugural Jerusalem IFL club as “Big Blue,” not as the Jerusalem Lions.[5]

Other reports use several formulations for the IFL team. The inaugural-season retrospective calls it the Jerusalem Lions, while later coverage uses “Jerusalem Lions,” “Big Blue” Jerusalem Lions, and Jerusalem “Big Blue” Lions.[2][8] The sources reviewed do not explain whether these variations resulted from a formal rebranding, a nickname, or inconsistent journalistic usage.