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In January 2014, CrossFit hosted its first Level 1 Seminar in Israel. Seminar Staff member Russell Berger took the opportunity to spend an extra week traveling the country, visiting its affiliates and experiencing the culture. In this six-part series, explore the Holy Land with Berger and the local community.
In Part 4, Berger is at the Jordan River, which is sandwiched between two minefields and serves as the border between Jordan and Israel.
“This is cool. This is something that wasn’t open until pretty recently because of the conflict between Israel and Jordan,” Berger says. “Now people can just come stick their hands in the water. This is the source of life for civilization for hundreds of years—it was this water.”
Berger discovers there’s an affiliate in Amman, Jordan: CrossFit QuickSand. He’s curious about the conflict between the two countries and how that affects the greater CrossFit community in the area. CrossFit Modiin owner Murry Zborowski says the area’s turbulent history definitely limits interaction between boxes on opposite sides of the border.
At Level 1 Certificate Course at CrossFit Modiin, Berger sees the value in hosting the seminar there.
“You can tell they needed this, they needed a Level 1 because they’re putting their hands up and they’re asking questions that, really, if they would just be patient and listen, they’re in the lecture,” he says, “but they’re just so eager to know. They’re so excited.”
Next up, Berger gets some media attention.
Video by Carey Peterson
12min 09sec
Additional reading: “Son of Anarchy?” by Pat Sherwood, published Oct. 21, 2013.
