Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School is hosting the inaugural Capital Jewish Hoops Invitational from Jan. 18-20.

“This has been a vision of mine for a long time,” said CESJDS Athletic Director Becky Silberman.

Silberman said the event is more than just about basketball. Jewish student-athletes from Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Florida will all join CESJDS students to make crafts, volunteer and attend a Washington Wizards home game in Washington, D.C.

“Basketball has always been a passion of mine, and both our girls and boys teams have traveled to different tournaments across North America, and we’ve felt like there’s been a need for a tournament like this,” Silberman said. “We have such great facilities here. We’re the only pluralistic high school in the DMV, and we really just wanted to show off what we’re doing here.”

The Capital Jewish Hoops Invitational is inspired by other tournaments Silberman has attended and the JCC Maccabi Games.

“We really wanted an elevated experience for [players and their families],” Silberman explained. “Obviously, we’re going to have basketball. But additionally, we wanted really good food. We wanted to show off DC. We wanted to show off our facilities.”

The three-day event will start on Jan. 18, a Sunday night, with an opening ceremony. Pete Federowicz, volunteer tournament director, said the evening will also include activities like free-throw contests and an opportunity to help pack sandwiches with Martha’s Table, a local nonprofit that delivers food to the homeless, to emphasize connecting with other teams.

“What we want to try and create here is an opportunity for the student-athletes to connect with players from other schools, from other parts of the country, and start to build and extend their network,” said Federowicz.

On Jan. 20, the tournament will have its closing ceremony in the early afternoon, where athletes will receive their trophies, MVP awards and more.

“Some of the participants already have connections coming in based on where they’ve gone to summer camp,” Federowicz said. “They’ll be able to kind of have a bit of a running start in terms of deepening those relationships. So, for some, there’ll be opportunities for a reunion, not just first encounters.”

CESJDS varsity girls team shooting guard Gila Safra is a member of the school’s Student Athlete Leadership Committee, which had a hand in planning the tournament. She said she is most impressed by how the community has come together to help make it happen.

“I’m really excited for the opportunity for us to be able to show our school and bring people to our community and really be at the center,” said Safra. “I think that’s a really amazing opportunity to really bring schools to us and be able to give other teams amazing experiences and really shape the tournament the way that we want to see it.”

Throughout the tournament, there will be commentary and live streaming for each game, and all the students and coaches will receive a bag of swag with CESJDS’ logo on it.

“I think it’s great for Jewish teenage athletes to see that there are other Jewish teenage athletes just like them all over the country,” said Silberman. “I think it’s important to utilize sports to kind of draw them together. Some of our students already know kids from sleepaway camp, from the Jewish sleepaway camps they go to. Some of them may end up being in the same Hillel in college, and they room together. I think it’s just important to create these connections. The Jewish world is so small but also so big, and I think the more connections we can make, the better.”

Cyrus Blumenthal, a shooting guard on the CESJDS boys varsity basketball team, is also on the Student Athlete Leadership Committee, and he said he’s looking forward to playing against his friends who attend Gann Academy in Massachusetts. They are his friends from Camp Ramah.

“To be part of the first-ever tournament that we’ve hosted, that’s definitely super exciting, and we’ve got a really good team this year. This is my second year being captain, and so I really am excited to play a bunch of good Jewish teams,” said Blumenthal.

“We just think it’s really important to find ways for meaningful, in-person connections, and we think this tournament can be a great vehicle to build some of those types of connections,” said Federowicz.

mresnicow@midatlanticmedia.com