Galia Goldberg "My Husband was a Trail Blazer"

Yossi Goldberg was the Mayor of Metulla for twenty years and had also served one term as a Member of the Knesset. In 1989 he encouraged national government agencies and UIA Canada to build the Canada Centre, a sports and leisure complex with an ice rink. After two years, the Canada Centre became the centre for ice skating, and Yossi was elected President of the Israel Ice Skating Federation. By chance he met Michael Shmerkin, a world class figure skater who had made Aliyah, and invited him to spearhead the entry of the IISF into international competitions. Michael Shmerkin became the first winter Olympian for Israel later on. Slowly, but consistently, other figure skaters, such as Galit Chait and Sergei Sakhnovsky, and eventually, short track speed skaters, such as Olga Danilov, joined the IISF. During the eleven years of Yossi Goldberg's stewardship, the IISF had increased the number of workd-class competing skaters from one to more than thirty establishing effective training programmes for young skaters and gaining the respect of the ISU and many of the countries competing in figure skating.
Yossi Goldberg died on June 5th, 2002 after a long illness. May he rest in peace.

We asked Galia Goldberg a few questions about how Yossi would like to see the IISF working now:

Q: Galia, how did Yossi come by the idea of starting the sport of figure skating in Israel?
A: Yossi noticed that most winter sports centres worldwide were located in mountainous areas, and he knew that having one in Metulla would give a powerful impetus to the development of the whole area both economically and culturally. He saw figure skating as a noble and beautiful sport with a brilliant future for Israel. He also wanted to put Metulla and Israel on the global winter sports map.

Q: How would he like to see the federation developing at the moment and in the future?
A: It was important for him to see a whole generation of young figure skating athletes spun on the local training ground. He wanted to see more and more children involved in this beautiful sport.

Q: So, this would be the best living memory for him?
A: Exactly.

Q: Galia, thank you very much for your words about your husband and the first President of the IISF. As you know, we are working hard in order to make figure skating as popular in Israel as it is worldwide, precisely as he aspired to.