“CrossFit Jerusalem is a dream come true”
Josh Pinson – “I was born in Israel to a religious family and grew up in the U.S. where I was lucky enough to be exposed to CrossFit, a strength and conditioning fitness training that combines aerobic exercises, calisthenics and weightlifting. In 2006, I tried some of the workouts from their website and I loved it. I then started training in CrossFit Baltimore whereby I experienced a community of amazing people.
I returned to Israel for a family visit with a plane ticket and 500 dollars in my pocket. So you can understand that I was not really planning on staying. However, within two weeks I met my wife and decided to remain in Israel.
I bought a barbell and some weights, found a used rowing machine, and started working out in a park next to my house. To earn some money, I cleaned houses and did other miscellaneous jobs. Meanwhile, people started joining my CrossFit workouts in the park and were very enthusiastic about it.
My wife and a couple of close friends pushed me to open a CrossFit gym- ‘box’ we call it. I soon learned that Jerusalem needed it and the timing was great. CrossFit was just being born here in Israel. In fact, we were the second ‘box’ to open in the country. We began renting hourly space in a jujitsu facility and bought some pieces of equipment, and the effort grew and developed to take a life of its own.
So here we are, four years later with our own place and a wonderful community of trainers. We are doing cool things, hosting competitions, and doing all the great stuff that CrossFit boxes do. It’s a dream come true.
I am thankful. I get to work with people that I like and do things that I love. Our community is diverse with people from every religion and nationality. It is not something you can manufacture. It just happens when good people do CrossFit together.”
