Written by Charlie Ben-Ami
Even months before the 2025 Maccabiah in Israel, the Maccabi USA Women’s Ice Hockey Team boasts a unique level of chemistry.
This is thanks to sisters Elle Hartje, a forward for the New York Sirens of the Professional Women’s Hockey League, and Sasha Hartje, a former collegiate tennis player at Emory University and a Division 1 hockey defender at Long Island University.
This summer, the sisters will be teammates on the ice for the first time since their high school days at Detroit Country Day School in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, where they not only played hockey together but also soccer and tennis. The sisters both point to that experience as the launching pad for the extremely tight bond they share today.
“That was so instrumental in our relationship. I think you always have a little bit of a rivalry with your sister growing up, especially since we were close in age, said older sister Sasha who is 26. “Being on the same team and sharing these experiences made us gain so much more respect for one another and how much work we put in.”
“I really think playing on the same team was the starting point of the most amazing sisterhood ever,” added younger sister Elle, who turns 24 this month.
It was only natural that athletics would shape the Hartje sisters’ bond. Mom, Nicole, was a star tennis player and team captain at Harvard University. Dad, Tod, played hockey at Harvard and spent more than 10 years competing professionally. Tod also coached the sisters in high school and continues to train Elle today.
Elle and Sasha’s younger brother, Clay, plays baseball at Johns Hopkins University, and their older brother, Jake, also played lacrosse and hockey at Harvard.
“There was a lot of basketball in the driveway, roller hockey, whatever we could do to compete against each other,” remarked Elle.
“Even monopoly – any board games – became a competition. In a healthy and positive way, we think,” Sasha added with a chuckle.
The sisters aren’t competitors or teammates these days, but their relationship remains as strong as ever. Sasha, who is now retired from competitive athletics, is the ardent super fan – always there to lend support, and Elle, the professional athlete making an impact as a rookie.
“My Instagram bio says ‘Elle Hartje Fan Page’ because everything I post is for her, about her, and pumping her up,” mentioned Sasha. “Nobody sees how hard she works more than I do. So getting to hype her up and tell all my friends my sister is a professional athlete. It’s absolutely the coolest thing for me.”
Through a year full of change and new challenges that come with being a pro, Elle has leaned heavily on that support.
“That was one thing coming into this new league as a rookie I knew wouldn’t change and was really my constant.”
As Sasha eyes her return to competitive hockey this summer, she’s confident in her ability to make an impact for Maccabi USA. This, in part, comes from her college experience. After playing 4 years of tennis at Emory, Sasha switched back to hockey while pursuing her MBA at Long Island University.
“It for sure helps me in the confidence aspect, just knowing that I was able to take 4 years off from the game and come back and compete at a D-1 level,” said Sasha.
Elle was quick to point out that, even if her sister is technically “retired,” she hasn’t strayed too far from the fastest game on ice.
“If my dad needs another person for whatever his practice plan is, she’s out there, sometimes begrudgingly, but she’s always out there,” said Elle.
Perhaps even more exciting than playing together again is the chance to do so in Israel with their Grandma, a Holocaust survivor, watching them soak in the experience.
“Watching her get emotional about it makes us emotional about it, and it is something that we are so proud that we get to do and share with her,” remarked Sasha.
First-hand accounts of their grandparents’ experience during the Holocaust have shaped Elle and Sasha’s relationship with Judaism, as well as how they’ve coped with the last year and a half.
“I think that is where Judaism is important to me, making sure that people remember and making sure that our grandparents’ story withstands the test of time,” said Elle.
“It’s chilling to talk with our grandma and have her get choked up and emotional because she can’t believe she’s having to go through this again, something against where we come from, again,” added Sasha.
While Elle and Sasha couldn’t be more excited to take the ice together again, their presence at the Maccabiah means even more than that, acting as a symbol of the courage and strength of their grandparents in the face of persecution.
Charlie Ben-Ami is a graduate of the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University and currently works as a freelance play-by-play broadcaster in the New York metropolitan area. You can follow his work @charliebenami on X and here at www.maccabiusa.com.