(JTA) — This article originally appeared on Alma. Anat Lelior’s first experience with surfing came at age 5. It was an inauspicious start to the sport that would become her career and, later this month, take her to the Tokyo Olympics. Her father, Yochai, lay on the back of the board with her at their…
The most popular man in Brooklyn on Sunday night was Shlomo Lipman, a pitcher for Israel’s national baseball team, which had schlepped to Coney Island for the first of a series of nine exhibition games ahead of The Big Schlep to the Olympics in Tokyo in less than two weeks. Sure, Lipman’s team — made…
David Wiseman and Shari Wright-Pilo were at the 2019 Tel Aviv Grand Prix when Israeli judoka Or Sasson won the gold medal. As the press section swarmed him with cameras and rapid-fire questions in Hebrew, Wright-Pilo was recording on her phone and decided to try something. She asked the judoka, “Ori, can we have a…
(JTA) — The 2020 Tokyo Olympics are finally happening, a full year after they were planned. And yes, they’re still being called the 2020 Olympics, even though they’re happening in 2021. The Jewish athletes competing this year — and there are many — are the products of inspiring journeys. There’s the fencer looking for redemption, Israel’s…
For some Jewish American athletes, competing for Israel made their Olympic dreams possible. But in addition to the opportunity to be an Olympian, many of these American competitors report a particular and powerful pride in representing the nation. Their journey to the Olympics, they say, has connected them more closely to their heritage. “Your good,…
Jon Moscot discovered baseball fairly easily. Growing up in Southern California meant stickball games with brothers Josh and Jed in the park before eventually upgrading to baseball. Their father, Elliot, passed down a love for the game that he developed while idolizing Sandy Koufax and the Brooklyn Dodgers. This summer, the 29-year-old Moscot will fulfill…
The Olympic Games begin in Tokyo July 23, but no international spectators will be permitted. It’s an unfortunate turn of events for the city’s Jewish community, said Jerry Rosenberg, a former president of the Jewish Community of Japan, an egalitarian synagogue in Tokyo. In fact, Rosenberg said the 100-family congregation “had big plans” for the…
In 2017, a ragtag bunch of Jewish minor leaguers, retired pros and semi-pros competing as Team Israel made a miracle run at the World Baseball Classic, winning its first six games and ultimately finishing in sixth place. They’ll be in Tokyo next month to prove it wasn’t a fluke — with a former all-star supplying…
ווען זי האָט געזונגען „אָטעם אַרײַן און אָטעם אַרויס“ אויף דער ייִדיש־וואָך אין אויגוסט איז דער עולם גאָר נתפּעל געוואָרן.
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