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Rising football star Harry Sheezel could be ‘greatest ever male Jewish athlete in Australia’
MELBOURNE (JTA) — Jews in Australia have seen their community prosper in many areas, from business to the arts to the highest levels of government.
But there is one arena that Aussie Jews have not featured prominently in: Australia’s biggest sport, Australian Rules Football (AFL).
AFL, referred to colloquially as “footy,” is a uniquely Aussie sport, which has been played in some form since teams from Melbourne and Geelong first came together in a paddock in East Melbourne in 1858.
Professional footy is played between two teams of 18 players using an oval ball. Goals are scored when the ball is kicked, airborne, through two tall goalposts set on each end of the oval field. It is similar to rugby but has more players, an oval-shaped pitch and different rules regarding kicking, throwing and tackling.
While many Jews are passionate fans and have been involved with the game’s administration, such as Rabbi Joseph Gutnick, the former president of Melbourne Football club, few Jews have ever played at the highest level of the game.
This has changed with the drafting of a Jewish player, Harry Sheezel, who was selected in November as the 3rd overall pick in the 2022 AFL draft.
A bonafide prodigy, the 18-year-old Sheezel began his footy journey in a local Jewish sporting league, as a member of AJAX (Associated Judaean Athletic Clubs), Australia’s only Jewish football club. Sheezel also graduated from Melbourne’s largest Jewish day school, Mount Scopus Memorial College.
According to Ashley Browne, an Australian sports journalist who wrote a book about Jewish Australian athletes called “People of the Boot,” there have been 11 Jewish football players since 1897.
“It’s very rare for a Jewish player to be drafted to the AFL. It’s been quite incredible,” he said, referring to Sheezel’s meteoric rise. “He spent his whole life at Jewish school. He learned to play football at a Jewish football club. A lot of promising Jewish athletes will go to a [non-Jewish] private school for coaching where there are talent scouts, but Harry stayed at Mount Scopus without having to go to the private school.”
Sheezel is already making a mark. Since debuting in March 2023, he has been ranked in the AFL’s top 10 in disposals — a stat referring to legal touches of the football, which indicates how involved one is in a game (while throwing is allowed in rugby, it isn’t in footy). He set an all-time record for most disposals for a player in their first four professional games (with 127).
After just his first game, his two-year team contract was immediately extended through 2026 and he was nominated for the AFL Rising Star award, which acknowledges the best new player in league competition. The footy season began in March and ends in September.
“You don’t want to get too excited too early, but Harry has the potential to perhaps be our greatest-ever male Jewish athlete in Australia,” said Browne.
Harry Sheezel shown during a match between the Gold Coast Suns and his North Melbourne Kangaroos at Heritage Bank Stadium in Gold Coast, Australia, April 23, 2023. (Chris Hyde/Getty Images)
Mount Scopus, which has produced some famous alumni in its 75-year history — from music industry giant Michal Gudinski to Mark Regev, former Israeli ambassador to the United Kingdom — can now add Harry Sheezel’s name to its list illustrious graduates.
“Clearly his talents were nurtured in many different environments, but I believe that his time playing footy at school was one of them. We have a strong sporting culture and Harry was very much part of that,” said Mount Scopus principal James Kennard.
In Australia, many minority communities have gained a foothold in Australian society though footy. The AFL has produced stellar Australian Aboriginal players and more recently, other players from diverse backgrounds, such as Islam. Newly-arrived refugees have also been able to find new audiences through their footy skills. The league even has a multicultural ambassador program, through which faith leaders and others promote the sport in diverse communities.
As the first Jewish player drafted this century, Sheezel’s rise is a cause for celebration in Australia’s Jewish community.
“To see a young Jewish man, one who is the product of a Jewish school and a Jewish junior football club, be so widely celebrated and applauded is a source of great pride,” said Rabbi Zach Gomo, one of the AFL’s multicultural ambassadors.
“I’ve definitely felt the support from the community since before I got picked up to now, being on an AFL list and playing league football,” Sheezel said in a statement to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “It means a lot to have so much support and genuine care from everyone.”
Those who have coached Sheezel along the way know that he has always been extraordinarily gifted at the sport.
“I coached Harry for 5 years at AJAX Junior Football Club alongside his father Dean,” said Jason Wrobel. “He was always a gun footballer. Even as a 5-year-old, doing Auskick [junior football], he was already very talented.”
Each of Sheezel’s matches have attracted a huge number of Jewish fans, including former Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg. While traditionally most Jewish footy fans align with teams that have roots in Melbourne’s historically Jewish suburbs like Carlton, Sheezel was drafted by the North Melbourne Kangaroos, a team that has relatively few fans within the Jewish community.
But this is rapidly changing, and each of North Melbourne’s games now have a large Jewish cheering section. Some of Sheezel’s footy fans have been seen waving Israeli flags, which conveniently align with North Melbourne’s blue and white color scheme.
Those flags caused a brief brouhaha when a complaint about them being waved at the stadium was lodged with the AFL. While the AFL initially advised that in the future Israeli flags would be banned at matches, they quickly walked back this directive by apologizing for the confusion in March and clarifying that Israeli flags were welcome at matches.
Sheezel has also been the brunt of antisemitic comments from other fans, including after the draft.
Dean Sheezel, Harry’s father, doesn’t pay attention to any of the negativity.
“We just ignore that. I don’t give it the time of day. Harry has ignored it too and he doesn’t give it the time of day. He focuses on football, and it doesn’t affect him or us in any way,” he said.
Another problem for the immediate Sheezel family is that they now have to support North Melbourne after 50 years of history supporting Hawthorn, another AFL football team based in a suburb of Melbourne.
“We were mad Hawthorn supporters. We are now fully North Melbourne. You wouldn’t have known I barracked for [supported] Hawthorn for 50 years,” said Dean Sheezel.
Based on the extraordinary start to Harry Sheezel’s footy career, the Sheezel family are likely to be joined by thousands of other Jewish and non-Jewish fans alike.
“Harry Sheezel is going to inspire a generation of young footballers,” said Wrobel. “I think it’s a fantastic example of the path that can be taken for lots of young kids. He is definitely a role model. There are going to be boys and girls trying to follow in his footsteps. In the past there have been some Jewish AFL players, but to achieve this level it was considered, by many, that you couldn’t go to a Jewish school or couldn’t play for a Jewish club. But Harry proves you can, and that is exciting for Jewish kids.”
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The post Rising football star Harry Sheezel could be ‘greatest ever male Jewish athlete in Australia’ appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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US-Brokered Peace Talks Break Off Without Deal After Overnight Russian Bombardment of Ukraine
Some windows glow in a residential building left without heating and facing long power cuts after critical civil infrastructure was hit by recent Russian missile and drone strikes, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine, January 23, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Alina Smutko
Ukraine and Russia ended a second day of US-brokered talks in Abu Dhabi on Saturday without a deal but with more talks expected next weekend, even as overnight Russian airstrikes knocked out power for over a million Ukrainians amid subzero winter cold.
Statements after the conclusion of the talks did not indicate that any agreements had been reached, but Moscow and Kyiv both said they were open to further dialogue.
“The central focus of the discussions was the possible parameters for ending the war,” President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on X after the meeting.
More discussions were expected next Sunday in Abu Dhabi, said a US official who spoke to reporters immediately after the talks.
“We saw a lot of respect in the room between the parties because they were really looking to find solutions,” said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“We got to real granular detail and (we feel) that next Sunday will be, God willing, another meeting where we push this deal towards its final culmination.”
A UAE government spokesperson said there was face-to-face engagement between Ukraine and Russia — rare in the almost four-year-old war triggered by a full-scale Russian invasion — and negotiators tackled “outstanding elements” of Washington’s peace framework.
Looking beyond next week’s negotiations in Abu Dhabi, the US official voiced hopes for further talks, possibly in Moscow or Kyiv.
“Those sorts of meetings have to happen, in our view, before we get a bilateral between (Russian President Vladimir) Putin and Zelensky, or a trilateral with Putin, Zelensky and President Trump. But I don’t think we’re so far away from that,” the official said.
BOMBARDMENT OF UKRAINE BEFORE SECOND DAY OF TALKS
The bombardment of Ukraine’s capital Kyiv and its second-largest city Kharkiv by hundreds of Russian drones and missiles prompted Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha – who was not at the talks – to accuse Putin of acting “cynically.”
“This barbaric attack once again proves that Putin’s place is not at (US President Donald Trump’s) Board of Peace, but in the dock of the special tribunal,” Sybiha wrote on X.
“His missiles hit not only our people, but also the negotiation table.”
Saturday was scheduled to be the final day of the talks, billed by Zelensky as the first trilateral meeting under the US-mediated peace process.
The UAE statement said the talks were conducted in a “constructive and positive atmosphere” and included discussions about confidence-building measures.
Kyiv is under mounting Trump administration pressure to make concessions to reach a deal to end Europe’s deadliest and most destructive conflict since World War Two.
US peace envoy Steve Witkoff said at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos this week that a lot of progress had been made in the talks and only one sticking point remained. However, Russian officials have sounded more skeptical.
RUSSIA WANTS ALL OF DONBAS
After Saturday’s talks, Zelensky said the US delegation had raised the issue of “potential formats for formalizing the parameters for ending the war, as well as the security conditions required to achieve this”.
The US official said the proposed security protocols were widely seen as “very, very strong.”
“The Ukrainians and many of the national security advisors of all the European countries have reviewed these security protocols. And to a person, and this includes NATO, including (NATO Secretary General) Mark Rutte, they have expressed the fact that they’ve never seen security protocols this robust,” the official said.
Ahead of the discussions, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday Russia had not dropped its insistence on Ukraine yielding all of its eastern area of Donbas, the industrial heartland grouping the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.
Putin’s demand that Ukraine surrender the 20 percent it still holds of Donetsk – about 5,000 sq km (1,900 sq miles) – has proven a major stumbling block to any deal. Most countries recognize Donetsk as part of Ukraine. Putin says Donetsk is part of Russia’s “historical lands.”
Zelensky has ruled out giving up territory that Russia has not been able to capture in four years of grinding, attritional warfare against a much smaller foe. Polls show little appetite among Ukrainians for any territorial concessions.
Russia says it wants a diplomatic solution but will keep working to achieve its goals by military means as long as a negotiated solution remains elusive.
Umerov, the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said late on Friday that the first day of talks had addressed parameters for ending the war and the “further logic of the negotiation process.”
Meanwhile, Ukraine came under renewed Russian bombardment.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia had launched 375 drones and 21 missiles in the overnight salvo, which once again targeted energy infrastructure, knocking out power and heat for large parts of Kyiv, the capital. At least one person was killed and over 30 injured.
Before Saturday’s bombardment, Kyiv had already endured two mass overnight attacks since the New Year that cut electricity and heating to hundreds of residential buildings. Ukraine’s deputy prime minister said on Saturday that 800,000 people in Kyiv – where temperatures were around -10 degrees Celsius – had been left without power after the latest Russian assault.
Zelensky said on Saturday Russia’s heavy overnight strikes showed that agreements on further air defense support made with Trump in Davos this week must be “fully implemented.”
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Conscription Law Heads to Final Vote in Knesset Amid Political Showdown
A drone view of Jerusalem with the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, in Jerusalem, Feb. 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ilan Rosenberg
i24 News – Israel’s conscription law is reaching its final stretch as the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee is expected to complete its discussions this week before bringing it to a first reading vote in the Knesset plenum, i24NEWS’s Ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) affairs correspondent Ari Kalman reported Sunday.
The legal counsel of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee is expected to support the legislation, subject to changes that will be made in the wording of the law. However, it is not certain that this will satisfy its opponents. Meanwhile, opponents of the law within the coalition insist that they have “a majority that can defeat the law.”
Against the backdrop of the crisis with the Haredi parties, the state budget is expected to be brought to a first reading vote on Monday. Recently, i24NEWS reported that the Knesset’s legal advisor, Attorney Sagit Afik, told Knesset members that at least two months are required from the moment it is placed on the Knesset table until its final approval. Therefore, the coalition is required to submit it this week in order for it to be approved on time.
The problem facing the coalition and Prime Minister Netanyahu is that this year there is not enough time to pass the budget by the end of March, as Passover Eve falls on April 1, and therefore the budget needs to be approved in its third reading by March 25, two months from today.
Amid the pressure and the attempt to bring the budget to a vote, the Hasidic Council of Torah Sages published its decision this month against the conscription law: “The Council expresses its deep pain and concern over the campaign of harassment against Torah students by various authorities, the harm to them and to their rights, their public denigration and humiliation for being students of God’s Torah; something that is becoming increasingly severe.”
They also wrote that the Council of Torah Sages demands a law “without personal and institutional sanctions and without arrests, as has been customary all these years. Any other legislation that harms Torah scholars whose Torah study is their profession, imposes sanctions on them, or sets quotas is unacceptable. And it must be opposed with all force.”
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Syria and Kurdish Forces Extend Ceasefire by 15 Days Amid Rising Tensions
A person holds flags as people celebrate after the Kurdish-led and US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which controls much of Syria’s oil-rich northeast, has signed a deal agreeing to integrate into Syria’s new state institutions, the Syrian presidency said on Monday, in Damascus, Syria, March 11, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi
i24 News – A four-day ceasefire between Syrian government forces and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which expired on Saturday night, has been extended by 15 days, officials from both sides said, providing a temporary respite amid rising tensions in northeast Syria.
The extension, effective from 11 PM local time, was announced by Syria’s defense ministry to support an ongoing US operation transferring Islamic State detainees from Syrian prisons into Iraq. The SDF confirmed the agreement was reached through international mediation, while dialogue with Damascus continues.
The ceasefire follows recent advances by government troops, who seized swathes of northern and eastern territory from the SDF in the past two weeks, consolidating control under President Ahmed al-Sharaa. Sharaa had initially given SDF forces until Saturday to lay down arms or face renewed fighting.
The US has been conducting shuttle diplomacy to establish a lasting ceasefire and facilitate the integration of the SDF, which was Washington’s main partner in Syria for years, into the state led by Sharaa. Senior US and French officials reportedly warned Sharaa against sending troops into remaining Kurdish-held areas to avoid potential mass abuses against civilians.
As tensions escalated ahead of the Saturday deadline, SDF forces reinforced positions in Qamishli, Hasakeh, and Kobane. Kurdish security sources indicated the buildup was precautionary amid fears of renewed conflict.
The offensive earlier this month marked the culmination of a year of rising tensions. Sharaa, whose forces toppled Bashar al-Assad in late 2024, aims to bring all of Syria under state control, while Kurdish authorities have resisted merging their autonomous civilian and military institutions into Sharaa’s administration.
With key oil fields, hydroelectric dams, and facilities holding Islamic State detainees now under government control, the 15-day ceasefire offers a brief pause. The situation remains fragile, and the international community continues to monitor developments closely.