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A Jewish guide to the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup
(JTA) — The FIFA Women’s World Cup is underway, with 32 teams from around the globe competing in the quadrennial tournament, co-hosted this year by Australia and New Zealand.
It has been an exciting year for Jews in men’s soccer: In the men’s World Cup in the winter, two Jewish players, goalkeeper Matt Turner and defender DeAndre Yedlin, played for the United States. And in the FIFA under-20 World Cup in May, Israel enjoyed a shocking run that ended with a third-place finish in its first appearance in the competition.
Now it’s time for the women’s tournament. Here’s a Jewish guide to the Women’s World Cup, which started Thursday and concludes Aug. 20.
Are there any Jewish players?
Yael Averbuch in action with the U.S. Women’s National Team against New Zealand in Columbus, Ohio, Oct. 30, 2013. (Jamie Sabau/Getty Images)
Across 32 teams each with 23 players — a total of 736 women — there are no known Jewish players in this year’s Women’s World Cup. Israel has never competed in the tournament.
For Yael Averbuch West, a former star player who is now the general manager of the National Women’s Soccer League’s NJ/NY Gotham FC, the lack of Jewish representation in professional women’s soccer is disheartening.
“At the highest levels, there are not a lot of elite Jewish women playing soccer,” Averbuch West told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Averbuch West said she is not aware of any Jewish players in the American NWSL, either. She and former teammate Camille Ashton (née Levin) are both general managers in the league, and the NWSL’s commissioner, Jessica Berman, is also Jewish.
“I do think that representation is important,” Averbuch West said. “And because of the lack of representation, I think that that affects up-and-coming Jewish players. I’ve had people say to me, ‘oh my gosh, you’re my favorite player, because we’re Jewish and we don’t see any Jewish players out there.’”
Averbuch West added that with the recent growth of the NWSL — which is up to 12 teams as of 2022 — the idea that there may be no Jewish players is “quite disturbing.”
This hasn’t always been the case. When the U.S. team won the 1999 Women’s World Cup, Jewish defender Sarah Whalen was on the team. She would go on to win a silver medal with the team at the Olympics the following year.
Andres Cantor and Sammy Sadovnik are back in the broadcast booth.
Andres Cantor arrives at the Telemundo and NBC Universal Latin America Red Carpet Event in Miami Beach, Florida, Jan. 16, 2018. (Alexander Tamargo/Getty Images)
Telemundo’s lead play-by-play voice, the Emmy award-winning Andres Cantor, is back in the booth for the Women’s World Cup. The Argentine-Jewish announcer is best known for popularizing long goal calls in the English-speaking world (including a memorable call when his country won the 2022 World Cup on home soil).
Cantor will once again be joined by one of his mentees, two-time Emmy nominee Sammy Sadovnik, who has been with Telemundo since 2007 and covered sports since 1989. He’s a proud Jew from Peru who visits Israel every year.
Despite this male tandem, networks are working to center the voices of women in soccer broadcasts at this World Cup.
Doug Emhoff will be there, too.
Doug Emhoff arrives before President Joe Biden takes part in signing the infrastructure bill at the White House, Nov. 15, 2021. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)
Second gentleman Doug Emhoff, the first Jewish spouse of a president or vice president, is in New Zealand representing the United States.
A self-described “soccer dad,” Emhoff will lead the U.S. delegation in the opening ceremony and will attend the team’s first match on Friday against Vietnam.
While he’s there, Emhoff will also participate in a panel discussion on gender equity in sports. Along with former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Emhoff took part on Thursday in a roundtable on combating hate. Emhoff has put efforts to combat antisemitism at the center of his government portfolio.
Another prominent Jew could be cheering from the sidelines: basketball legend Sue Bird, who is engaged to Megan Rapinoe, a longtime star for the U.S. Women’s National Team, shared a photo from New Zealand on Instagram earlier this week.
How many Jews live in Australia and New Zealand?
A view of a beach in Melbourne, Australia. (Getty Images)
Just under 100,000 Australians identified themselves as Jewish in the country’s 2021 census, which amounts to 0.04 percent of the population. Some estimates place the Jewish population above 200,000. A vast majority of Australian Jews live in Sydney and Melbourne.
The Jewish presence in Australia dates back to Jan. 26, 1788, when approximately 16 Jews — 15 convicts and one baby — arrived in what is now Sydney Harbor.
Today, Australia has the highest ratio of Holocaust survivors in overall population besides Israel, as over 8,000 made their way there to escape persecution in Europe between 1933-1945. The New York Times recently reported on how the country’s thriving Yiddish scene carries on their legacy.
In New Zealand, around 5,000 Jews were identified in the country’s 2018 census; the total population is over 5 million. The first Jewish settlers in New Zealand were British traders.
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The post A Jewish guide to the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Iran, US Task Experts to Design Framework for a Nuclear Deal, Tehran Says
Atomic symbol and USA and Iranian flags are seen in this illustration taken, September 8, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
Iran and the United States agreed on Saturday to task experts to start drawing up a framework for a potential nuclear deal, Iran’s foreign minister said, after a second round of talks following President Donald Trump’s threat of military action.
At their second indirect meeting in a week, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi negotiated for almost four hours in Rome with Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, through an Omani official who shuttled messages between them.
Trump, who abandoned a 2015 nuclear pact between Tehran and world powers during his first term in 2018, has threatened to attack Iran unless it reaches a new deal swiftly that would prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon.
Iran, which says its nuclear program is peaceful, says it is willing to discuss limited curbs to its atomic work in return for lifting international sanctions.
Speaking on state TV after the talks, Araqchi described them as useful and conducted in a constructive atmosphere.
“We were able to make some progress on a number of principles and goals, and ultimately reached a better understanding,” he said.
“It was agreed that negotiations will continue and move into the next phase, in which expert-level meetings will begin on Wednesday in Oman. The experts will have the opportunity to start designing a framework for an agreement.”
The top negotiators would meet again in Oman next Saturday to “review the experts’ work and assess how closely it aligns with the principles of a potential agreement,” he added.
Echoing cautious comments last week from Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, he added: “We cannot say for certain that we are optimistic. We are acting very cautiously. There is no reason either to be overly pessimistic.”
There was no immediate comment from the US side following the talks. Trump told reporters on Friday: “I’m for stopping Iran, very simply, from having a nuclear weapon. They can’t have a nuclear weapon. I want Iran to be great and prosperous and terrific.”
Washington’s ally Israel, which opposed the 2015 agreement with Iran that Trump abandoned in 2018, has not ruled out an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities in the coming months, according to an Israeli official and two other people familiar with the matter.
Since 2019, Iran has breached and far surpassed the 2015 deal’s limits on its uranium enrichment, producing stocks far above what the West says is necessary for a civilian energy program.
A senior Iranian official, who described Iran’s negotiating position on condition of anonymity on Friday, listed its red lines as never agreeing to dismantle its uranium enriching centrifuges, halt enrichment altogether or reduce its enriched uranium stockpile below levels agreed in the 2015 deal.
The post Iran, US Task Experts to Design Framework for a Nuclear Deal, Tehran Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hamas Says Fate of US-Israeli Hostage Unknown After Guard Killed in Israel Strike
Varda Ben Baruch, the grandmother of Edan Alexander, 19, an Israeli army volunteer kidnapped by Hamas, attends a special Kabbalat Shabbat ceremony with families of other hostages, in Herzliya, Israel October 27, 2023 REUTERS/Kuba Stezycki
Hamas said on Saturday the fate of an Israeli dual national soldier believed to be the last US citizen held alive in Gaza was unknown, after the body of one of the guards who had been holding him was found killed by an Israeli strike.
A month after Israel abandoned the ceasefire with the resumption of intensive strikes across the breadth of Gaza, Israel was intensifying its attacks.
President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff said in March that freeing Edan Alexander, a 21-year-old New Jersey native who was serving in the Israeli army when he was captured during the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks that precipitated the war, was a “top priority.” His release was at the center of talks held between Hamas leaders and US negotiator Adam Boehler last month.
Hamas had said on Tuesday that it had lost contact with the militants holding Alexander after their location was hit in an Israeli attack. On Saturday it said the body of one of the guards had been recovered.
“The fate of the prisoner and the rest of the captors remains unknown,” said Hamas armed wing Al-Qassam Brigades’ spokesperson Abu Ubaida.
“We are trying to protect all the hostages and preserve their lives … but their lives are in danger because of the criminal bombings by the enemy’s army,” Abu Ubaida said.
The Israeli military did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Hamas released 38 hostages under the ceasefire that began on January 19. Fifty-nine are still believed to be held in Gaza, fewer than half of them still alive.
Israel put Gaza under a total blockade in March and restarted its assault on March 18 after talks failed to extend the ceasefire. Hamas says it will free remaining hostages only under an agreement that permanently ends the war; Israel says it will agree only to a temporary pause.
On Friday, the Israeli military said it hit about 40 targets across the enclave over the past day. The military on Saturday announced that a 35-year-old soldier had died in combat in Gaza.
NETANYAHU STATEMENT
Late on Thursday Khalil Al-Hayya, Hamas’ Gaza chief, said the movement was willing to swap all remaining 59 hostages for Palestinians jailed in Israel in return for an end to the war and reconstruction of Gaza.
He dismissed an Israeli offer, which includes a demand that Hamas lay down its arms, as imposing “impossible conditions.”
Israel has not responded formally to Al-Hayya’s comments, but ministers have said repeatedly that Hamas must be disarmed completely and can play no role in the future governance of Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to give a statement later on Saturday.
Hamas on Saturday also released an undated and edited video of Israeli hostage Elkana Bohbot. Hamas has released several videos over the course of the war of hostages begging to be released. Israeli officials have dismissed past videos as propaganda.
After the video was released, Bohbot’s family said in a statement that they were “deeply shocked and devastated,” and expressed concern for his mental and physical condition.
“How much longer will he be expected to wait and ‘stay strong’?” the family asked, urging for all of the 59 hostages who are still held in Gaza to be brought home.
The post Hamas Says Fate of US-Israeli Hostage Unknown After Guard Killed in Israel Strike first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Oman’s Sultan to Meet Putin in Moscow After Iran-US Talks
FILE PHOTO: Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said gives a speech after being sworn in before the royal family council in Muscat, Oman January 11, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Sultan Al Hasani/File Photo
Oman’s Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said is set to visit Moscow on Monday, days after the start of a round of Muscat-mediated nuclear talks between the US and Iran.
The sultan will hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, the Kremlin said.
Iran and the US started a new round of nuclear talks in Rome on Saturday to resolve their decades-long standoff over Tehran’s atomic aims, under the shadow of President Donald Trump’s threat to unleash military action if diplomacy fails.
Ahead of Saturday’s talks, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi met his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow. Following the meeting, Lavrov said Russia was “ready to assist, mediate and play any role that will be beneficial to Iran and the USA.”
Moscow has played a role in Iran’s nuclear negotiations in the past as a veto-wielding U.N. Security Council member and signatory to an earlier deal that Trump abandoned during his first term in 2018.
The sultan’s meetings in Moscow visit will focus on cooperation on regional and global issues, the Omani state news agency and the Kremlin said, without providing further detail.
The two leaders are also expected to discuss trade and economic ties, the Kremlin added.
The post Oman’s Sultan to Meet Putin in Moscow After Iran-US Talks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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