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Pickleball, America’s fastest-growing sport, is a hit at Jewish camps and sports tournaments
(JTA) — As head of programming for Maccabi USA, Shane Carr is used to having people ask him to add sports to the organization’s many Jewish sports tournaments around the world.
But since 2019, one sport has been suggested above all others: pickleball.
Widely considered the fastest-growing sport in America, pickleball is a sort of condensed court tennis and pingpong hybrid that has attracted millions of new fanatics since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, from middle schoolers to the likes of Bill Gates and LeBron James. Originally created in 1965 in Bainbridge Island, Washington, the sport adapted well to the quarantine era with its short learning curve and low-cost equipment.
One study estimates that 5 million people played pickleball in 2021, while the Sports & Fitness Industry Association found that participation in the sport nearly doubled in 2022 and has increased 158.6% over the past three years.
The Jewish world is no exception to the trend. The sport is a frequent sight at Jewish community centers and camps across the country, attracting players of all ages.
Carr said the requests to add pickleball to Maccabi events “blew up” during the pandemic. And after years of conversations about the sport’s popularity and potential — plus Carr getting “tired of saying no” — pickleball will officially be played at the Pan American Maccabi Games in Buenos Aires this December.
“The great part about pickleball is it’s so approachable, and people can pick it up so quickly,” Carr told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “It’s a great opportunity to build community, especially Jewish community.”
Carr explained that adding a sport to the tournament is a multi-step process that included convincing the global Maccabiah body. He said the popularity of racket sports in Argentina helped their case, and that the Hacoaj sports club in Buenos Aires — where Jewish-Argentine tennis star Diego Schwartzman got his start — hosted a pickleball open house to help generate interest.
Delegations from the United States, Canada and Argentina will compete in pickleball at the Pan Am Games, and Carr said Israel could potentially join as well. The tournament will include traditional men’s and women’s singles and doubles, plus a team event and a “Pickle Palooza” offering for anyone who wants to play.
Carr also said Maccabi USA is hoping to include pickleball in the full 2025 Maccabiah Games in Israel.
The demand for pickleball has also skyrocketed at Jewish summer camps across the United States.
At Camp Avoda, a Jewish sports camp about 50 miles south of Boston, Director Ronni Guttin estimated that about 40 of the camp’s 140 campers are playing pickleball. It’s offered as an elective alongside tennis, and campers can also play during free time. Guttin lauded the sport’s accessibility, noting that it’s especially popular among kids who may find tennis too difficult.
Guttin said Avoda brought in a group of pickleball players to run a clinic for the first time last summer, and “it took off like crazy.” They brought the instructors back this summer, too.
The camp has two pickleball courts, but Guttin said that if they had five courts they would all fill up. “People are clamoring for it,” she added.
Camp Bauercrest, a Jewish sports camp 40 miles north of Boston in Amesbury, Massachusetts, did add more courts for this summer.
Director Ken Cotton said the camp had invited an alum to host pickleball clinics last year, and “the kids ate it up.” So when it came time to repair the camp’s tennis courts before this summer, Bauercrest added four outdoor pickleball courts to go along with two indoor courts.
The familiar “pop” that echoes from pickleball courts — which has caused real problems for those who live near them — has also become a common sound at numerous camps run by the Union for Reform Judaism and the Conservative Ramah movement.
Ruben Arquilevich, the URJ’s vice president who oversees its 14 camps, told JTA the sport is now offered at multiple camps, adding that it is “very popular.”
At Eisner Camp in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, one of the camp’s tennis instructors has also started teaching pickleball. Camp Newman in Santa Rosa, California, lists pickleball among its many offered activities, and the URJ’s 6 Points Sports Academy in Asheville, North Carolina, offers it as an elective.
Pickleball is also now offered at the Ramah movement’s day camp in Nyack, New York, and its overnight camp in Wisconsin, according to Ramah’s national director Amy Skopp Cooper.
At the Ramah camp in Ojai, California — about 80 miles northwest of Los Angeles — pickleball has become “the sport of the summer,” said Molly Auerbach, the camp’s program director.
Ramah California offers pickleball during its sports period, taught by a pickleball coach, as well as during free time and a weekly Shabbat pickleball tournament.
“I would say it’s become one of the themes of the summer and most people have tried it, if not become obsessed with playing it,” Auerbach told JTA.
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The post Pickleball, America’s fastest-growing sport, is a hit at Jewish camps and sports tournaments 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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