Uncategorized
Team Israel wins twice at World Baseball Classic, qualifying for 2030 tournament
(JTA) — Israel will not advance to the single-elimination stage of the 2026 World Baseball Classic, but the team surpassed expectations by winning two games and finishing in third place in its opening-round pool in Miami.
Israel capped its tournament with a 6-2 win over the Netherlands Tuesday at loanDepot park, the home of the Miami Marlins. Israel had beaten Nicaragua, 5-0, on Sunday to ensure a better-than-last-place finish in Pool D, securing a spot in the 2030 tournament. Israel’s two losses came against powerhouses Venezuela (11-3) and the Dominican Republic (10-1).
“Very positive week overall. Big step forward from 2023,” Nate Fish, the CEO of Israel Baseball Americas and a former Israel player and coach, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “It is hard to advance when you’re in a bracket with Venezuela and [the Dominican Republic] but winning two games at the WBC is very impressive.”
Israel is now 7-7 all-time in three WBC appearances. The team burst onto the scene in 2017 with a shocking Cinderella run that featured four straight wins to advance to the second round. In 2023, Israel went 1-3.
Team Israel is constructed of players who are eligible for citizenship in Israel though few have extensive relationships to the country, where baseball is still a fledgling sport.
“We have consistently proven we can construct teams that can compete with the best in the world,” Fish said. “Israel Baseball is hugely grateful to the WBC and our entire staff and roster. It was an incredible experience.”
Manager Brad Ausmus, the New York Yankees’ bench coach, told MLB.com that the team felt the support from fans throughout the tournament.
“We see everything up on the scoreboard — there are people wearing their Israeli T-shirts or holding the Israeli flag,” Ausmus said. “The hope is more players become interested in playing for Israel … I just think every time an Israeli team wins a baseball game in a big tournament like this, it helps.”
In Israel’s win over Nicaragua — its first shutout win in WBC history — Baltimore Orioles pitcher Dean Kremer threw 4 1/3 innings with four strikeouts, and was followed by a string of four relievers who did not allow a hit for the remainder of the game.
The win represented a deja vu moment for Israel, which had also beaten Nicaragua, with Kremer on the mound, in the 2023 tournament.
“It’s huge not to have to go through qualifying again,” Kremer said after Sunday’s win. “For not only us as a team, but the country as a whole that I’m more than proud to represent.”
And like last time, few expected Israel to win another game. The Netherlands team lacks the star power of the Venezuelan and Dominican teams, but still features a number of veteran MLB players. It had made it to the semifinals in 2013 and 2017.
But on Tuesday, Israel came out on top — thanks, again, to strong pitching.
Harrison Cohen, a highly touted prospect in the Yankees system, tossed two perfect innings, striking out five of the six batters he faced.
“Playing for Team Israel has always been a dream,” Cohen told MLB.com. “To be able to participate in the WBC, wear ‘Israel’ across my chest, as not only just a token of where you’ve gotten to in your career, but as a token of how I was brought up, how I was raised, my parents, my family, my heritage.”
At the plate, Los Angeles Dodgers prospect Jake Gelof drove in three runs, while St. Louis Cardinals minor leaguer Noah Mendlinger capped off a strong WBC with another hit, two runs scored and two walks. Mendlinger finished the tournament with a team-best .455 batting average.
“You see this on the calendar every couple of years, and you circle it,” said Gelof, whose older brother Zack played for Israel in 2023. “I know my brother and I circled this on our calendar. He was able to play in it, and now I’ve been able to play with it. We’re always looking forward to growing the game anywhere where we play for Team Israel.”
In each of Israel’s three WBC appearances, the opportunity to watch a squad of mostly American Jewish ballplayers with “Israel” on their jerseys brought out a plethora of Jewish pride at the stadium and for fans watching from afar.
Max Mannis, an Orthodox Jewish content creator for Jomboy Media, was among the fans who made the trip to attend Israel’s games.
“Finishing 2-2 in Pool D is undeniably a huge success for them in this WBC,” Mannis tweeted after Tuesday’s win. “And man, what an absolute blast to attend. Jewish pride as far as the eye can see. One I’ll remember as long as I live.”
The post Team Israel wins twice at World Baseball Classic, qualifying for 2030 tournament appeared first on The Forward.
Uncategorized
UK adopts sweeping measures against antisemitism in schools
(JTA) — The U.K. has adopted sweeping measures to combat antisemitism in English schools, prompting pushback from the country’s largest teachers’ union.
The move came after a new government-commissioned review found that three in five Jewish students reported experiencing antisemitism in English schools. The most common incidents were jokes, stereotypes and comments about Jewish people. About half of respondents who witnessed or experienced antisemitism said the incidents were not reported, most often because they did not think they would be taken seriously.
The government on Wednesday accepted 27 recommendations from the report, including dedicated antisemitism training for leaders and staff, improved recording of antisemitic incidents and moves to build a better understanding of Jewish life, identity and contemporary antisemitism.
The government commissioned the report following a spate of high-profile attacks on Jews in Britain, including an attack on a synagogue in Manchester last year that left two men dead.
The report’s author, Sir David Bell, the vice chancellor of the University of Sunderland and former chief inspector of schools in England, recommended addressing antisemitism distinctly from other forms of racism. He argued that antisemitism was a “uniquely complex” problem because of intertwined racial and religious dimensions, since Jewish identity can encompass both an ethnicity and a religion, along with expressions of prejudice that hold all Jews responsible for the actions of Israel.
The government will also encourage English schools to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism. The definition is supported by many mainstream Jewish organizations and has been adopted by 47 countries, including the U.K., but critics say that it conflates some forms of antisemitism with criticism of Israel.
British Education Secretary Lucy Powell called Bell’s review a “generational moment” and said that “implementation is now my priority.”
However, the National Education Union, the largest union representing teachers, lecturers, teaching assistants and support staff in the United Kingdom and Europe, raised concerns on Wednesday about recommending the IHRA definition for schools. NEU general secretary Daniel Kebede said in a statement that the definition “risks deepening the problem rather than tackling it, and actively undermining efforts to confront antisemitism.”
“The IHRA’s contested framing risks blurring the line between antisemitism and legitimate criticism of the Israeli government and the genocide in Gaza, leaving teachers with uncertainty when they need clarity,” said Kebede. He cited a risk that “children who cannot critically explore issues through classroom discussion will instead seek their answers in online and unsafe groups.”
Kebede also encouraged Britain’s Department for Education to strengthen guidance on all forms of racism, not only antisemitism, saying that 65% of teachers report they have not received any antiracism training in the past year.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews, an umbrella organization for British Jewish communities, celebrated the antisemitism report and the government’s adoption of its proposed measures. The group specifically praised the report’s “clear recommendations that schools and local authorities follow government guidelines by adopting the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism as a tool to deepen understanding of contemporary antisemitism.”
“We remain concerned about undue external influence on schools driven by narrow political agendas, and tendentious materials seeping into schools and increasing disharmony, and we will continue to press for vigilance against this,” said the Board of Deputies.
The post UK adopts sweeping measures against antisemitism in schools appeared first on The Forward.
Uncategorized
Orthodox Jewish man stabbed in midtown Manhattan
(New York Jewish Week) — An Orthodox Jewish man is in stable condition after being stabbed on Wednesday evening in the Diamond District of midtown Manhattan. Police are investigating the attack as a possible hate crime.
Police told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating the incident as a possible antisemitic attack, and Manhattan Shomrim — the Jewish community watch group — has asked people to share footage as police search for the suspect. No arrests have been made.
The victim was identified by police as a 26-year-old man, and Orthodox Jewish outlet COLLive identified him as a resident of Crown Heights, the neighborhood that is home to the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement’s headquarters.
He was taken to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition. Police said they were called at about 5:50 p.m. on Wednesday after the man was stabbed in the back with “an unknown sharp object” on 47th Street near Fifth Avenue. ABC7 reported that the victim told investigators he believed he was stabbed with a needle or syringe.
According to the Chabad website, which published an interview with the victim, he is a recently ordained Hasidic rabbi named Joseph, who commutes to Midtown each day to wrap tefillin with Jewish merchants. The attacker, Joseph told the website, was a woman who seemed to be following him prior to the stabbing.
The attack comes as Jewish New Yorkers have been targeted in more than half of the hate crimes committed in New York City this year, despite making up about 12% of the city’s population.
In July, an assailant stabbed two men on the Upper West Side, including one who was leaving a synagogue, while yelling “Allahu akbar,” and was charged with committing hate crimes.
Louis Keene contributed reporting.
The post Orthodox Jewish man stabbed in midtown Manhattan appeared first on The Forward.
Uncategorized
VIDEO: A Hasid gives us a tour of Morocco in Yiddish
דער ירושלימער יוטוב־שטערן וועלוול קירשנבוים האָט לעצטנס אַרויסגעשטעלט אַ ווידעאָ אויף ייִדיש פֿון אַ פּרעכטיקן וויזיט, וואָס ער האָט געמאַכט אין מאַראָקאָ. עס באַגלייט אים זײַן חבֿר אַבֿרהם פּרץ.
אינעם ווידעאָ זעט מען ווי קירשנבוים דאַוונט שחרית מיט די אָרטיקע ייִדן און באַזוכט אַ גוט אָפּגעהיטענעם בית־עולם, וווּ עס ליגן באַערדיקט גרויסע צדיקים ווי למשל הרבֿ חיים בן עתר (1696–1743), באַקאַנט ווי דער „אור החיים“. „מענטשן מיינען, אַז נאָר אין אייראָפּע זענען דאָ קבֿרים פֿון צדיקים!“ זאָגט קירשנבוים.
מיר זעען אַ גרויסע, שיינע שיל מיט אַ פֿײַנער אַרכיטעקטור אין קאַזאַבלאַנקאַ; דעם גרויסן אַראַבישן שוק, וווּ קירשנבוים קויפֿט זיך אײַן מלבושים פּונקט ווי די מאַראָקאַנער גייען אָנגעטאָן. ער באַוווּנדערט אויך די שיינע טיי־גלעזער און טשײַניקן, וואָס מע פֿאַרקויפֿט דאָרט, און באַקענט זיך מיט אַ ייִדישן סוחר וואָס האַנדלט מיט זילבער און גאָלד, פּונקט אַזוי ווי זײַן טאַטע און זיידע האָבן געטאָן פֿאַר דור־דורות.
The post VIDEO: A Hasid gives us a tour of Morocco in Yiddish appeared first on The Forward.
