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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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Syria’s Sharaa Says Talks With Israel Could Yield Results ‘In Coming Days’

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa speaks at the opening ceremony of the 62nd Damascus International Fair, the first edition held since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, in Damascus, Syria, Aug. 27, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi
Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa said on Wednesday that ongoing negotiations with Israel to reach a security pact could lead to results “in the coming days.”
He told reporters in Damascus the security pact was a “necessity” and that it would need to respect Syria’s airspace and territorial unity and be monitored by the United Nations.
Syria and Israel are in talks to reach an agreement that Damascus hopes will secure a halt to Israeli airstrikes and the withdrawal of Israeli troops who have pushed into southern Syria.
Reuters reported this week that Washington was pressuring Syria to reach a deal before world leaders gather next week for the UN General Assembly in New York.
But Sharaa, in a briefing with journalists including Reuters ahead of his expected trip to New York to attend the meeting, denied the US was putting any pressure on Syria and said instead that it was playing a mediating role.
He said Israel had carried out more than 1,000 strikes on Syria and conducted more than 400 ground incursions since Dec. 8, when the rebel offensive he led toppled former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.
Sharaa said Israel’s actions were contradicting the stated American policy of a stable and unified Syria, which he said was “very dangerous.”
He said Damascus was seeking a deal similar to a 1974 disengagement agreement between Israel and Syria that created a demilitarized zone between the two countries.
He said Syria sought the withdrawal of Israeli troops but that Israel wanted to remain at strategic locations it seized after Dec. 8, including Mount Hermon. Israeli ministers have publicly said Israel intends to keep control of the sites.
He said if the security pact succeeds, other agreements could be reached. He did not provide details, but said a peace agreement or normalization deal like the US-mediated Abraham Accords, under which several Muslim-majority countries agreed to normalize diplomatic ties with Israel, was not currently on the table.
He also said it was too early to discuss the fate of the Golan Heights because it was “a big deal.”
Reuters reported this week that Israel had ruled out handing back the zone, which Donald Trump unilaterally recognized as Israeli during his first term as US president.
“It’s a difficult case – you have negotiations between a Damascene and a Jew,” Sharaa told reporters, smiling.
SECURITY PACT DERAILED IN JULY
Sharaa also said Syria and Israel had been just “four to five days” away from reaching the basis of a security pact in July, but that developments in the southern province of Sweida had derailed those discussions.
Syrian troops were deployed to Sweida in July to quell fighting between Druze armed factions and Bedouin fighters. But the violence worsened, with Syrian forces accused of execution-style killings and Israel striking southern Syria, the defense ministry in Damascus and near the presidential palace.
Sharaa on Wednesday described the strikes near the presidential palace as “not a message, but a declaration of war,” and said Syria had still refrained from responding militarily to preserve the negotiations.
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Anti-Israel Activists Gear Up to ‘Flood’ UN General Assembly

US Capitol Police and NYPD officers clash with anti-Israel demonstrators, on the day Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a joint meeting of Congress, on Capitol Hill, in Washington, DC, July 24, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Umit Bektas
Anti-Israel groups are planning a wave of raucous protests in New York City during the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) over the next several days, prompting concerns that the demonstrations could descend into antisemitic rhetoric and intimidation.
A coalition of anti-Israel activists is organizing the protests in and around UN headquarters to coincide with speeches from Middle Eastern leaders and appearances by US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The demonstrations are expected to draw large crowds and feature prominent pro-Palestinian voices, some of whom have been criticized for trafficking in antisemitic tropes, in addition to calling for the destruction of Israe.
Organizers of the demonstrations have promoted the coordinated events on social media as an opportunity to pressure world leaders to hold Israel accountable for its military campaign against Hamas in Gaza, with some messaging framed in sharply hostile terms.
On Sunday, for example, activists shouted at Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon.
“Zionism is terrorism. All you guys are terrorists committing ethnic cleansing and genocide in Gaza and Palestine. Shame on you, Zionist animals,” they shouted.
BREAKING: PRO-PALESTINE PROTESTORS CONFRONT “ISRAELI” AMBASSADOR DANNY DANON AT THE UNITED NATIONS
1/5 pic.twitter.com/4G1VYEMGzV
— Within Our Lifetime (@WOLPalestine) September 14, 2025
The Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM), warned on its website that the scale and tone of the planned demonstrations risk crossing the line from political protest into hate speech, arguing that anti-Israel activists are attempting to hijack the UN gathering to spread antisemitism and delegitimize the Jewish state’s right to exist.
Outside the UN last week, masked protesters belonging to the activist group INDECLINE kicked a realistic replica of Netanyahu’s decapitated head as though it were a soccer ball.
US activist group plays soccer with Bibi’s mock decapitated HEAD right outside NYC UN HQ
Peep shot at 00:40
Footage posted by INDECLINE collective just as UN General Assembly about to kick off
‘Following the game, ball was donated to Palestinian Genocide Museum’ pic.twitter.com/TQ84sgZhKr
— RT (@RT_com) September 9, 2025
Within Our Lifetime (WOL), a radical anti-Israel activist group, has vowed to “flood” the UNGA on behalf of the pro-Palestine movement.
WOL, one of the most prolific anti-Israel activist groups, came under immense fire after it organized a protest against an exhibition to honor the victims of the Oct. 7 massacre at the Nova Music Festival in southern Israel. During the event, the group chanted “resistance is justified when people are occupied!” and “Israel, go to hell!”
“We will be there to confront them with the truth: Their silence and inaction enable genocide. The world cannot continue as if Gaza does not exist,” WOL said of its planned demonstrations in New York. “This is the time to make our voices impossible to ignore. Come to New York by any means necessary, to stand, to march, to demand the UN act and end the siege.”
Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), two other anti-Israel organizations that have helped organize widespread demonstrations against the Jewish state during the war in Gaza, also announced they are planning a march from Times Square to the UN headquarters on Friday.
“The time is now for each and every UN member state to uphold their duty under international law: sanction Israel and end the genocide,” the groups said in a statement.
JVP, an organization that purports to fight for “Palestinian liberation,” has positioned itself as a staunch adversary of the Jewish state. The group argued in a 2021 booklet that Jews should not write Hebrew liturgy because hearing the language would be “deeply traumatizing” to Palestinians. JVP has repeatedly defended the Oct. 7 massacre of roughly 1,200 people in southern Israel by Hamas as a justified “resistance.” Chapters of the organization have urged other self-described “progressives” to throw their support behind Hamas and other terrorist groups against Israel
Similarly, PYM, another radical anti-Israel group, has repeatedly defended terrorism and violence against the Jewish state. PYM has organized many anti-Israel protests in the two years following the Oct. 7 attacks in the Jewish state. Recently, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK) called for a federal investigation into the organization after Aisha Nizar, one of the group’s leaders, urged supporters to sabotage the US supply chain for the F-35 fighter jet, one of the most advanced US military assets and a critical component of Israel’s defense.
The UN General Assembly has historically been a flashpoint for heated debate over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Previous gatherings have seen dueling demonstrations outside the Manhattan venue, with pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups both seeking to influence the international spotlight.
While warning about the demonstrations, CAM noted it recently launched a new mobile app, Report It, that allows users worldwide to quickly and securely report antisemitic incidents in real time.
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Nina Davidson Presses Universities to Back Words With Action as Jewish Students Return to Campus Amid Antisemitism Crisis

Nina Davidson on The Algemeiner’s ‘J100’ podcast. Photo: Screenshot
Philanthropist Nina Davidson, who served on the board of Barnard College, has called on universities to pair tough rhetoric on combatting antisemitism with enforcement as Jewish students returned to campuses for the new academic year.
“Years ago, The Algemeiner had published a list ranking the most antisemitic colleges in the country. And number one was Columbia,” Davidson recalled on a recent episode of The Algemeiner‘s “J100” podcast. “As a board member and as someone who was representing the institution, it really upset me … At the board meeting, I brought it up and I said, ‘What are we going to do about this?’”
Host David Cohen, chief executive officer of The Algemeiner, explained he had revisited Davidson’s remarks while she was being honored for her work at The Algemeiner‘s 8th annual J100 gala, held in October 2021, noting their continued relevance.
“It could have been the same speech in 2025,” he said, underscoring how longstanding concerns about campus antisemitism, while having intensified in the aftermath of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, are not new.
Davidson argued that universities already possess the tools to protect students – codes of conduct, time-place-manner rules, and consequences for threats or targeted harassment – but too often fail to apply them evenly. “Statements are not enough,” she said, arguing that institutions need to enforce their rules and set a precedent that there will be consequences for individuals who refuse to follow them.
She also said that stakeholders – alumni, parents, and donors – are reassessing their relationships with schools that, in their view, have not safeguarded Jewish students. While supportive of open debate, Davidson distinguished between protest and intimidation, calling for leadership that protects expression while ensuring campus safety.
The episode surveyed specific pressure points that administrators will face this fall: repeat anti-Israel encampments, disruptions of Jewish programming, and the challenge of distinguishing political speech from conduct that violates university rules. “Unless schools draw those lines now,” Davidson warned, “they’ll be scrambling once the next crisis hits.”
Cohen closed by framing the discussion as a test of institutional credibility, asking whether universities will “turn policy into protection” in real time. Davidson agreed, pointing to students who “need to know the rules aren’t just on paper.”
The full conversation is available on The Algemeiner’s “J100” podcast.