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ESPN’s Jeff Passan opens up on his Hebrew school upbringing, interviewing Sandy Koufax and Jewish baseball history
(JTA) — For tuned-in baseball fans, Jeff Passan is everywhere. As ESPN’s senior MLB insider, he frequently breaks some of the sport’s biggest news and appears on several of the global sports network’s television, radio and podcast programs.
After two decades of reporting, can anything make him nervous? There is one athlete who does: Jewish legend Sandy Koufax.
“Generally speaking, when I’m talking to people, I’ll call them by their first name. He was Mr. Koufax,” Passan told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency about the pitcher he once wrote a paper about for Hebrew school.
While a columnist for Yahoo! Sports, Passan spent about four years reporting his 2016 New York Times best-selling book “The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports,” a deep-dive into pitching and the epidemic of what’s known in the sport as Tommy John surgery, or ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction.
Koufax, known for his on-the-field dominance and his refusal to pitch on Yom Kippur during the 1965 World Series, walked away from baseball at only 30 years old because of injury. So as Passan began work on his book, he knew he needed to talk to Koufax.
Koufax is famously private, and securing a rare interview wasn’t easy — Passan enlisted fellow Jewish writer Jane Leavy, Koufax’s biographer, who put in a good word for him. When the time came to talk, Passan said it was the most nervous he’s ever been for an interview.
“I was in awe the whole time,” Passan said in a phone interview from Arizona, where he’s covering spring training.
Koufax’s pitching prowess aside, Passan praised the principled stance the former Dodger took all those years ago.
“The way that he represented himself, the way he honored Judaism, and, when it was an incredibly difficult thing, stuck by what mattered to him, I think that’s applicable across religions, across cultures, across backgrounds,” Passan said. “If you feel passionate about who you are, and something is important to you, even when it’s uncomfortable, you should stand by it. That’s exactly what he did. I have an undying amount of respect for him for both doing that and just for the way that he has and continues to carry himself.”
A Cleveland native, Passan fell in love with both baseball and writing at a young age. His father, Rich, worked at the Plain Dealer for 42 years, and Passan said he got his first byline at 14 years old. He would go on to cover sports at Syracuse University, the Fresno Bee, the Kansas City Star, Yahoo! Sports and, since 2019, at ESPN.
Passan, 42, grew up in a Conservative Jewish household, attending Hebrew school three times a week. He said he considers himself a “cultural Jew” — noting that his wife is Catholic and they are raising their kids without religion.
“I look at religion now as being a really important thing for lots of people, but the sort of thing that for me and my family, we’d like for our children to be a little more worldly until, or if, they decide to choose to go the religious route,” he said.
Jeff Passan at his bar mitzvah, Oct. 9, 1993. (Courtesy of Passan)
Passan said he and his family celebrate Hanukkah — he’s a big fan of latkes — and he fasts on Yom Kippur. And then there’s Jewish geography.
“When I run into someone who’s Jewish, even though I’m not particularly religious, and he or she may not be particularly religious, there’s still a connection there because of how we were raised and the things that you learn growing up a Jew,” he said. “If there’s one thing that I look at with regret that my kids don’t have, because we’re not raising them Jewish, it’s that.”
That instant connection is present in the press box, too.
“We know who we are,” Passan said. “There was one World Series where I think there were like seven or eight Jewish writers sitting in a row. And we said all we need is a few more and we got a minyan here.”
Passan said he also feels that camaraderie with Jewish players — especially those who play for Team Israel during the World Baseball Classic, which is coming up next month.
“It’s different than Team USA or the Dominican Republic or Venezuela,” he said. “It’s a cultural team. It’s a team that’s often based around your religion or the religion in your family, and I think that makes it a unique group of players who may not have that same connection or that same feel to Israel, but they have that shared experience of being Jewish and knowing what that entails.”
The presence of Jewish talent in Major League Baseball — and on Team Israel, which features more big leaguers this year than ever before — is noticeably greater than it has been in years. The 2021 World Series, which featured four Jewish players, is a prime example.
“I think it’s just another way to illustrate that we can be everything,” Passan said. “If you are growing up and you want to be a rabbi, that’s wonderful. If you’re growing up and you want to get into media, that avenue is there for you. And if you’re growing up and want to be a baseball player, there are no limitations. The history of Jewish baseball players, while not extensive, is nevertheless rich.”
And what is it, exactly, about baseball that has endeared the sport to American Jews for so long? Passan has some theories.
First, he noted the historical significance New York has held in both baseball and American Judaism. For a period in the early-to-mid 20th century, New York was home to three MLB teams — the Yankees, Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants.
“As Jews, we really gravitate toward things that have history and substance,” Passan said. “Baseball being so big in the emergence of sporting culture in the United States, there’s a gravitas to that, there’s an import to that, that I think Jews really are attracted to.”
The other aspect that has bonded Jews and baseball, Passan said, is its shared culture of family tradition.
“It’s something that can be passed on from fathers and mothers to sons and daughters,” he said. “Family is such a vital part of being Jewish. Just as we pass down customs and traditions, sports are among those customs and traditions and baseball is a generational sport.”
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The post ESPN’s Jeff Passan opens up on his Hebrew school upbringing, interviewing Sandy Koufax and Jewish baseball history appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Mikveh unearthed beneath Western Wall plaza shows evidence of Temple’s destruction
Archaeologists have uncovered a 2,000‑year‑old Jewish ritual bath beneath the Western Wall Plaza in Jerusalem that bears ash and destruction debris from the Roman conquest of the city in 70 C.E., officials said.
The find, announced Monday by the Israel Antiquities Authority and the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, lies just west of where pilgrims once entered the Temple Mount, offering a rare physical link to everyday life in late Second Temple Jerusalem.
The mikveh, hewn into the bedrock, measures approximately 10 feet long; 4 feet, 5 inches wide; and 6 feet, 1 inch high, with four steps leading into the bath. It was found sealed beneath a destruction layer dated to the year 70 C.E., filled with ash, pottery shards and stone vessels.
“Jerusalem should be remembered as a Temple city,” Ari Levy, the excavation director for the Israel Antiquities Authority, said in the announcement. “As such, many aspects of daily life were adapted to this reality, and this is reflected especially in the meticulous observance of the laws of ritual impurity and purity by the city’s residents and leaders.” Levy noted that stone vessels, which do not contract ritual impurity under Jewish law, were common in the area.
Heritage Minister Rabbi Amichai Eliyahu said the discovery “strengthens our understanding of how deeply intertwined religious life and daily life were in Jerusalem during the Temple period” and underlined the importance of continuing archaeological research in the city.
Mordechai (Suli) Eliav, director of the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, described the mikveh and its contents as a vivid historical testament: “The exposure of a Second Temple period ritual bath beneath the Western Wall Plaza, with ashes from the destruction at its base, testifies like a thousand witnesses to the ability of the people of Israel to move from impurity to purity, from destruction to renewal.”
Researchers say the mikveh likely served both local residents and the many pilgrims who visited the Temple in the years leading up to the Roman siege.
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
The post Mikveh unearthed beneath Western Wall plaza shows evidence of Temple’s destruction appeared first on The Forward.
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Greece, Israel, Cyprus to Step Up Joint Exercises in Eastern Mediterranean
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (center), Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides (left), and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis hold a joint press conference after a trilateral meeting at the Citadel of David Hotel in Jerusalem, Dec. 22, 2025. Photo: ABIR SULTAN/Pool via REUTERS
Greece, Israel, and Cyprus will step up joint air and naval exercises in the eastern Mediterranean in 2026, deepening their defense cooperation, Greek military officials and a senior source said on Monday.
The three eastern Mediterranean nations have drawn closer over the past decade through joint military drills, defense procurement, and energy cooperation, developments closely watched by regional rival Turkey.
Greece’s armed forces general staff (GEETHA) said senior military officials from the three countries signed a joint action plan for defense cooperation last week in Cyprus. It gave no further details.
The deal follows a meeting in Jerusalem between Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at which they signed a deal to strengthen maritime security cooperation and advance energy interconnection projects.
A senior Greek official familiar with the matter said the military deal would encompass joint naval and air exercises and the transfer of know-how from Israel to Greece and Cyprus to address both “asymmetrical” and “symmetrical” threats.
“Greece and Israel will intensify joint exercises after the ceasefire in Gaza, with Cyprus participating,” the official said, adding that Greece plans to join Israel’s Noble Dina naval exercise in the coming months in the eastern Mediterranean.
There was no immediate comment from the Cypriot government, but a key opposition party, the Communist AKEL, expressed misgivings. “Mr. Christodoulides proceeds to deepen military-political cooperation with Israel without considering the risks and consequences of this choice,” it said in a statement.
Greece and Cyprus have already purchased missile systems from Israel worth billions of euros. Athens is also in talks to buy from Israel medium- and long-range anti-aircraft and anti-ballistic missile systems for a planned multi-layer air and drone defense system known as the “Achilles Shield,” estimated to cost about 3 billion euros ($3.5 billion).
This month, the Greek parliament approved the purchase of 36 PULS rocket artillery systems from Israel to bolster defenses along Greece’s northeastern border with Turkey and on Greek islands in the Aegean Sea.
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Sydney to Project Menorah on Harbour Bridge During New Year’s Eve Celebration in Tribute to Bondi Beach Attack
A woman keeps a candle next to flowers laid as a tribute at Bondi Beach to honor the victims of a mass shooting that targeted a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach on Sunday, in Sydney, Australia, Dec. 16, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Flavio Brancaleone
The city of Sydney, Australia, changed plans on Monday for its New Year’s Eve celebration to include a projection of a menorah on Harbour Bridge in honor of the 15 victims of the Bondi Beach terror attack during Hanukkah, following pressure by Jewish-Australian cultural figures.
Sydney Mayor Clover Moore announced last week initial plans to have the Sydney Harbour Bridge pylons illuminated in white with an image of a dove with the word “peace” shortly before 9 pm on New Year’s Eve this Wednesday. The bridge would then, according to the plans, be illuminated again at 11 pm “in a warm light,” and a moment of silence would be held on the ground and during the New Year’s Eve broadcast on the network ABC. Crowds were invited to switch on their phone lights in a show of solidarity with the Jewish community.
The gesture was meant to “show the Jewish community that we stand with them, and that we reject violence, fear and antisemitism,” said Moore. “These moments will provide an opportunity for people to show respect, to reflect on the atrocity, and to say we will not let this hateful act of terror divide us.”
However, plans were changed to include a projection of a menorah on the bridge after more than 30 Jewish-Australian cultural figures published an open letter on Monday that urged Moore to project a more “Jewish-specific symbol” to commemorate the victims of the Bondi Beach mass shooting on Dec. 14, the first night of Hanukkah. They asked “that the particularism of the victims be acknowledged rather than erased,” according to ABC, which obtained a copy of the open letter.
“We believe this dignity would be afforded to the victims of any other terrorist attack that targeted a specific community. Only when we clearly name the problem of anti-Jewish hatred in Australia can we hope to overcome it,” the letter stated in part. “The selection of this word [peace], coupled with the dove, without any specific reference to the targeting of the Jewish community, prolongs our erasure and obfuscates the problem of domestic antisemitism. We acknowledge the City of Sydney’s plan as a gesture of remembrance, and agree with the need for such a gesture; however, we consider the imagery and word chosen to be insufficient as they do not acknowledge the Jewish particularity of the Bondi massacre.”
Signatories of the open letter included Pulitzer Prize winner Geraldine Brooks, ARIA award winner Deborah Conway, Archibald Prize winner Yvette Coppersmith, and members of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. The group members also claimed their warnings about antisemitism had been overlooked by “generic calls for peace” during the last two years.
After publication of the open letter, Moore said the Harbour Bridge will project a menorah at 11 pm on New Year’s Eve, ABC reported. The co-creator of the open letter, producer and director Danny Ben-Moshe, applauded the move in a Facebook post on Monday.
The Sydney Harbour Bridge will also light up in blue at 10 pm on New Year’s Eve in recognition of the event’s official charity partner Beyond Blue, which provides free mental health support.
“This New Year’s Eve offers a chance for people to pause, acknowledge the pain, remember those affected, and extend care and support to one another and especially the Jewish community,” said Beyond Blue CEO Georgie Harman in a released statement. “When something like this happens, it doesn’t just impact the people who were there — it ripples through families, communities, and across the country, and it’s normal to feel unsettled or distressed. Staying connected is an important step towards healing after a traumatic event and social support is one of the most meaningful things we can offer and receive right now. You don’t need to go through anything alone and it’s never too early to reach out to us if you’re struggling.”
At midnight on New Year’s Eve, there will be 12-minute fireworks show in Sydney including from six city rooftops, Sydney Harbour Bridge, and Sydney Opera House.