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‘Mitzvah Mania’: A Los Angeles synagogue is hosting a show with Jewish professional wrestlers
LOS ANGELES (JTA) — Colt Cabana, real name Scott Colton, is used to walking out to crowds of hundreds of fans as a member of All Elite Wrestling, a popular show that airs on channels such as TBS and TNT.
On Sunday, he’ll be wrestling at a synagogue.
Temple Beth Am, located in Los Angeles’ heavily Jewish neighborhood of Pico-Robertson, is putting on “Mitzvah Mania,” a one-off show with mostly Jewish wrestlers. It’s pegged to another event taking place this weekend: “WrestleMania,” the annual marquee event for the WWE, the country’s largest professional wrestling series.
“Mitzvah Mania” will break new ground for the synagogue with about 900 member families that typically holds more traditional programming, such as Shabbat dinners, adult education offerings and text study.
“We’re trying to do something different that synagogues haven’t seen before,” said Ari Fife, the synagogue’s director of programming and engagement.
The show, which is being billed as the first of its kind, will include six matches, five of which will feature only Jewish wrestlers who perform at various professional tiers, and one with a Jewish referee.
In addition to Cabana, attendees will see former Jewish WWE stars Lisa Marie Varon (or Victoria, as she was known in the ring) and Chris Mordetzky (a two-time National Wrestling Alliance champion known as Chris Masters and later Chris Adonis).
“Certainly in America, this is the first time there’s been representation in every match on the card, Jewishly,” said Jeremy Fine, a Chicago-area rabbi who planned the event.
The backstory started about seven years ago, when Fine, who runs the Jewish sports blog “The Great Rabbino,” went to his first independent wrestling show and saw Cabana, a fellow native of Deerfield, Illinois.
Fine was living in Minnesota at the time, and he recalled telling some of his congregants about the show. When they suggested putting on a wrestling show at the synagogue, he thought the idea was crazy. (Fine’s former synagogue is still innovating: they recently built an ice skating rink.)
“They were very persistent,” Fine told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “We did it, and it was a huge success. And by our second show, we were sold out in a Minnesota blizzard on a Wednesday evening.”
Fine ended up hosting three wrestling shows at Temple of Aaron Synagogue in St. Paul Jewish with Israeli athletes and entertainers — “Mitzvah Mayhem,” “Hanukkah Havoc” and “Exodus.” It turned into his own wrestling company, 2econd Wrestling, that puts on shows near his current pulpit in Chicago and around the country, including Sunday’s event in L.A.
“Mitzvah Mania” will be Fine’s most Jewish show yet.
Fine had approached Beth Am about the event to tie it to “WrestleMania,” which rotates its location and is this year being held at nearby SoFi Stadium. Fife said the synagogue’s senior staff was hesitant about the idea, even as they set out to hold more unique events.
Fife, who himself grew up a wrestling fan, said there was initially “a lack of understanding of what wrestling really is.” For the uninitiated, professional wrestling in the likes of the WWE and AEW is a far cry from Olympic-style wrestling. In addition to being athletic performers, wrestlers like Cabana are also entertainment figures, complete with detailed costumes and character backstories.
Fife said once everyone understood the storytelling aspect of the sport — and were assured that it’s not as violent as they thought — the idea was approved.
“Mitzvah Mania” is sponsored by a number of Jewish organizations, including Maccabi USA, BBYO and the Jewish National Fund. Fife said Beth Am secured a grant from the Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles to help put the event on.
Fine said Jewish interest in wrestling has increased in recent years, in part thanks to Maxwell Jacob Friedman (known simply as “MJF”), the current AEW world champion and an outspoken and proud Jew. Earlier this month, for example, Friedman celebrated his “re-bar mitzvah” as part of an “AEW Dynamite” night on TBS. Jewish fans also cheered when Goldberg, one of the stars of the late 1990s and early 2000s WWE craze, returned to the ring in 2015.
Maxwell Jacob Friedman attends a UFC event at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Dec. 10, 2022. (Cooper Neill/Zuffa LLC)
The overlap between Jews and wrestling extends beyond the ring, Fine said, arguing that the connection is biblical — from Jacob wrestling with an angel in Genesis to rabbis intellectually wrestling in the Talmud.
“If we just take that and put it into the context of wrestling, we at our core, are storytellers,” Fine said. “We’re listening to the stories, and we’re incorporating them into our lives and we’re building up. And so wrestling is the greatest platform to struggle, to wrestle and to very much create stories that present a narrative for us to think and root for what’s good and boo what’s evil. That’s the story of Purim!”
He said it’s important for rabbis to go beyond the usual work of teaching the weekly Torah portion, or speaking about antisemitism and Israel. Many wrestlers Fine has worked with will approach him with questions about Judaism — from asking about holidays to basic questions about what a synagogue or JCC is.
“If we’re really going to defeat antisemitism, if we’re really going to be able to have intellectual conversations about the modern State of Israel, what better way to do that than rabbis getting into niche communities and really having those conversations, and not just talking to the congregants who either agree or have heard it before?” Fine said.
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Hezbollah Plotting to Attack Israel From Syria, Report Says, as Fears Grow of Wider Middle East War
Smoke billows after an Israeli strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs, following an escalation between Hezbollah and Israel amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, Lebanon, March 2, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
Hezbollah is reportedly seeking to launch attacks against the Jewish state from Syrian territory in support of Iran while continuing operations along the Lebanese border, fueling fears the Middle East war is escalating and expanding across multiple fronts.
According to Israeli broadcaster Kan News, which cited Arab intelligence sources, the Syrian government has instructed its military forces to prevent any terrorist cells operating in Syria from launching attacks against Israel, amid Iran’s broader regional confrontation with Israel and the United States.
As Hezbollah vowed to support Iran in its broader confrontation with Israeli and American forces by targeting the Jewish state, Damascus has reportedly strengthened security controls in southern Syria, setting up checkpoints in an effort to prevent any cross-border attacks or terrorist operations from taking shape.
Although Iran and its terrorist proxies were expelled from Syria after the fall of long-time Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, the new Syrian government under President Ahmed al‑Sharaa has continued to focus on dismantling the infrastructure that Hezbollah and other Iranian proxies built on the Syrian side of the border.
According to media reports, Damascus is also preparing to potentially target the positions of Hezbollah along the border in the Bekaa Valley, a region in eastern Lebanon near the Syrian border, in an effort to weaken the group’s operational infrastructure.
However, Syrian leadership has said it has no plans to conduct military operations against any neighboring country, reiterating that its military deployments are aimed strictly at securing borders and maintaining internal stability.
“But Syria is prepared to deal with any security threat to itself or its partners,” a security official told the Times of Israel.
As the war continues to escalate across the region, Syria has further strengthened its border with Lebanon by deploying thousands of troops, including infantry units, armored vehicles, and short-range rocket launchers, in an effort to curb arms and drug smuggling while preventing infiltration by Hezbollah or other terrorist groups.
After Hezbollah fired multiple rockets into Israeli territory in support of Iran earlier this week, the Jewish state launched a wave of airstrikes across southern and central Lebanon, striking sites linked to the group’s military infrastructure.
On Monday, the Israeli military said it killed the commander of Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Lebanon, calling the operation a major blow to the Iran-backed terrorist group’s capabilities.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz announced that he had authorized the military to advance and take control of additional positions in Lebanon, where Israeli troops have held several hilltops since a war with Hezbollah in 2024.
With dozens of people killed in retaliatory Israeli strikes, Hezbollah’s move to enter the conflict has sharpened long-standing divisions in Lebanon over its status as an armed group – the only Lebanese faction to keep its weapons after the 1975-90 civil war.
The Lebanese government has even taken the unprecedented step of banning the military activities of Hezbollah. The pro-Hezbollah newspaper Al-Akhbar condemned the decision as a “capitulation to dictates,” warning that it could potentially spark the outbreak of civil war.
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Florida International University College Republicans Denounce Antisemitic, Racist WhatsApp Group
Conservative youth at Turning Point USA event in October 2025. Photo: Cheney Orr via Reuters Connect
The Florida International University (FIU) chapter of College Republicans, one of the largest conservative student groups in the US, has condemned antisemitism and other forms of bigotry following the revelation of a virulently racist group chat in which conservative youth exchanged antisemitic slurs while calling for the of murder African Americans.
“As the first female Jewish president of FIU College Republicans, I can personally attest that the recent reports regarding an external chat have no place in our society,” Gabriela Burstein said in a blistering statement condemning the chat, which reportedly included members of her College Republicans chapter.
“There is simply no place for antisemitism, racism, or violence of any kind and in no way reflect our conservative community within Florida,” she continued. “Our executive board, chapter members, community supporters, and I are absolutely appalled by the rhetoric that has surfaced.
As first reported by The Miami Herald, the group chat, created on WhatsApp, was described by its members as “Nazi heaven” for the daily barrage of extremist comments contributed to it. Individuals affiliated with the Miami Dade Country Republicans, Turning Point USA, and College Republicans casually said “ni—er,” denounced women as “whores,” and spoke rapturously about Adolf Hitler.
Dariel Gonzalez, according to the Herald, was one of the chat’s most prolific contributors, bandying about comments regarding “color professors” and telling members that “You can f—k all the k—kes you want. Just don’t marry them and procreate.” Gonzalez, a former board member of FIU’s College Republicans, also reportedly promoted belief in “Agartha,” a Nazi utopia confected by Heinrich Himmler, while fantasizing about the possibility of engaging in onanism there. Some vile remarks drew the approbation of other chat members, many of whom are connected to Republican Party organizations across the state.
The Herald added that the chat was founded by Abel Alexander Carvajal, secretary of the Miami-Dade County Republican Party. On Thursday, the organization denounced him and the chat, adding that it has demanded his resignation.
“His words and actions are reprehensible and are completely inconsistent with the values of the Republican Party of Miami-Dade County. The words and actions of this individual do not speak for our party,” chairman Kevin Cooper said in a statement. “We are the party that fought to end slavery, the party that welcomed Cuban refugees fleeing communism to freedom in Miami, and the party that continues to welcome Americans of every race, faith, gender, and nationality who believe in liberty and opportunity.”
FIU president Jeanette Nuñez described the content of the group chat as “abhorrent and extremely disturbing language” in her own statement.
“FIU does not and will not tolerate violence, hate, discrimination, harassment, racism or antisemitism. This is not who we are. This is not what FIU stands for,” she added. “We take these allegations very seriously. The alleged conduct continues to be investigated by FIU Police Department in coordination with local, state, and federal law enforcement. In addition, the FIU Office of Civil Rights and the Office of Student Conduct and Academic Integrity are actively investigating the matter.”
The group chat’s exposure comes at a time when, according to recent polling, young Republicans have increasingly embraced antisemitism and conspiracy theories.
Last month, for example, survey by Irwin Mansdorf, a fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, and Charles Jacobs, president of the Jewish Leadership Project, found that 45 percent of Republicans under the age of 44 said Jews pose a threat to the “American way of life.”
In December, the Manhattan Institute, a prominent US-based think tank, released a major poll showing that younger Republican voters are much less supportive of Israel and more likely to express antisemitic views than their older cohorts.
According to the data, 25 percent of Republicans under 50 openly express antisemitic views as opposed to just 4 percent over the age of 50.
Startlingly, a substantial amount, 37 percent, of GOP voters indicate belief in Holocaust denialism. These figures are more pronounced among young men under 50, with a majority, 54 percent, agreeing that the Holocaust “was greatly exaggerated or did not happen as historians describe.” Among men over 50, 41 percent agree with the sentiment.
This dynamic has played out on college and university campuses across the US, where antisemitism has surged in the aftermath of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel.
The Algemeiner has reported daily on campus antisemitism incidents which involved identity-based physical assaults, verbal abuse, and others acts of discrimination. These included anti-Zionists spitting on Jewish students at the University of California, Berkeley while calling them “Jew”; gang assaults at Columbia University’s Butler Library; swastika graffiti; the desecration of Jewish religious symbols; and the expulsion of a sexual assault survivor from a victim support group over her support for Zionism.
Other incidents include a faculty group’s sharing an antisemitic political cartoon which marked Jews and Israel as enemies of people of color; a Cornell University student threatening to murder Jewish men, whom he called pigs, and to rape Jewish women, and perpetrate a mass shooting at the campus’ kosher dining hall; and professors praising Hamas’s Oct. 7 atrocities, which included mass murder, sexual assault, and kidnapping as legitimate modes of “resistance.”
Many such incidents preceded the Oct. 7 massacre by several years and received little to no coverage in the mainstream press.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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Jewish Chef Eitan Bernath Sets New Guinness World Record for Making Largest Matzah Ball Soup
Eitan Bernath set a new Guinness World Record for making the largest serving of matzah ball soup on Feb. 27, 2026. Photo: Eric Vitale
Jewish chef and cookbook author Eitan Bernath recently set a new Guinness World Record for making the largest serving of matzah ball soup.
The matzah ball soup weighed in at 1,356.9 pounds and was verified by Guinness World Records in Brooklyn, New York, on Feb. 27. The soup contained 847 hand-rolled matzah balls, and it took 10 chefs about 11 hours to prepare the soup, according to the Guinness World Records. All the soup was donated to City Harvest, New York City’s largest food rescue organization, which will serve it to thousands of hungry New Yorkers in food pantries and soup kitchens.
“There’s no food that brings back more memories of being surrounded by family than matzo ball soup,” Bernath, 23, told The Algemeiner in a statement. “So, when I set out to make the world’s largest version of a dish, choosing matzo ball soup was a no-brainer. Every bowl is a bowl of comfort. Being able to create a giant version was both an incredible challenge and a thrill. It meant even more to me that after setting the record, we were able to donate all the soup to New Yorkers in need — sharing the comfort of matzo ball soup even further.”
Bernath — who is also a social media content creator and the principal culinary contributor for “The Drew Barrymore Show” — said the matzah ball soup was comprised of 120 chickens, 300 carrots, and 250 bunches of herbs. The soup also included parsnip, turnip, celery root, onions, parsley, dill, paprika, and salt. Bernath used ChatGPT to scale up his grandmother’s matzo ball soup recipe to a 200-gallon version, and to help him also find the right vessels needed to make such a large portion. To hold more than 160 gallons of hot liquid, he ended up using a water trough, typically used for horses, which was lined with a food-grade liner.
On Instagram, Bernath shared behind-the-scenes photos that show the making of the massive matzah ball soup. In the caption, he explained that creating the record-breaking dish “was one of the most challenging things I’ve ever done.”
“As a proud Jew, creating a record-setting giant version of such an important Jewish dish meant the world to me,” he added. “I couldn’t be prouder of my team and I for pulling this off. I will never look at a bowl of matzo ball soup the same again!!”