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The Jewish Sport Report: All the Jewish players to watch in the 2023 Australian Open
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Happy Friday the 13th!
Sports fans are among the most superstitious folks out there. Do you have a game day ritual, a lucky jersey, or some other inexplicable tradition that your team can’t win without? Let us know by replying to this email.
And if there’s any masked Jason we should be afraid of, it’s Pittsburgh Penguins left winger Jason Zucker, who is putting together his best season since he was traded to Pittsburgh three years ago.
A Jewish guide to the Australian Open
Diego Schwartzman shown during his match against Serbia’s Dusan Lajovic at the 2020 Australian Open, which Schwartzman won in straight sets, Jan. 24, 2020. (Manan Vatsyayana/AFP via Getty Images)
The first major international sports tournament of the year is upon us, as tennis stars from around the world descend upon Melbourne for the Australian Open, which begins Monday.
Before we get into this year’s tournament, we remember Jewish tennis legend Dick Savitt, who died Jan. 6 at 95. Savitt won the 1951 Australian Open and Wimbledon Grand Slams, becoming the first Jewish player to win either tournament. May his memory be a blessing.
Now here are the Jewish stories to watch at the 2023 Grand Slam down under:
Madison Brengle
The 32-year-old Delaware native is ranked 62nd in women’s singles and looks to make it past the second round for the first time since 2016.
Taylor Fritz
Fritz does not identify as Jewish, but his maternal grandfather was Jewish, and his great-great-grandfather was David May, the German-Jewish immigrant who founded Macy’s. Fritz is the best player of this bunch, entering the Australian Open as the 8th seed on the men’s side, with a men’s singles world ranking of 9. Fritz made it to the fourth round last year.
Camila Giorgi
The Italian star, who has said her favorite book is “The Diary of Anne Frank,” is ranked 69th in women’s singles and reached the third round last year.
Aslan Karatsev
Karatsev was born in Russia, but moved to Israel at 3 years old and has said the country still feels like home. He’s currently ranked 52 in men’s singles, two years after reaching the semifinal in a Cinderella run in 2021.
Diego Schwartzman
Ranked 25th in men’s singles, Schwartzman got his start at his local Jewish sports club in Argentina. He made it to the second round in last year’s Australian Open.
Denis Shapovalov
Shapovalov, ranked 22nd in men’s singles, was born in Tel Aviv to a Ukrainian Jewish mom and Russian Orthodox Christian dad. He often wears a cross when he plays, but his mom considers him Jewish. He reached the quarterfinal last year.
* One last Jewish tennis note: Elina Svitolina, the Jewish Ukrainian athlete who had taken a break from playing due to the war in her home country — and the birth of her first child last fall — has announced that she will return to playing this year.
Halftime report
KEN-GRATULATIONS. Veteran baseball reporter Ken Rosenthal has been named a co-winner of the National Sports Media Association’s 2022 sportswriter of the year award. In addition to his TV work for Fox Sports, Rosenthal has written for The Athletic since 2017.
NEVER FORGET. A Jewish community center in Boca Raton, Florida, is currently featuring an exhibit with rare Holocaust sports memorabilia from Jewish historian Neil Keller. The collection includes more than 100 items from Keller’s personal collection, including an autographed family photo that belonged to Victor “Young” Perez, a World Champion boxer who was killed during the Holocaust.
NOMINATED. High school basketball players Noam Mayouhas and Johny Dan, who play at the Los Angeles Jewish day school Valley Torah (Ryan Turell’s alma mater), were nominated for the 2023 McDonald’s All American West team for the annual high school all-star game.
Jews in sports to watch this weekend
IN FOOTBALL…
The NFL playoffs begin this weekend with the Wild Card round, and two Jewish players remain: Jake Curhan of the Seattle Seahawks and Greg Joseph of the Minnesota Vikings. The Seahawks face the San Francisco 49ers on Saturday, while the Vikings host the New York Giants on Sunday. Both games are at 4:30 p.m. ET on FOX.
IN BASKETBALL…
Deni Avdija and the Washington Wizards host the New York Knicks tonight at 7 p.m. ET. Ryan Turell and the Motor City Cruise play the Ontario Clippers Sunday at 2 p.m. ET.
IN HOCKEY…
Jason Zucker and the Pittsburgh Penguins play the Winnipeg Jets tonight and the Carolina Hurricanes Saturday, both at 7 p.m. ET. (Mark Friedman was sent back down to the AHL this week.) On Sunday, each of the NHL’s three games feature a Jewish player: Adam Fox and the New York Rangers play Montreal, Quinn Hughes and the Vancouver Canucks face Carolina, and Jakob Chychrun and the Arizona Coyotes play the Jets.
IN TENNIS…
The Australian Open begins Monday. The daily match schedule is released the prior day, so check here on Sunday afternoon.
The Strug-gle is real
Has Carlos Correa surpassed Jewish gymnast Kerri Strug for the most famous ankle in sports?
One Twitter user posed the question this week after the star shortstop finalized his free-agent contract with the Minnesota Twins — after two $300+ million deals fell through over concerns about his ankle. Strug, of course, fought through a serious ankle injury to clinch the gold medal for the United States at the 1996 Olympics.
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The post The Jewish Sport Report: All the Jewish players to watch in the 2023 Australian Open appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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‘The Art of the Yiddish Monologue’ and other mini-courses in Yiddish
במשך פֿונעם חודש יאַנואַר 2026 וועט ייִוואָ פֿירן די ווײַטערדיקע מיני־קורסן אויף ייִדיש:
• „די קונסט פֿונעם ייִדישן מאָנאָלאָג“, וווּ מע וועט לייענען און אַרומרעדן מאָנאָלאָגן פֿון שלום עליכם, י. לץ פּרץ, דער טונקעלער, ב. קאָוונער, משה נאַדיר, רחל ברכות און יצחק באַשעוויס. מע וועט אויל אַרומרעדן די געשיכטע פֿונעם מאָנאָלאָג אין ייִדישן טעאַטער (שיין בייקער)
• שעפֿעריש שרײַבן, וווּ מע וועט אויפֿן סמך פֿון ליטעראַטור־מוסטערן באַטראַכטן די וויכטיקע באַשטאַנדטיילן פֿון פּראָזע — שפּראַך, סטיל, דיאַלאָג, געשטאַלט און פּייסאַזש (באָריס סאַנדלער)
• יצחק־לייבוש פּרץ און זײַנע באַציִונגען מיט די נײַ־געבוירענע ייִדישע סאָציאַליסטישע קרײַזן אין משך פֿון די 1890ער יאָרן (עדי מהלאל)
• די גרויסע אַקטריסע אסתּר רחל קאַמינסקאַ, וווּ די סטודענטן וועלן לייענען אירע זכרונות אויף ייִדיש (מיכל יאַשינסקי)
• די לידער פֿון דוד האָפֿשטײן, וואָס איז מערקווירדיק צוליב זײַן צונױפֿפֿלעכט פֿון דײַטשישע, רוסישע און אוקראַיִנישע ליטעראַרישע טראַדיציעס מיט תּנכישע און מאָדערנע ייִדישע השפּעות (יודזשין אָרנשטיין)
• די ייִוואָ־גדולים אין זייערע אייגענע ווערטער, וווּ מע וועט לייענען די שריפֿטן פֿון א. טשעריקאָװער, מ. װײַנרײַך, י. לעשטשינסקי, י. מאַרק, ש. ניגער, נ. פּרילוצקי, ז. קלמנאָװיטש, ז. רייזען, י. שאַצקי און נ. שטיף (דוד בראַון)
The post ‘The Art of the Yiddish Monologue’ and other mini-courses in Yiddish appeared first on The Forward.
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Suspect at Large in Brown University Shooting that Killed at Least Two, Injured Eight
Police vehicles stand near the site of a mass shooting reported by authorities at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, U.S., December 13, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Taylor Coester
Police in Rhode Island were searching for a suspect in a shooting at Brown University in Providence in which two people died and eight were critically wounded at the Ivy League school, officials said.
Providence Mayor Brett Smiley told a news conference that police were still searching for the shooter, who struck at Brown’s Barus & Holley engineering building, where exams were taking place at the time. Officials said police were looking for a male dressed in black and were scouring local video cameras in the area for footage to get a better description of the suspect.
Smiley said officials could not yet disclose details about the victims, including whether they were students. He lamented the shooting.
“We are a week and a half away from Christmas. And two people died today and another eight are in the hospital,” he said. “So please pray for those families.”
Brown is on College Hill in Providence, Rhode Island‘s state capital. The university has hundreds of buildings, including lecture halls, laboratories and dormitories.
President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House that he had been briefed on the situation, which he called “terrible.”
“All we can do right now is pray for the victims and for those that were very badly hurt.”
Compared to many countries, mass shootings in schools, workplaces, and places of worship are more common in the US, which has some of the most permissive gun laws in the developed world. The Gun Violence Archive, which defines mass shootings as any incident in which four or more victims have been shot, has counted 389 of them this year in the US.
Last year the US had more than 500 mass shootings, according to the archive.
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Rights Groups Condemn Re-Arrest of Nobel Laureate Mohammadi in Iran
Taghi Ramahi, husband of Narges Mohammadi, a jailed Iranian women’s rights advocate, who won the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize, poses with an undated photo of himself and his wife, during an interview at his home in Paris, France, October 6, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Christian Hartmann
International human rights groups have condemned the re-arrest of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi in Iran, with the Nobel committee calling on Iranian authorities to immediately clarify her whereabouts.
Mohammadi’s French lawyer, Chirine Ardakani, said on X that the human rights activist was arrested on Friday after denouncing the suspicious death of lawyer Khosrow Alikordi at his memorial ceremony in the northeastern city of Mashhad.
Mashhad prosecutor Hasan Hematifar told reporters on Saturday that Mohammadi was among 39 people arrested after the ceremony.
Hematifar said she and Alikordi’s brother had made provocative remarks at the event and encouraged those present “to chant ‘norm‑breaking’ slogans” and disturb the peace, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.
The prosecutor said Mashhad’s chief of police and another officer received knife wounds when trying to manage the scene.
CALLS FOR RELEASE
The Norwegian Nobel Committee called on Iranian authorities “to immediately clarify Mohammadi’s whereabouts, ensure her safety and integrity, and to release her without conditions.”
The European Union also called for Mohammadi’s release. “The EU urges Iranian authorities to release Ms Mohammadi, taking also into account her fragile health condition, as well as all those unjustly arrested in the exercise of their freedom of expression,” an EU spokesperson said on Saturday.
A video purportedly showing Mohammadi, 53, without the mandatory veil, standing on a car with a microphone and chanting “Long Live Iran” in front of a crowd, has gone viral on social media.
Ardakani said Mohammadi was beaten before her arrest.
Reporters Without Borders said four journalists and other participants were also arrested at the memorial for human rights lawyer Alikordi, who was found dead in his office on December 5.
Authorities gave the cause of his death as a heart attack, but rights groups have called for an investigation into his death.
The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said the crowd also chanted “death to the dictator,” a reference to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as well as: “We fight, we die, we accept no humiliation.”
Mohammadi, who received the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize, has spent more than 10 years of her life in prison, most recently from November 2021 when she was charged with “propaganda against the state,” “acting against national security,” and membership of “illegal organizations.”
This year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner, the Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, said on Saturday that the opposition’s campaign in Venezuela was akin to that taking place in Iran.
“In Oslo this week, the world honored the power of conscience. I said to the ‘citizens of the world’ that our struggle is a long march toward freedom. That march is not Venezuelan alone. It is Iranian, it is universal,” she said on X on Saturday.