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The Jewish Sport Report: Taking a trip to Jewish surf camp
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Good afternoon! It’s been an exciting summer in the Jewish sports world, from the MLB and NBA drafts to the JCC Maccabi Games to world championships in fencing and cycling.
What was your Jewish sports highlight of the summer? Let us know by emailing us at sports@jta.org or tweeting (X-ing?) at us: @JTASportReport.
We’ll go first: Zack Gelof, who became the 18th Jewish big leaguer this season, has been raking — in 28 games, the rookie is hitting .294 with 32 hits, 8 home runs and a .986 OPS.
Surf’s up at this Jewish summer camp
Sababa Beachaway’s director, Danny Mishkin, standing in center, begins the morning by leading a moment of meditation. (Jacob Gurvis)
Surfing through a Jewish lens? That’s the goal at Sababa Beachaway, a Jewish surf camp in Virginia Beach I visited earlier this summer that specializes in ocean education and exploration.
The camp offers four focus areas — surfing, sailing, scuba diving and an education track called “ocean discovery” — on top of typical camp activities and Jewish programming and prayer.
The camp launched in 2015 in New York, first as a day camp, before expanding to an overnight camp in Virginia in 2018. It hasn’t been smooth sailing — the camp has navigated COVID, joining a new parent company and switching campuses. But they’ve still managed to grow enrollment.
Get stoked and read more about Sababa right here.
Halftime report
MENSCH. Super Bowl champion Leonard Fournette paid a surprise visit to a Jewish camp for children and teens with cancer and other chronic illnesses last weekend. “We all have our own problems, even myself, but the battle these kids face each and every day and for the rest of their lives, they’re the champions in our heart,” Fournette said during his visit.
→ Israeli soccer player Stav Lemkin, who starred for Israel at the FIFA U20 World Cup, is headed to Ukraine to play for Shakhtar Donetsk, the same Ukrainian Premier League team that Manor Solomon played for before moving over to the Premier League. Lemkin said he “hesitated because of the war,” but ultimately “my considerations were purely about soccer, because I knew Shakhtar would be the best place for me to develop.”
MOVING ON UP. The Forward’s Louis Keene stopped by Visalia, California, this week to see Orthodox prospect Jacob Steinmetz in action in Single-A. Steinmetz struck out seven batters over six innings, including recent Los Angeles Dodgers draftee Jake Gelof.
CHECK THIS OUT. The neighborhood around Fenway Park in Boston has unveiled a new art installation called “Be the Change,” in partnership with the Jewish Arts Collaborative. Billed as an “art and activism initiative, rooted in the Jewish tenet of justice,” the exhibition is on display through October.
B’TAYAVON. JewishPress.com brings us the behind-the-scenes story of Yankee Stadium’s kosher food scene, from the secret elevator that leads to the kitchen to the updated food offerings for this season.
Jews in sports to watch this weekend
IN BASEBALL…
Atlanta Braves ace Max Fried toes the rubber Sunday at 1:35 p.m. ET as he and Kevin Pillar face Joc Pederson and the San Francisco Giants. The Giants are coming off a 7-0 win earlier this week during the team’s Jewish Heritage Night. Dean Kremer isn’t scheduled to pitch this weekend, but his first-place Baltimore Orioles are facing the Oakland Athletics and their red-hot second baseman Zack Gelof.
IN SOCCER…
Matt Turner started in goal for his new Premier League team Nottingham Forest as they played Sheffield United this afternoon — still in progress as of publication time. Manor Solomon and Tottenham face Man United Saturday at 12:30 p.m. ET.
IN GOLF…
Max Homa is competing in the BMW Championship this weekend. He finished tied for sixth at the FedEx St. Jude Championship last week.
IN FOOTBALL…
That’s right, football is back! Catch Anthony Firkser with his new team, the New England Patriots, as they play AJ Dillon and the Green Bay Packers in Week 3 of the preseason. And stay tuned for a full NFL season preview coming soon!
Gabe Kapler’s style is
Labor Day is fast approaching, which means it’s time to get your white outfits in while you still can. San Francisco Giants skipper Gabe Kapler is clearly taking that to heart, as he was rocking a fresh white and orange fit earlier this week. A former player called him the “hottest in the game.”
Gabe Kapler is the only manager in the show that pulls this outfit off. Hottest in the game and there isn’t a close second. pic.twitter.com/DAlWbJ4rul
— Coach Trev (@trevorplouffe) August 16, 2023
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The post The Jewish Sport Report: Taking a trip to Jewish surf camp appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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‘With or Without Russia’s Help’: Iran Pledges to Block South Caucasus Route Opened Up By Peace Deal
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 8, 2025. Photo: Kevin Lamarque via Reuters Connect.
i24 News – Iran will block the establishment of a US-backed transit corridor in the South Caucasus region with or without Moscow’s help, a senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader was quoted as saying on Saturday by the Iran International website, one day after the historic peace agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
“Mr. Trump thinks the Caucasus is a piece of real estate he can lease for 99 years,” Ali Akbar Velayati said of the so-called Zangezur corridor, the establishment of which is stipulated in the peace deal unveiled on Friday by US President Donald Trump. The White House said the transit route would facilitate greater exports of energy and other resources.
“This passage will not become a gateway for Trump’s mercenaries — it will become their graveyard,” the Khamenei advisor added.
Baku and Yerevan have been at loggerheads since the late 1980s when Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous Azerbaijani region mostly populated by ethnic Armenians, broke away from Azerbaijan with support from Armenia. Azerbaijan took back full control of the region in 2023, prompting or forcing almost all of the territory’s 100,000 ethnic Armenians to flee to Armenia.
Yet that painful history was put to the side on Friday at the White House, as Trump oversaw a signing ceremony, flanked by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
The peace deal with Azerbaijan—a pro-Western ally of Israel—is expected to pull Armenia out of the Russian and Iranian sphere of influence and could transform the South Caucasus, an energy-producing region neighboring Russia, Europe, Turkey and Iran.
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UK Police Arrest 150 at Protest for Banned Palestine Action Group
People holding signs sit during a rally organised by Defend Our Juries, challenging the British government’s proscription of “Palestine Action” under anti-terrorism laws, in Parliament Square, in London, Britain, August 9, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Jaimi Joy
London’s Metropolitan Police said on Saturday it had arrested 150 people at a protest against Britain’s decision to ban the group Palestine Action, adding it was making further arrests.
Officers made arrests after crowds, waving placards expressing support for the group, gathered in Parliament Square, the force said on X.
Protesters, some wearing black and white Palestinian scarves, chanted “shame on you” and “hands off Gaza,” and held signs such as “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action,” video taken by Reuters at the scene showed.
In July, British lawmakers banned Palestine Action under anti-terrorism legislation after some of its members broke into a Royal Air Force base and damaged planes in protest against Britain’s support for Israel.
The ban makes it a crime to be a member of the group, carrying a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.
The co-founder of Palestine Action, Huda Ammori, last week won a bid to bring a legal challenge against the ban.
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‘No Leniency’: Iran Announces Arrest of 20 ‘Zionist Agents’
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi addresses a special session of the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, June 20, 2025. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
i24 News – Iranian authorities have in recent months arrested 20 people charged with being “Israeli Mossad operatives,” the judiciary said, adding that the Islamic regime will mete out the harshest punishments.
“The judiciary will show no leniency toward spies and agents of the Zionist regime, and with firm rulings, will make an example of them all,” spokesperson Asghar Jahangiri told Iranian media. However, it is understood that an unspecified number of detainees were released, apparently after the charges against them could not be substantiated.
The Islamic Republic was left reeling by a devastating 12-day war with Israel earlier in the summer that left a significant proportion of its military arsenal in ruins and dealt a serious setback to its uranium enrichment program. The fallout included an uptick in executions of Iranians convicted of spying for Israel, with at least eight death sentences carried out in recent months. Hit with international sanctions, the country is in dire economic straights, with frequent energy outages and skyrocketing unemployment.
In recent weeks Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi affirmed that Tehran cannot give up on its nuclear enrichment program even as it was severely damaged during the war.
“It is stopped because, yes, damages are serious and severe. But obviously we cannot give up of enrichment because it is an achievement of our own scientists. And now, more than that, it is a question of national pride,” the official told Fox News.