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The Jewish Sport Report: The future of Jewish sports is brighter than ever
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Hello there! Do you live in New York or know a sports fan who does? Come meet the team behind the Jewish Sport Report at a Nets game next week!
We are offering an exciting $62 package that includes: a ticket to the Brooklyn Nets preseason game against Israeli team Maccabi Ra’anana on Thursday, Oct. 12; a ticket to the Nov. 12 regular season matchup between the Nets and Deni Avdija’s Washington Wizards; and a special Israeli Heritage Night Brooklyn Nets hat.
You can grab tickets here — see you there!
Meet JTA’s 36 Jewish Student Athletes to Watch
Clockwise from top left: Ben Saraf, Lacie Saltzmann, Audrey Schildkraut, Ariel Brunfman, Elie Kligman, Lilah Grubman, Nelson Vickar, Maia Weintraub and Sam Salz. (Design by Mollie Suss)
The future of the Jewish sports world is in good hands.
You may have seen our list of JTA’s 36 Jewish Students Athletes to Watch, which we announced earlier this week. It’s an exciting group — there are Olympians, pro athletes, Division I stars and international champions. And they’re all in high school or college.
If you’re an avid Jewish Sport Report reader (we hope you are!), you may know some of their names already — like Elie Kligman, who was drafted into the MLB in 2021, or Sam Salz, the Orthodox Jew who walked onto the vaunted Texas A&M football team.
But there are lots of athletes on the list whose names you should know. Ava Brenner has won six junior national karate championships. JJ Harel broke a 42-year high jump record. Alexis Blokhina has already trained with Venus Williams. Maia Weintraub is the No. 4 ranked women’s foil fencer in the United States. Jake Retzlaff could become the first Jewish starting QB at BYU.
Meet all 36 athletes here — and prepare to be impressed!
Halftime report
DON’T LET THE DOOR HIT YOU ON THE WAY OUT. A hockey player at the University of Michigan was booted from the top-ranked team after he and another varsity athlete were implicated in an incident of anti-LGBTQ vandalism outside a Jewish center on campus. The school’s Jewish Resource Center has declined to press charges against the students, who made a public apology at a Shabbat dinner.
WHO BY FIRE(D). Speaking of unexpected exits, the San Francisco Giants fired Jewish manager Gabe Kapler last week after four seasons with the club. Kapler had won the 2021 National League Manager of the Year award after a 107-win season. The league’s other Jewish skipper, Bob Melvin, will remain in his role with the San Diego Padres — despite many predictions that he’d also be out of a job.
NOT TOO SHABBY. Team Israel finished in sixth place in the European Baseball Championship, which included games just before and just after Yom Kippur to accommodate the team’s religious players. Israel went 3-3 in the tournament, including a 14-1 blowout win over Switzerland and a rough 12-2 loss to the Netherlands. Israel will host the 2025 tournament.
OUCH. Israeli soccer star Manor Solomon will be out at least a couple months after tearing his meniscus during a practice with his Premier League club Tottenham. The injury means Solomon will miss Israel’s next four Euro 2024 qualifying matches — the national team is set to face Switzerland and Kosovo next week and Romania and Andorra in November.
FREE STUFF! The Washington Wizards announced its promotional schedule for the upcoming NBA season, and Israeli player Deni Avdija is set to have a big week in late January. On Jan. 24, Wizards fans will receive a hat designed by the 22-year-old, and on Jan. 31, they’ll get a bobblehead celebrating the small forward’s fashion sense.
Jews in sports to watch this weekend
IN BASEBALL…
The Division Series playoffs start Saturday, and four of the eight teams still in contention have a Jewish player (or two!). Here’s the schedule — and some notes — for this weekend:
Saturday at 1 p.m. ET: The Baltimore Orioles host the Texas Rangers. The O’s have not announced their rotation yet, but Dean Kremer is likely to start later in the series. It will be the Team Israel alum’s postseason debut. Game 2 is Sunday at 4:07 p.m. ET.
Saturday at 4:45 p.m. ET: The Houston Astros host the Minnesota Twins. Alex Bregman has played in a (ridiculous) 86 playoff games in his career and is in the all-time top-10 in postseason RBIs, walks and runs scored. The 29-year-old is already a 2-time World Series champion. Game 2 is Sunday at 8:03 p.m. ET.
Saturday at 6:07 p.m. ET: The Atlanta Braves host the Philadelphia Phillies. For the Braves, ace Max Fried is slated to return from his stint on the injured list and start Game 2 on Monday. Braves outfielder Kevin Pillar will be playing in his first postseason since 2016. For the Phillies, catcher Garrett Stubbs has appeared in the last three postseasons — last year with Philly and the previous two with Houston — but has yet to have an at-bat.
IN FOOTBALL…
It’s Week 5 in the NFL — here are the Jewish matchups to watch:
Sunday at 4:25 p.m. ET: Greg Joseph and the Minnesota Vikings host Taylor Swift’s new favorite team, the Kansas City Chiefs.
Monday at 8:15 p.m. ET: A.J. Dillon and the Green Bay Packers face the Las Vegas Raiders.
(Jake Curhan’s Seattle Seahawks and Michael Dunn’s Cleveland Browns both have byes this week.)
IN BASKETBALL…
The NBA Preseason is here! This weekend, catch Domantas Sabonis, the All-Star big man who is converting to Judaism, and his Sacramento Kings against the Toronto Raptors Sunday at 8 p.m. ET
IN HOCKEY…
As the NHL Preseason wraps up, watch Devon Levi and the Buffalo Sabres against Mark Friedman and the Pittsburgh Penguins tonight at 7 p.m. ET. At the same time, Jack Hughes and the New Jersey Devils face the New York Islanders. And tonight at 10 p.m. ET, Quinn Hughes and the Vancouver Canucks host the Calgary Flames.
IN SOCCER…
Goalkeeper Matt Turner and Nottingham Forest play Crystal Palace tomorrow at 12:30 p.m. ET. ICYMI, check out our profile of the Jewish USMNT member here. Over in the MLS, Daniel Edelman and the New York Red Bulls play Toronto F.C. tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. ET.
Join the Jewish Sport Report in Chicago!
The Cubs and White Sox may not be playing in the postseason, but the Jewish Sport Report is headed to Chicago for an important matchup later this month. On Oct. 23, I’ll be sitting down with an all-star panel of Jewish baseball experts to talk all things baseball and Chicago. Come join us!
We’ll see you next week, and in the meantime, ponder this: which is taller? A rabbi holding a lulav or 7-foot-4 NBA prodigy Victor Wembanyama?
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The post The Jewish Sport Report: The future of Jewish sports is brighter than ever appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.