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The Jewish Sport Report: Why Israel has been hosting so many international sports tournaments
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Happy August, sports fans!
Oakland Athletics rookie Zack Gelof is off to a solid start in his MLB career, with 14 hits and 4 home runs in his first 16 games. On Wednesday, Gelof and his younger brother Jake, who was drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers last month, both homered. It was Jake’s first home run in professional baseball.
Israel has become a go-to host for international sports tournaments
Mamu Noam of Israel, Jakub Dudycha of the Czech Republic and Davide De Rosa of Italy celebrate after the men’s 800 meter event during the 2022 European Athletics U18 Championships at Givat-Ram Stadium in Jerusalem, July 7, 2022. (Jurij Kodrun/Getty Images for European Athletics)
The 2023 European Athletics U20 Championships begin Monday in Jerusalem, with 48 countries competing in 44 different track and field events.
Hosting such a competition is no simple task, but Israel has become a go-to for international sports tournaments.
In recent years, Israel has hosted European and global tournaments in lacrosse, flag football and athletics, and will soon add volleyball, water polo and baseball to the list.
Ami Baran, the president of the Israeli Athletics Association, said Israel hosting so many tournaments has broken a sort of glass ceiling in terms of Israel’s standing in the world, both politically and in sports.
“It’s very, very important,” Baran told me. “I think us hosting these kinds of tournaments sends a message throughout Europe that Israel is on the map. People are not politically worried anymore.”
Read more about Israel’s rising status as a sports host right here.
Halftime report
REMEMBERING. The Jewish sports world lost a giant last weekend. Alan Sherman, a longtime Maccabiah leader and co-founder of the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, died at 87. May his memory be a blessing.
GASP. An Israeli circus troupe put a unique spin on the popular Israeli beach paddle sport matkot in a nude performance on NBC’s “America’s Got Talent.” You read that right.
STANDING UP. New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft spoke on a panel about antisemitism and racism at last weekend’s NAACP convention in Boston. “People are trying to put boulders between the Black community and the Jewish community,” Kraft said. “And we’ve always been uniquely tied together. And I want us to continue that, and any way we can build those ties, I want to be part of that.”
NEVER FORGET. The German football club Borussia Dortmund joined students at the San Diego Jewish Academy last week to participate in a project to commemorate children who were killed in the Holocaust. The group painted butterflies for victims who had lived in Westphalia, the region of Germany where Dortmund is based.
ACROSS THE POND. Jewish basketball star Abby Meyers, who has been playing with the WNBA’s Washington Mystics, signed with the London Lions of the Women’s British Basketball League. The season begins in October.
UP AT BAT. London’s Jewish museum might have closed this week but one of its Jewish newspapers is staging an exhibit of its own — on the Jewish history of cricket.
Jews in sports to watch this weekend
IN BASEBALL…
Atlanta Braves ace Max Fried returned today after missing three months with a left forearm strain. The Braves, who also feature outfielder Kevin Pillar, faced the Chicago Cubs this afternoon at 2:20 p.m. ET. Tonight at 7:05 p.m. ET, catch Dean Kremer and the Baltimore Orioles against the New York Mets.
IN SOCCER…
Manor Solomon and his new club Tottenham play an exhibition game against Solomon’s old Ukrainian team, Shakhtar Donetsk, Sunday at 9 a.m. ET. Daniel Edelman and his NY Red Bulls have advanced to the Round of 16 in the Leagues Cup, and will face Philadelphia on Monday.
IN GOLF…
Ben Silverman is competing in the Utah Championship this weekend, while David Lipsky is in North Carolina for the Wyndham Championship.
Kvelling
Big mazel tov to Ryan Turell, the Orthodox basketball phenom, who just got engaged. Turell has been playing for the Motor City Cruise, the G League affiliate of the Detroit Pistons.
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The post The Jewish Sport Report: Why Israel has been hosting so many international sports tournaments appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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UN Security Council Meets on Iran as Russia, China Push for a Ceasefire
Members of the Security Council cast a vote during a United Nations Security Council meeting on the 3rd anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at UN headquarters in New York, US, Feb. 24, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/David Dee Delgado
The U.N. Security Council met on Sunday to discuss US strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites as Russia, China and Pakistan proposed the 15-member body adopt a resolution calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in the Middle East.
It was not immediately clear when it could be put to a vote. The three countries circulated the draft text, said diplomats, and asked members to share their comments by Monday evening. A resolution needs at least nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the United States, France, Britain, Russia or China to pass.
The US is likely to oppose the draft resolution, seen by Reuters, which also condemns attacks on Iran’s nuclear sites and facilities. The text does not name the United States or Israel.
“The bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities by the United States marks a perilous turn in a region that is already reeling,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council on Sunday. “We now risk descending into a rathole of retaliation after retaliation.”
“We must act – immediately and decisively – to halt the fighting and return to serious, sustained negotiations on the Iran nuclear program,” Guterres said.
The world awaited Iran’s response on Sunday after President Donald Trump said the US had “obliterated” Tehran’s key nuclear sites, joining Israel in the biggest Western military action against the Islamic Republic since its 1979 revolution.
U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi told the Security Council that while craters were visible at Iran’s enrichment site buried into a mountain at Fordow, “no one – including the IAEA – is in a position to assess the underground damage.”
Grossi said entrances to tunnels used for the storage of enriched material appear to have been hit at Iran’s sprawling Isfahan nuclear complex, while the fuel enrichment plant at Natanz has been struck again.
“Iran has informed the IAEA there has been no increase in off-site radiation levels at all three sites,” said Grossi, who heads the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Iran requested the U.N. Security Council meeting, calling on the 15-member body “to address this blatant and unlawful act of aggression, to condemn it in the strongest possible terms.”
Israel‘s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon said in a statement on Sunday that the U.S. and Israel “do not deserve any condemnation, but rather an expression of appreciation and gratitude for making the world a safer place.”
Danon told reporters before the council meeting that it was still early when it came to assessing the impact of the U.S. strikes. When asked if Israel was pursuing regime change in Iran, Danon said: “That’s for the Iranian people to decide, not for us.”
The post UN Security Council Meets on Iran as Russia, China Push for a Ceasefire first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel Rejects Critical EU Report Ahead of Ministers’ Meeting
FILE PHOTO: Smoke rises from Gaza after an explosion, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, June 11, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen/File Photo
Israel has rejected a European Union report saying it may be breaching human rights obligations in Gaza and the West Bank as a “moral and methodological failure,” according to a document seen by Reuters on Sunday.
The note, sent to EU officials ahead of a foreign ministers’ meeting on Monday, said the report by the bloc’s diplomatic service failed to consider Israel’s challenges and was based on inaccurate information.
“The Foreign Ministry of the State of Israel rejects the document … and finds it to be a complete moral and methodological failure,” the note said, adding that it should be dismissed entirely.
The post Israel Rejects Critical EU Report Ahead of Ministers’ Meeting first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Pope Leo Urges International Diplomacy to Prevent ‘Irreparable Abyss’
FILE PHOTO: Pope Leo XIV holds a Jubilee audience on the occasion of the Jubilee of Sport, at St. Peter’s Basilica, at the Vatican June 14, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Yara Nardi/File Photo
Pope Leo on Sunday said the international community must strive to avoid war that risks opening an “irreparable abyss,” and that diplomacy should take the place of conflict.
US forces struck Iran’s three main nuclear sites overnight, joining an Israeli assault in a major new escalation of conflict in the Middle East as Tehran vowed to defend itself.
“Every member of the international community has a moral responsibility: to stop the tragedy of war before it becomes an irreparable abyss,” Pope Leo said during his weekly prayer with pilgrims.
“No armed victory can compensate for the pain of mothers, the fear of children, the stolen future. Let diplomacy silence the weapons, let nations chart their future with peace efforts, not with violence and bloody conflicts,” he added.
“In this dramatic scenario, which includes Israel and Palestine, the daily suffering of the population, especially in Gaza and other territories, risks being forgotten, where the need for adequate humanitarian support is becoming increasingly urgent,” Pope Leo said.
The post Pope Leo Urges International Diplomacy to Prevent ‘Irreparable Abyss’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.