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Denver Jewish Day School makes history on the basketball court
This article was produced as part of JTA’s Teen Journalism Fellowship, a program that works with Jewish teens around the world to report on issues that affect their lives.
(JTA) — After a crushing loss last year in the state championship round of 16 to Caprock Academy, the Denver Jewish Day School boys’ basketball team began the 2022-23 season hungrier than ever and ready to prove themselves. That drive paid off in March when the Tigers became Class 1A state champions, the first-ever crown for the pluralistic Jewish community K-12 day school.
But to get there, they had to pull off a 15-point comeback against the reigning state champions, battle through antisemitism on and off the court and travel more than an hour and a half each way for their final three games.
Winning the state championship was not only a monumental moment for the school, but it was also only the third time ever that a Jewish day school had won its state basketball championship.
The Tigers dominated the regular season, ending with a 22-3 record and becoming the number two ranked team behind the Belleview Christian Bruins. Going into the playoffs, the Tigers were on the lookout for the Bruins, who had delivered them one of their few regular-season losses. However, during the playoffs, the Tigers outplayed the Bruins twice in both the district and state championships, delivering Belleview their only two losses of the season and securing the championship.
Last year’s playoff loss against Caprock Academy, located 250 miles west of Denver, only provided them with more motivation. “We had a four-hour bus ride home of pure sadness and anger” on the way home, said starter Andrew Zimmerman, 18. “Everyone except the seniors were back in the gym the very next day to start getting ready for this season.” With a starting five composed of four seniors and one junior, everyone on the team knew that, for many of them, this was their last chance to win the state championship.
To add to this pressure, several players on the team experienced antisemitism from fans and players during the tournament. Some were called slurs, while others found posts on social media complaining that the game was moved because of the team’s Sabbath observance and saying that they should be forced to forfeit instead. However, the Tigers ignored what people were saying and focused on what they were best at: playing basketball.
The two other Jewish schools that have won their basketball state championships were Shalhevet, an Orthodox Jewish high school of about 260 students in Los Angeles that won the California women’s Division IV basketball state championship only a few days before the Tigers, and the Yavneh Academy of Dallas, a Modern Orthodox school, whose boys’ basketball team won the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools’ 3A title in 2020.
Winning the state championship as a Jewish day school is “just incredible for the whole Jewish community, and the fact that it’s so rare for it to happen makes it even more special,” said Coach Michael Foonberg. “There’s also a stereotype of [there being very few good] Jewish athletes. And you can overcome that with hard work and commitment and dedication. To stay the course and do it with this Jewish school and being Jewish myself, it was something that I just dreamed about, and to fulfill it is just incredible.”
Jews value athletic achievement as a statement of minority pride, according to Howard Megdal, a Jewish sports writer who covers basketball and specifically women’s sports, especially if a team wins a championship. “It is always significant, particularly in athletics, to see Jewish people excel,” he said. “At a time of rising antisemitism, this is especially important to the Jewish people.”
For DJDS, winning was about more than just bringing a trophy back to Denver. They were playing for something bigger than themselves.“Winning is just such a big accomplishment, and it’s something that we did for our school and for the Jewish community,” said starter Jonathan Noam, 17. “In the huddle, we always break it with ‘Mishpacha’ [family] because that’s the idea that we play with in our heads. DJDS is like one big mishpacha, along with the Jewish community in Denver. Everybody knows each other. Everybody is so tight-knit. It’s like we’re one big family. [We won] it for everybody.”
Fans and team members worried that DJDS would not be able to compete in the Colorado High School Activities Association’s state championship tournament due to the team’s Sabbath observance. However, according to Josh Lake, the athletic director of DJDS, “The changes to the tournament this year were in place for well over a decade. [CHSAA Associate Commissioner Bethany Brookens] and I meet yearly to make sure the accommodations are kosher for the particular season based on when the tournament is scheduled.”
Recently, the state association has been much more accommodating of DJDS’s Sabbath observance. “CHSAA respected the fact that we were Jewish and that we keep Shabbos and are not allowed to play on Shabbos,” said Noam. The team was able to play games typically scheduled for late Friday or Saturday afternoon on Friday afternoon and Saturday night, so the team could avoid violating the Sabbath.
According to Brookens, the Sabbath accommodations for DJDS have “been in place and communicated well before this year.”
While CHSAA respected the team’s Sabbath observance, fans and parents of opposing players were unhappy with the scheduling changes and expressed antisemitic sentiments against the team from the stands and on social media, according to starter Gavin Foonberg, son of Coach Foonberg, 18, and starter Elan Schinagel, 17. “We always run into [antisemitism]. It happened in the playoffs against McClave. “There were some people calling our fans ‘dirty Jews,’” said Schinagel, “You just have to be the bigger person when that type of stuff happens. It happens generally once or twice a season.”
Fellow starter Gavin Foonberg also experienced antisemitism at the tournament. “After we beat McClave, there was a bunch of talk, all over Twitter and CHSAA Instagram, about how [DJDS] is cheating because we had the game moved back farther because we can’t play on Shabbat,” he said. The team also experienced antisemitism during the regular season at a game against Lyons. “At Lyons, there definitely was [antisemitism]. [The fans] called our JV team “K*kes” at one point.”
Some commenters complained on Facebook after the state high school athletic association agreed to let the Denver Jewish Day School play their basketball games at a time other than Shabbat. (Via Facebook; JTA illustration by Mollie Suss)
DJDS prepares the players to deal with antisemitism. According to school policy, if they encounter antisemitism, they are taught to tell their coach or a school administrator immediately. “It’s not a great feeling knowing that we have to prepare for that, but it is a good feeling knowing that our kids know what to do,” said Assistant Coach Matan Halzel.
Despite the protocol, the athletic director of DJDS, Josh Lake, did not receive any reports of antisemitism directly. “No one has shared with me any [reports of ] antisemitic behavior at the district, regional, or state tournament this year,” he said. One of the players only discussed the antisemitic experiences he witnessed within the team and said he did not report it because he was used to such behavior.
Officials at McClave said that no one had contacted them about any alleged antisemitism. ”No one from the Denver Jewish Day School contacted myself or any other administrator during or after the tournament, so this is the first I am hearing of any issues,” said Maggie Pacino, principal of McClave. However, ”Had I or any other school administrator heard such comments we would have immediately dealt with those involved.”
Administrators at Lyons said they could not comment on the specifics of the antisemitic incident reported by Tigers players due to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, even though that federal privacy law only covers personal information on a student’s record. “What I can share with you is that whenever our school receives a report of conduct outside of the very high standards we hold for our students, we conduct a thorough investigation and take appropriate disciplinary action as necessary,” said Christopher Frank, principal of Lyons.
Tiger center Zimmerman said an adult fan supporting McClave walked past and called him a “dirty f–cking Jew.” A DJDS fan who saw it happen told him that the man had been saying similar things the entire game. Zimmerman did not respond to the comment and walked away.
Notwithstanding the antisemitism, the state championship win is still a bright spot for the Jewish community and a huge win for Jewish athletes around the nation.
The win “is history and is something that you’ll never forget,” said Halzel. “It’s etched in stone. We have a trophy, we have a banner, we have a signed ball that’s already in the trophy case. These are memories that will never be taken away from us.”
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The post Denver Jewish Day School makes history on the basketball court appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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With the last hostage released, is American Jewish unity over?
When the remains of the last Israeli hostage in Gaza returned to Israel this week, Scott Spindel, a lawyer in Encino, Calif., finally took off the thick steel dog tag he had put on after the Hamas attack of Oct. 7, 2023.
His friend Lauren Krieger, an orthopedic surgeon, did the same. And he pulled down the last of the names of the hostages remaining in Gaza that his wife, Jenn Roth Krieger, had placed in the window of their Santa Monica home.
During the nearly 28 months that Israeli hostages remained in captivity in Gaza, Krieger, 61, and Spindel, 55, consistently argued over Israel’s war in the strip.
“Lauren would say that we probably were a little too extreme,” Spindel, whose daughter serves in the IDF, told me in a telephone interview. “I don’t think we blew up enough buildings.”
But those differences paled beside their mutual concern over the fate of the hostages.
“Unfortunately,” said Spindel, “it took tragedy to pull us together.”
So it was across the American Jewish landscape. Then, the body of Staff Sergeant Ran Gvili, the 24-year-old Israeli police officer killed on Oct. 7 and taken by Hamas terrorists back into the enclave, was returned to Israel — the last of the hostages to come home.
Jews from across the political spectrum unpinned yellow ribbon buttons from their lapels, removed the hostage posters from their synagogues, and folded up and put away the blue-and-white flags displayed as a symbol of the missing Israelis.
The marches and vigils American Jews held on behalf of the hostages — small but meaningful echoes of the mass rallies that roiled Israel — came to a quiet halt.
Jewish unity is forged in adversity. Without it, we are apt to find enemies among ourselves. And as painful as the hostage saga was, it unified an otherwise fractious American Jewish community in a time of crisis.
Without that common concern, are even deeper rifts our future?
“As committed and connected as we were,” said Spindel, “it doesn’t change the fact that we also were still divided about solutions.”
A family in distress
Across the United States, synagogues of all religious and political bents regularly joined in the same Acheinu prayer for the release and return of the hostages.
“Our family, the whole house of Israel, who are in distress,” the prayer begins — a wholly accurate summation of the totality of Jewish concern.
Surveys showed that the hostages unified American Jews even when Israel’s Gaza campaign divided them. An October 2025 Washington Post poll found that a plurality of American Jews disapproved of Israel’s military actions in Gaza — but a whopping 79% said they were “very concerned” about the hostages.
There have been other moments in recent Jewish history when calamity created unity. The 1995 assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, for instance, brought together the vast majority of American Jews in mourning, even those who opposed his policies.
And, of course the brutal Oct. 7 attack, which claimed almost 1,200 lives, created a near-universal sense of shock and sorrow.
But the hostage crisis may have had an even deeper emotional — and perhaps political — impact.
“Even for people who were not affiliated Jewishly, those hostages struck a deep, deep chord,” Krieger told me. “It felt personal. I don’t think we’ve had that level of collective trauma in our lifetimes in that same way.”
And a family divided
The hostage crisis bonded American Jews to one another, and to their Israeli counterparts, at a time when enormous political rifts were opening within their communities.
In the U.S., as in Israel, there were sharp disagreements over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s conduct of the war and whether he was even prioritizing the hostages’ safety.
And the encampments and protests against the war at college campuses — in which many Jewish students participated, and to which many others objected — created even deeper divisions over support for the Jewish state.
But if the hostage issue didn’t erase such differences, it muted them. Krieger and Spindel could frustrate each other in conversations about the conduct of the war, or American support for it. But in the end, they were both in that 79% that the Washington Post poll identified.
What will hold them — and the rest of us — together, now?
The hostage crisis provided something history unfortunately bestows upon Jews with regularity: an external enemy that transcended ideological differences. With it gone, American Jews return to what they’ve always been — a community bound by tradition, and riven by politics.
Krieger and Spindel have already resumed their arguments. But even though the dog tags are gone, they’re both still wearing Jewish stars on silver chains around their necks. When someone admires Krieger’s, he takes it off and gives it to them. He buys his metal stars in bulk on Amazon, and has given away dozens since Oct. 7.
“I want people to feel like I do,” he said, “like we’re a peoplehood worth cherishing.”
Worth cherishing — even though we can’t agree on much else.
The post With the last hostage released, is American Jewish unity over? appeared first on The Forward.
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Iran President Says Trump, Netanyahu, Europe Stirred Tensions in Protests
Amnesty International Greek activists and Iranians living in Athens hold candles and placards in front of the Greek Parliament to support the people of Iran, in Athens, Greece, January 30, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Louisa Gouliamaki TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Saturday that US, Israeli and European leaders had exploited Iran’s economic problems, incited unrest and provided people with the means to “tear the nation apart” in recent protests.
The two-week long nationwide protests, which began in late December over an economic crisis marked by soaring inflation and rising living costs, have abated after a bloody crackdown by the clerical authorities that US-based rights group HRANA says has killed at least 6,563, including 6,170 protesters and 214 security forces.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told CNN Turk that 3,100, including 2,000 security forces, had been killed.
The US, Israeli and European leaders tried to “provoke, create division, and supplied resources, drawing some innocent people into this movement,” Pezeshkian said in a live state TV broadcast.
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly voiced support for the demonstrators, saying the US was prepared to take action if Iran continued to kill protesters. US officials said on Friday that Trump was reviewing his options but had not decided whether to strike Iran.
Israel’s Ynet news website said on Friday that a US Navy destroyer had docked at the Israeli port of Eilat.
Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Europeans “rode on our problems, provoked, and were seeking — and still seek — to fragment society,” said Pezeshkian.
“They brought them into the streets and wanted, as they said, to tear this country apart, to sow conflict and hatred among the people and create division,” Pezeshkian said.
“Everyone knows that the issue was not just a social protest,” he added.
Regional allies including Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia have been engaging in diplomatic efforts to prevent a military confrontation between Washington and Tehran.
The US is demanding that Iran curb its missile program if the two nations are to instead resume talks, but Iran has rejected that demand.
Foreign Minister Araqchi said in Turkey on Tuesday that missiles would never be the subject of any negotiations.
In response to US threats of military action, Araqchi said Tehran was ready for either negotiations or warfare, and also ready to engage with regional countries to promote stability and peace.
“Regime change is a complete fantasy. Some have fallen for this illusion,” Araqchi told CNN Turk. “Our system is so deeply rooted and so firmly established that the comings and goings of individuals make no difference.”
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CBS News Chief Weiss Touts Commentator Push, Draws Mixed Reaction in Newsroom
FILE PHOTO: Bari Weiss speaks at the 2022 Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., May 3, 2022. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo
Three months into her tenure, CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss presented a vision this week to revitalize the nearly century-old broadcaster, in part by applying the same formula that fueled the rise of The Free Press – recruiting commentators who offer observations about news, politics and culture.
From adding 19 new commentators, including some drawn from The Free Press ranks, to introducing new podcasts, newsletters and live events, employees were variously energized or skeptical of the ideas presented by CBS’ new boss. Weiss’ notions about how to thrive in a post-Walter Cronkite era struck some as in conflict with the stated mission of doing great journalism, according to seven current and former CBS News employees and industry insiders.
In her presentation, Weiss also envisioned a galaxy of cross-platform stars, like New York Times columnist and CNBC host Andrew Ross Sorkin, whom she highlighted with a meme: “Sorkining.” The Dealbook founder is the author of several business books, executive producer of the Showtime series “Billions,” and maestro of the New York Times premiere live event, and a Davos fixture.
“It’s like saying ‘Hey, Hollywood. Why can’t you just be like Leonardo DiCaprio?’ If people knew how to bottle that magic and make someone a star, they would do it,” said a former CBS employee.
An industry veteran said the idea suggested a lack of appreciation for the power of television, which has been making stars for generations: among them “CBS Evening News” anchors Dan Rather, Connie Chung, Walter Cronkite and Katie Couric.
The 41-year-old Weiss, who has no broadcast experience and has been described as a distant leader by six current and former CBS News sources, now has to deliver on her promise of capturing new and younger viewers – including political independents who don’t see themselves reflected in mainstream media. It is a daunting undertaking that has hobbled executives across broadcast and cable, including former CNN chief Chris Licht, ousted in June 2023.
One supporter sees the charismatic Weiss as a modern-day Katharine Graham, the legendary publisher of the Washington Post, who was undermined by underlings when she took over in 1963. Graham transformed the paper and led it through its Watergate-era heyday, and generally left editorial decisions to Executive Editor Ben Bradlee.
A current staffer, speaking on background, said, “People are saying, ‘Let’s give her a chance’ … I want to see her succeed. If she succeeds, we all succeed.”
CBS News and Weiss did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
PRIORITIES FOR CBS NEWS
Weiss, a former opinion journalist and media entrepreneur, joined CBS after parent Paramount owner David Ellison bought her five-year-old media company, The Free Press, for $150 million in October.
Some see Weiss’ playbook of expanding CBS’s journalism ranks with commentators as conflicting with other initiatives including breaking news and landing deep investigative stories, according to three current and former CBS News staffers and an industry veteran.
“There’s nothing wrong with that,” said the former employee. “But is that what a news division is or are they craving something completely different? That’s fine but don’t pretend it’s a news division.”
Another current CBS News staffer talked about past failures to capitalize on new ways of reaching the audience, such as leveraging the power of the Paramount+ streaming service to promote news shows, observing, “We have done a wretched job of being on the internet.”
Weiss is also attempting to change the news network’s political orientation, appealing to a wider cross-section of Americans, according to her remarks Tuesday. Weiss said she wants CBS News to reflect the friction animating the national conversation.
In broadening its perspective to include more diverse viewpoints, CBS News could ultimately lay claim to the uncharted ground for a center-right broadcaster, said Integrated Media Chief Executive Jonathan Miller, a veteran media executive who has held senior positions at News Corp and AOL.
“We need to commission and greenlight stories that will surprise and provoke – including inside our own newsroom,” Weiss said in her address to employees. “We also have to widen the aperture of the stories we tell.”
On that front, CBS has had mixed results so far. Earlier this month, “CBS Evening News” broadcast a widely panned segment featuring U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in various meme-like situations, saluting him as “the ultimate Florida man.”
EARLY SUCCESSES
It has also seen successes, including Lesley Stahl’s interview with Trump son-in-law and Middle East advisor Jared Kushner and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, within a week of brokering a peace deal between Israel and Hamas, and Norah O’Donnell’s “60 Minutes” interview with Trump. Paramount paid Trump $16 million to settle a lawsuit over its editing of an interview with his White House rival, former Vice President Kamala Harris.
It landed journalistic scoops, including interviewing the man who charged one of two gunmen who attacked a Jewish community gathering in Sydney, and exclusive video of Alex Pretti, the man killed by Border Patrol in Minneapolis, reading a tribute to a veteran who died in 2024.
Weiss announced that the network would bring in contributors with expertise in politics, health, happiness, food and culture, whom she encouraged staffers to use on-air. The roster includes Free Press columnist Niall Ferguson of the conservative Hoover Institution, as well as Casey Lewis, a former Teen Vogue and MTV editor who writes about youth culture.
“It’s great to have younger people, a diverse demographic and diverse ideology represented,” said Kathy Kiely, the chair in Free-Press Studies at the Missouri School of Journalism. “Newsrooms can’t do a good job unless we have that diversity in our ranks. What worries me is the emphasis on opinion over primary-sourced, reported facts.”
Weiss emphasized making content available online before it airs on TV to reach more viewers. CBS has long been in third place behind rivals ABC and NBC and, like most mainstream media, is struggling with audience declines as consumers migrate to social platforms.
Pew Research estimates about one-third of all adults get at least some news from podcasts. CBS News does not appear among Spotify’s or Apple’s rankings of the top 50 news podcasts.
One former employee expects the digital-first goal to be complicated because CBS hasn’t devoted sufficient resources to helping correspondents or anchors curate their social media presence or re-edit television interviews for YouTube or streaming.
Weiss encouraged staffers to think of the news organization as the best-capitalized media startup in the world.
“We are in a position, with the support of all of the leadership of this company, to really make the change we need.”