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He works at a Holocaust museum by day. How’d he end up in ‘Marty Supreme’?

Heading into his audition for Marty Supreme, Isaac Simon was nervous. But not for the reasons you’d expect.

“I was taking a long lunch break from the museum,” he said, “and at the time I was three or four months into my job.”

Appearing in a Josh Safdie movie was something Simon, who runs internship programs at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, had genuinely never dreamed of. He wasn’t an actor, or an aspiring one. He’d never taken an acting class or been in front of a camera.

But two years after he was scouted at a baseball card convention, Simon was invited to try out for the role of Roger, a cocksure amateur who gets hustled on the ping-pong table by Timothée Chalamet’s Marty Mauser. Standing 6-foot-9 with ice-blue eyes, low eyebrows and flowing brown hair, Simon had the look, the paddle skills and, clearly, the temperament to land a pivotal part in an Oscar-bound — and richly Jewish — cinematic hit.

“I don’t get starstruck,” Simon, 31, said. “I get excited.”

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Isaac Simon wore a Museum of Jewish Heritage pin to the premiere. Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images

The slew of non-actors who feature in Marty Supreme alongside A-listers like Chalamet, Gwyneth Paltrow and Tyler, The Creator has already become part of the film’s lore. Safdie and veteran casting director Jennifer Venditti have a penchant for casting street regulars; among the first-timers in the movie are basketball legend George Gervin, viral TikTok and YouTube personas and the guy from Shark Tank.

But perhaps none had as personal a connection to the film’s story of post-war Jewish striving as Simon, a native New Yorker whose graduate study at Queens College focused on the development of Holocaust studies in the U.S. In Marty Supreme, which is loosely based on the story of real-life midcentury table tennis star Marty Reisman, one of the protagonist’s best friends is a Holocaust survivor; one of the film’s most arresting scenes is an Auschwitz flashback.

Simon’s day job is, of course, at the largest Holocaust museum in New York. The fateful coincidence of his casting, Simon said, was “like a bizarre lottery ticket I was able to cash in.”

A fateful encounter

The story of Simon’s star turn begins in the summer of 2022, when Venditti spotted him at a baseball card show in Long Island. Venditti was there with Safdie; Simon — then still in grad school — was there with his dad.

Venditti said they was there to cast extras and non-actors for a baseball-related movie, and asked if she could take a two-minute video of him talking about himself. He obliged, and in the recording told her where he was from (New York City) and what he was doing at the show (chasing the famously rare T206 tobacco card series).

“I thought to myself, ‘Wow, could I really have been at the right place and the right time for something I wasn’t even expecting?’” Simon recalled. Then two years passed, and the run-in faded from memory.

It was not until the summer of 2024 that he received an email from Venditti: “Isaac Simon audition opportunity – scouted at card show.” No script was provided and nothing about the project was disclosed — just a date and a location.

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On his elevator up to the audition, he heard the hollow bouncing of a ping-pong ball. Having seen a headline about Chalamet being attached to a Reisman biopic a few days earlier, he realized what the next few minutes might entail.

“The first audition was a total blur,” Simon recalled. “I remember playing ping pong with the assistant casting director and he was like, ‘Oh you’re good!’” At a subsequent callback, he played out a few improv scenarios — some light trash talking, or being cheated in a game. A few weeks later, he got called in for costume fittings.

He hadn’t solicited any acting tips, or studied film prior to his audition. But his work at the museum, where he trains educators on how to teach the Holocaust in 90 minutes, had prepared him.

“Because teaching is a performance, there is sort of an inherent performative quality to the work I do,” Simon said. “And so I think that that lent itself well — or at the very least, it didn’t hurt — to the work I was being asked to do for Josh.”

“Marty Supreme” director Joshua Safdie (R) gives direction to Tyler, The Creator at the bowling alley where Simon’s scene was filmed. Courtesy of A24

‘Cast for a reason’

Having run through his lines with his dad and his girlfriend, Simon headed upstate that fall to play Roger — and play opposite Chalamet. (This time, he took two days off of work.)

Roger, the reigning hotshot at a humdrum bowling alley, features in two scenes. In the first, he’s goaded into wagering $40 against Marty, who’s feigning amateurism, and loses. He reappears a few minutes as Marty fills up at a nearby gas station, realizing he was hustled by the reigning American champion; he and his pals want their money back.

Walking into the converted Bowlero where they shot the first scene, Simon was floored by the set. “Each individual looked like they were from the 1950s, and yet their outfit was distinctly their own,” he recalled. Miyako Bellizzi, the costume designer, had fitted him in a striped button-up and faded blue work pants; Simon’s hair was slicked back and to the side.

He hadn’t met Safdie before he got to set, and his cues from the Uncut Gems co-director were limited.

Over the course of his scenes, there were times when he wasn’t sure he was doing what Safdie wanted. Here, it was his inexperience that Simon drew on. “I kept reminding myself that I was cast for a reason, and I was cast as a non-actor for a reason,” he said, “and what I’m bringing to this experience is inherently different than what a trained actor would be. Therefore, if I were a trained actor, I would not be what Josh was looking for in the scenario.”

He didn’t have too much time to banter with the film’s stars during the shoot; most of his time on set was spent with other bit-players. But when the camera was shooting other actors, Safdie wanted to keep the sound of live table tennis in the background, so he had Chalamet and Simon play each other off-camera.

As to who had the upper hand? “We’re probably about even,” Simon said.

“Marty Supreme” casting director Jennifer Venditti has a penchant for scouting non-actors in public places. Courtesy of A24

Jewish mythmaking

Even after the shoot, Simon couldn’t quite believe it was real. He told almost no one outside his family, superstitious that the scene would get cut. But then the premiere arrived. “It was surreal,” he said.

He’s now seen the film nine times — yes, all the way through — indulging friends who want to see it with him. And his acting has won some praise, with one X post calling it an “incredible underrated performance” liked more than 2,000 times.

Simon likes the movie, if you couldn’t tell, echoing its director and star in calling it a love letter to New York. The film, Simon said, touches on Jewish identity in a way that reminds him of his own family and their experience in this country.

“The way in which it captured intergenerational relationships in Jewish homes in post-war America, in New York specifically, felt very autobiographical for the way that my relatives talked amongst each other,” he said. “There’s a love there that transcends.”

As a Holocaust educator, Simon felt the movie handled that theme appropriately. He found the honey scene — an Auschwitz flashback too intense to explain here — moving, and the Holocaust humor tactfully dispatched. He loved the yiddish.

Yet Simon still couldn’t wrap his head around his own involvement in such a fitting project. His work passing on the history and memory of the Holocaust to future generations was already meaningful before he got an IMDB page.

“So to be cast in a film and have a speaking line,” he said, “and it just so happens that that film is also this incredibly Jewish film — which has direct references in the scene at Auschwitz — is equally bizarre, but also really beautiful, and oddly perfect.”

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Why NBA Teams Start Defending Before Half Court

Image Source: Infographic by author

An NBA defender who meets a ball handler near the opposite baseline is trying to interfere with the possession before the offense gets organized. The immediate reward need not be a steal. Making a guard change direction, protect the ball, or find another receiver can interrupt the route into a play. But pressure has several possible results, and slowing that first journey does not necessarily slow the whole game.

In Logan Murdock’s November 2025 report on full-court defense, Phoenix Suns guard Jordan Goodwin described his aim: “Try to make them take at least six seconds off the clock.” That was his target, not a measured average. Indiana Pacers coach Rick Carlisle described another purpose: getting opponents to play faster than they prefer. Both approaches interfere with timing, though one delays the setup while the other hurries decisions.

The shot clock helps explain the difference. In a normal NBA possession following a made basket, the offense has 24 seconds, with the countdown starting when the inbound pass is legally touched on the court. It must also advance out of the backcourt within eight seconds. Crossing half court does not start a fresh shot clock. Time spent getting there leaves less time to create a shot. A defensive deflection that stays inbounds does not restart the countdown.

Defensive pressure also needs careful interpretation in basketball betting. An NBA matchup on the Bovada website cannot be reduced to whether one team presses: the combined score depends on how often both sides get the ball and what they do with their chances. A defender delaying the first pass into an offense can leave less time for a good attempt. A turnover followed by a quick basket has a different effect.

Those possibilities make defensive intensity an incomplete description of a scoring outlook. A team can force its opponent to work harder while creating quick attacking chances for itself. It can also concede an easy chance when pressure fails. Understanding the tactic means separating its purpose from its outcome, rather than treating an aggressive defender as evidence that the game must produce fewer points.

Pressure does not always mean a trap

One defender following the ball is different from two defenders closing around it. The first can contest the dribbler while teammates remain with their own assignments. A trap commits another player to the ball, so teammates elsewhere must cover the passing options and protect the basket.

A stopped dribble changes the contest. Once a player voluntarily picks up the ball, he cannot simply start dribbling again. He can still pivot, pass, or shoot, but moving away from pressure with another dribble is no longer an option. A defender can therefore restrict movement without taking possession. This is also why a guard’s choice to keep the dribble alive deserves attention: it preserves a way to move while searching for a pass.

Watch where the ball goes next. A trap can succeed by forcing an awkward pass that another defender intercepts. The players surrounding the ball do not have to be the ones who take it away. Reaching for a steal also differs from keeping the ball handler contained; abandoning position can give the guard a route past the pressure.

The offense has answers. In the Murdock report referenced earlier, Golden State guard Brandin Podziemski described using his body to shield the ball against smaller defenders and quickness to get beyond longer opponents. Beating the first defender can leave that player trailing, creating a temporary advantage farther upcourt. The remaining defenders then have to respond to an attack before their teammate has time to recover.

Three possible outcomes of early pressure: delayed setup, hurried decisions, or an attacking advantage when pressure is beaten

The work before a highlight

Former NBA guard Keith Bogans gives a defender’s perspective in his conversation with Vernon Maxwell. Discussing Jaden McDaniels, Bogans says that seeing a defender pick up a superstar across the court gets him excited in the way a dunk or crossover excites other viewers.

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His reaction focuses on the challenge being accepted. The scorer has someone to deal with before reaching a preferred attacking position. Bogans also describes the recognition that such defensive work receives from teammates and coaches, even when it attracts little attention elsewhere.

The assignment does not end when the scorer passes. The defender still needs to follow the play and be ready for the ball to return. Early pressure can force a star to give up the ball without removing him from the possession. Watching the next pass shows whether the defense has actually disrupted the attack or merely moved it.

When defense creates offense

Indiana scored 19 points off turnovers in Finals Game 6 against Oklahoma City on June 19, 2025. The figure does not isolate full-court pressure.

A change of possession ends one team’s opportunity and begins another’s. The team winning the ball can attack immediately or organize its offense, depending on the space and defenders ahead. Pressure therefore cannot be assessed only by the time an opponent spends bringing the ball forward.

Look beyond the pickup point. Does the offense arrive late but still organized? Does it make a hurried pass? Does the ball handler escape and make the remaining defenders cover extra ground? The first defender can use up time without winning the ball. If the guard gets past him, watch whether the other defenders can stop the drive without leaving someone open.

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In ex-Knick Michael Sweetney, Jewish friends mourn a beloved coach ‘who knew exactly how to show up’

Tamir Goodman stuck out like a sore thumb, a yarmulke-wearing redhead at a practice for a showcase of Greater Washington’s top high school talent. The year was 2000, and Goodman, an Orthodox Jewish hoops prodigy, had already been on the cover of Sports Illustrated. What he did not have at that practice was a friend.

But when the all-star team’s coach had players pair up for shooting practice, one teammate approached Goodman: the 6-foot-8, Georgetown-bound power forward Michael Sweetney.

“He’s like, “Hey, I’ll be your shooting partner,” Goodman, 44, recalled by phone Thursday. “And from that moment, we just never left each other.”

Sweetney, who went on to play for the New York Knicks, later said he had never met a Jewish person before that day. But when he died Wednesday of complications from a heart attack, he had not only one Jewish friend mourning his passing, but hundreds.

Mike Sweetney, left, with Tamir Goodman on a trip to Israel in 2019. Courtesy of Tamir Goodman

Orthodox Jewish New Yorkers, who got to know Sweetney through his years teaching basketball at their schools, summer camps, synagogues and even birthday parties, remembered him in tributes Thursday as a humble mentor, a model of courage and a loyal friend in times of Jewish vulnerability.

Those early shooting sessions with Goodman, it turned out, had planted the seed for Sweetney’s post-NBA basketball endeavors, including a four-year stint at Yeshiva University, where he served as an assistant during the men’s team’s famous 50-game win streak.

“The world lost a giant today,” Elliot Steinmetz, Yeshiva’s head coach, wrote Thursday on X. “I lost a close friend. The basketball world lost a beloved star. Our Jewish community lost an ally and someone who knew exactly how to show up.”

Sweetney, who was 43, is survived by his wife, India, and three children.

A perfect matchup

Sweetney brought undeniable but understated starpower to the basketball-obsessed Orthodox community. That community’s embrace also helped Sweetney find purpose after his playing career and reignite his love for the game.

After starring at Georgetown, Sweetney was selected ninth by the Knicks in the 2003 NBA Draft — eight picks after LeBron James. But Sweetney’s career in the league lasted just four years, derailed by struggles with weight and depression that followed his father’s sudden death. (He later revealed he had contemplated suicide as a rookie.) He played another decade for pro teams in China and Latin America before washing out of the sport.

Sensing that his friend was in a bad place, Goodman invited Sweetney to Israel in 2019 to help with a basketball camp he had started.

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“I told him a lot of good things happen when you come to Israel,” Goodman said. During the visit, Sweetney opened up about the challenges he had been experiencing. Goodman suggested he go into coaching, and soon connected him with Steinmetz — a Knicks die-hard — who offered him a job.

“When Tamir called me about him, initially, I’m like, ‘Oh, cool, I get to talk to Mike Sweetney, that’ll be fun,’” Steinmetz said Thursday in an interview. “Once I spoke to him the first time, I’m like, ‘That’s just such a nice guy.”

A Yeshiva League staple

Sweetney’s entry into the world of Orthodox Jewish basketball, initiated by Goodman, helped facilitate his turnaround, transforming a point of professional failure into a source of inspiration for others.

A classic back-to-the-basket player in his day, Sweetney relished working with the Yeshiva forwards, who delighted in trying their post moves on a former NBA lottery pick.

“All the bigs’ favorite part of practice was going up against Mike,” recalled Gabriel Leifer, a team captain during Yeshiva’s win streak.

Sweetney was getting something out of the work, too. Those who worked with him up close could see his passion for the sport — which had become a dark place for him — coming back to life.

Sweetney signs autographs on Yeshiva’s home court. Courtesy of Elliot Steinmetz

Harold Katz, a coach who occasionally helped with the Yeshiva program, said that despite his NBA pedigree, Sweetney had no pretenses when it came to learning the school’s motion offense. Instead, he seemed to enjoy it. “He would always say it’s fun — like playing this way is fun.” Katz remembered. “He’d say, ‘I wish I played in this.’”

Sweetney told the New York Post in 2019 that the Jewish world had helped him find stability after basketball.

“I’m comfortable here. I’m treated well here. It’s been amazing,” he said at the time. “To be happy and be at peace, I would’ve been shocked. I wouldn’t have thought it was possible.”

The coaching roles — at Yeshiva and at Ramaz, an Orthodox high school where he coached the girls’ team — also helped Sweetney book speaking engagements and countless youth basketball clinics. He also became an advocate for Black-Jewish relations.

“It starts off that, ‘Oh my God, there’s this big NBA guy who’s at all the YU games,’” Steinmetz said, “but then people start talking to him and they fall in love with his personality because he’s just such a warm, caring guy.”

Driving to and from Yeshiva games over the years, Steinmetz and Sweetney grew close — a friendship that held even after the latter left Yeshiva in 2023 to work in the mental health arena.

The true testament to the kind of person Sweetney was, Steinmetz said, came after they stopped working together, on Oct. 7, 2023. Steinmetz was in Israel at the time; the first text message he received as the attacks were unfolding, he said, was from Sweetney.

“He’s like, ‘Please confirm for me that you’re okay,’” Steinmetz said. “Two days later: ‘Hey, did you get home yet?’ He just cared. He wasn’t checking a box — he cared.”

If you are in crisis, please call, text or chat with the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988, or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741.

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Sacred fasting meets Ozempic

Millions of people worldwide – as many as 1 in 8 adults in the U.S. – are on GLP-1 medication, such as Ozempic, Mounjaro, Wegovy and Zepbound, for treating diabetes or for weight loss.

These drugs are adding a medical twist to religious observances that involve fasting, such as the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, which will be observed from sundown on Sunday until nightfall on Monday. Traditionally, fasting on Yom Kippur means forgoing food and water for about 25 hours, which can strongly affect a person’s metabolism.

Other religious traditions include different types of fasts. For example, Muslims who fast during Ramadan neither eat nor drink from dawn to sunset, but they break their fast each night. Christian and Hindu traditions also include dry fasts as well as partial fasts, such as Lent and Navratri, in which people avoid certain foods.

As a specialist in obesity medicine, I work with many patients who take GLP-1 drugs. Most people can safely fast for Yom Kippur or other religious or cultural observances. But depending on their circumstances, they may need to plan ahead, take certain precautions and be clear on when it’s medically advised that they break their fast.

Common GLP-1 side effects and fasting

GLP-1 drugs such as Ozempic, Mounjaro, Wegovy and Zepbound mimic a natural gut hormone– glucagon-like peptide 1 – that lowers your blood sugar by triggering insulin release when your blood sugar is high. These drugs also slow how quickly food passes through the stomach, which reduces appetite to aid in weight loss.

GLP-1s have some common side effects that can occur in anyone taking them, including nausea, vomiting, dizziness, constipation and dehydration. Fasting may exacerbate them, especially in people who are prone to an upset stomach. GLP-1 side effects are also more common when a patient is increasing their dose, which usually happens monthly as tolerated until they reach their full dosage.

That’s why, if you’re planning to fast for Yom Kippur, it’s best to avoid starting a new GLP-1 medication or increasing the dose of your medication sooner than two weeks or so before the holiday.

GLP-1 drugs work by simulating a gut hormone produced in the body, spurring the release of insulin and slowing down digestion.

Timing your dose

If you take GLP-1 drugs as weekly injections, which is the most common way of dosing these medications, you should stick to your schedule even if you plan to fast. These drugs stay in your system during the entire week, so moving or skipping that weekly dose right before fasting can interfere with their effects on blood sugar or weight loss.

If your weekly injection falls on Yom Kippur, you can generally go ahead and administer it as scheduled. Some patients do report increased nausea on their injection day – if that happens to you, you may wish to delay the injection until after the fast, if you’ve cleared it with your doctor.

Patients who inject GLP-1 drugs daily may need to adjust the timing. For patients taking these medications for diabetes treatment, it may make sense to do the injection right before the meal that breaks the fast or to hold off until after the fast. This helps reduce the risk of stomach side effects, which can occur when these medications are taken on an empty stomach.

More recently, many patients have switched to oral GLP-1 medications. These pills must generally be taken on an empty stomach with a small amount of water, at a set time before taking any other drugs or any food or beverages.

Because fasting for Yom Kippur includes abstaining from drinking, taking the pill as directed may involve breaking the fast. That means you’ll need to decide in advance whether to take the medicine before the fast begins, after the fast ends or on an alternative schedule. It’s best to avoid simply skipping the daily dose scheduled for Yom Kippur and taking a double dose after the fast.

Skipping the dose won’t be harmful if you’re taking the medication for weight loss. But if you have diabetes, skipping it could dangerously elevate your blood sugar. And doubling the dose later could lead to serious side effects, such as pancreatitis, an inflammation of the pancreas that can lead to hospitalization.

Diabetes versus weight loss

If you’re using GLP-1 medications solely for weight management, fasting for 25 hours should not pose serious issues beyond stomach upset. In rare cases, though, combining these drugs with fasting can stress the pancreas enough to cause pancreatitis.

Fasting on GLP-1s carries the biggest risks for diabetic patients. That’s because GLP-1 medications are often used alongside other drugs that work primarily by lowering blood sugar, which raises patients’ overall risk of a blood sugar crash.

The greatest concern is in patients taking a GLP-1 medication together with insulin or drugs that stimulate insulin production, such as sulfonylureas. The GLP-1 medication itself may not cause a drop in blood sugar. But because it suppresses appetite and lowers glucose levels, these other medications can magnify the risk of low blood sugar during a prolonged fast.

If that’s your situation, talk to your doctor about whether you can adjust the timing, dose and type of insulin you take and reduce your dose of sulfonylurea in order to fast safely.

In general, people who have Type 1 diabetes or poorly controlled diabetes are strongly advised not to fast – as are people who:

  • Experience frequent or severe drops in blood sugar.
  • Have hypoglycemia unawareness – an absence of warning signs for high blood sugar.
  • Are managing diabetes during pregnancy.
  • Have severe kidney disease with a high risk of dehydration.
  • Experience severe gastrointestinal side effects from GLP-1 medications.
Not overeating along with drinking plenty of water beforehand is helpful for anyone fasting – but crucial for people on GLP-1 medications.

From prefast prep to the post-holiday meal

Regardless of what GLP-1 medication you take and for what indication, if you plan to fast you’ll need to do some pregaming, monitor how your fast is going and be mindful of how you break it.

  • First, if you are unsure about anything, talk to the clinician who is monitoring your GLP-1 drug treatment so you can decide together whether fasting is safe for you and whether your situation requires any special precautions.
  • Before fasting, it’s important to eat a normal meal that includes protein and to avoid both overeating and undereating. Overeating is never recommended when on GLP-1 medications, and undereating can set you up for more side effects during the fast. Although GLP-1 therapy can substantially reduce appetite, patients should avoid skipping the prefast meal entirely.
  • GLP-1 medications don’t just decrease appetite – they can also suppress the body’s natural thirst signals. So before your fast begins, aim to stay hydrated to prevent getting dehydrated while fasting.
  • If you are diabetic, make sure you fast under close guidance from your doctor – and make sure you are checking your blood sugar during fasting. Using a glucose monitor is a good idea, particularly if you are taking insulin or other glucose-lowering medications. The goal is for your blood sugar to remain within your usual daily nonfasting range.
  • Be ready to break your fast right away if you start feeling dizzy, confused, faint, nauseated or acutely ill, or if your blood sugar dips too low or spikes too high. These symptoms are dangerous and need to be addressed immediately. Stash a rapid source of carbohydrates – even just some glucose tablets or a few hard candies – within reach so you can access them quickly if needed.
  • Finally, plan a gentle, balanced meal to break the fast rather than an unusually large meal, which may provoke nausea, abdominal pain, reflux or vomiting. It’s generally best to avoid higher-fat foods, too, since they can slow down digestion.The Conversation

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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