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How Israel built its most talented baseball roster ever for the 2023 World Baseball Classic
MIAMI (JTA) — As Team Israel celebrated its victory over Nicaragua Sunday afternoon in its opening game of the 2023 World Baseball Classic, there was proof up and down the lineup card of a months-long recruitment process that brought together a slew of major league talent.
There was manager Ian Kinsler, a 14-year MLB veteran and four-time All-Star. Big league pitchers Dean Kremer, who started the game, plus Richard Bleier and Zack Weiss. All-Star slugger Joc Pederson, and major league catcher Garrett Stubbs, who drove in the winning run.
For Kinsler, who played a central role in putting the roster together, the victory served as validation — even if he didn’t know what some of the players actually looked like until they arrived in Miami.
“Knowing the names, and then finally seeing all the faces and everybody coming together and playing a good game yesterday was very rewarding,” Kinsler said Monday. “It was a lot of fun.”
Pulling the team together took a combination of personal cajoling, a widely respected manager, Jewish geography and an effort to tap — and ignite — the sometimes embryonic Jewish identities of players who hadn’t given much thought to how their Jewish roots and baseball prowess might be combined.
“There’s quite a few guys who really want to help Israel and feel Jewish and buy into it,” Team Israel general manager Peter Kurz told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “We evolve towards those players more — a player who says that he’s been to Israel, or that he’s connected to Israel. We definitely like to keep more than a player who was not connected at all, even though we try to go for the best athletes.”
The journey to assemble Team Israel, a 30-man roster composed largely of American Jewish ballplayers, half of whom have MLB experience, actually began back in 2021.
While playing for Israel’s 2020 Olympic team, Kinsler had conversations with Kurz and Israel Association of Baseball president Jordy Alter about managing the team in 2023.
“Once I developed the relationship with those two in the Olympics, it was a pretty easy decision,” Kinsler told JTA prior to the WBC. Kinsler had never managed a team before, at any level.
After he took the helm last June, Kinsler took a lead role in the team’s recruitment, working off a preliminary list of 50 players who were eligible to play for the team — meaning they were Jewish themselves, or the child or the grandchild of a Jew or married to one, and thus eligible for Israeli citizenship.
Kurz said Kinsler’s reputation around baseball was a key factor in offering him the job.
“There’s no doubt that Ian is one of the most respectable Jewish players that’s ever played the game before,” he said. “People respect him and they look up to him. Having experienced being in Israel twice, and playing for us in the Olympics, it just gives him that much more legitimization to talk to these players and ask them to come play for Team Israel.”
Kinsler is not the WBC’s only inexperienced manager who was chosen in part as a draw for players. Former players Mark DeRosa (United States), Mike Piazza (Italy) and Yadier Molina (Puerto Rico) are all managing, and Nelson Cruz is both a player on the Dominican Republic team and its general manager.
Ian Kinsler played for Team Israel at the Olympics in Tokyo after 14 MLB seasons. (Courtesy of JNF-USA)
As Kinsler began his recruitment, his first call was to Joc Pederson.
“It’s been an awesome experience,” Pederson told JTA. “I really enjoyed my time last time I played [in the 2012 WBC qualifier], and I wanted to do that again. Great group of guys.”
From there, Kurz said, he and Kinsler went down the list of Jewish major leaguers, calling each one to gauge their interest in representing Israel in the World Cup-style tournament. Given the timing of the WBC — just weeks before Major League Baseball’s Opening Day — it was largely a conversation about logistics.
“I think it wasn’t really necessarily the conversation about ‘Are you Jewish?’ Or ‘Are you eligible to play for Team Israel,’” Kinsler explained. “I think it was more of a conversation of ‘do you want to participate?’”
Pederson, who texted fellow big league players like Houston Astros star Alex Bregman and Milwaukee Brewers first baseman Rowdy Tellez (who is playing for Mexico), said health concerns and having enough time to get ready for the season were factors. New York Yankees players Harrison Bader and Scott Effross dropped out because of injuries.
And why did Pederson want to help recruit? It’s simple: “Because I like winning, and I want to win,” he said.
Israel hoped that having big-name players like Kinsler and Pederson lead the outreach efforts would pay off. While some of the game’s top Jewish stars ultimately did not join the team — namely Bregman and Atlanta Braves ace Max Fried — their work was far from fruitless, as this roster boasts the most major league experience Israel has ever had.
“I tried to get Peter to hold off as long as he could, so I could be the first one to get in touch with people,” Kinsler said. “Because I do think it helps hearing from a player.”
When making his calls, Kinsler said he shared his experience playing in the 2017 WBC with the U.S. team, plus “what kind of environment we’re trying to create for Israeli baseball.”
While navigating spring training schedules and injuries is certainly part of it, Kurz said there were many players who were excited for the opportunity to wear Israel across their jersey.
One of those players is Baltimore Orioles pitcher Dean Kremer, who was the first Israeli to be drafted into the MLB. Kremer, whose parents are Israeli, was born and raised in California, but has spent time living in Israel.
Dean Kremer pitches against Nicaragua in Israel’s first game of the 2023 World Baseball Classic, March 12, 2023, in Miami. (Courtesy Team Israel)
“Playing for Team Israel, anytime I get to put on that uniform is special for me,” Kremer said after pitching in Israel’s victory over Nicaragua. “It’s like another home. So every time I get to represent it’s one of the better feelings.”
Pederson added that the whole team “feels extremely proud.”
Ryan Lavarnway, a veteran catcher who has also played for Israel since 2017 and is seen as one of its leaders, has been vocal about how much it means to him to suit up for Israel.
“Playing for this team is super meaningful to me,” Lavarnway said after Israel’s exhibition game against the Miami Marlins. “It’s been really life changing. And I hope that this next generation of players that are new to this team takes the baton, and it means as much to them as it’s meant to us.”
One of those younger players is Toronto Blue Jays prospect Spencer Horwitz.
“Coming into this, I didn’t know what to really expect, this being my first time playing for Team Israel,” Horwitz said. “It’s living up to everything that people are saying. That environment we were just in was definitely electric.”
With reports of antisemitism on the rise in the United States, Kurz said players are more inclined to publicly identify as Jewish.
“I think a lot of these players feel, even more so, that they have to identify as being Jewish. Nobody’s trying to hide that at all,” he said.
Kurz added that Israel had an easier time recruiting top talent for the 2023 roster than in previous years, for a few reasons.
First, he said, both Team Israel and the WBC itself have gained in prominence over the past decade. For Israel, a surprising run in the 2017 WBC helped put Israeli baseball on the map, garnering excitement among both fans and potential players. And the WBC itself has grown more popular in the United States and around the world, with superstar players such as Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout suiting up for their ancestral countries, and MLB devoting more resources to marketing the tournament.
Geography also played a role. With most of the games being played in Miami, that allowed MLB players to more easily participate, as half the league has spring training in Florida.
When trying to discover Jewish players, there’s a certain element of word-of-mouth Jewish geography that comes into play, too. No player encapsulates that better than Ty Kelly.
“It’s easy to get the Cohens and the Levys. It’s more difficult to get the Ty Kellys,” Kurz said.
Ty Kelly bats during Israel’s exhibition game against the Miami Marlins, March 8, 2023 in Jupiter, Florida. (Emma Sharon/MLB)
Kurz recalled that about seven years ago, he heard from someone on Long Island who had taken his kids to a minor league game. Kelly was signing autographs and spotted the kids’ kippahs and told them he was Jewish. They told their father, who in turn told Kurz.
“And the rest was history,” Kurz said. Kelly, who has played for Israel since the 2017 WBC, has become another one of the team’s leaders. After this WBC, he will begin his coaching career in the Seattle Mariners organization.
The WBC’s eligibility rules also allowed Israel some flexibility in recruiting. Outfielder Alex Dickerson, for example, is not Jewish, but his wife is.
“This is about creating the best team possible within the rules,” Kinsler said.
Creating the best team also meant creating a strong coaching staff.
Kinsler recruited former Israel manager Brad Ausmus, who was Kinsler’s manager in the big leagues, and former All-Star and fan favorite Kevin Youkilis, the former Boston Red Sox first baseman.
“It was easy,” Youkilis said of his decision to join the team. “Being part of this is part of my heritage, part of growing up Jewish and being bar mitzvahed and all that. It was an easy yes.”
Youkilis, who retired in 2014, said coaching full-time isn’t in the cards for him, but he’s enjoying the experience right now.
“It’s remarkable how good a talent we have, a collective Jewish group of ballplayers that when I was growing up probably wasn’t that strong,” he said. “It’s good to see the next generation of ballplayers, and to be a coach, and to witness it and be around and help guys.”
While this team, and its coaches, is largely a group of American Jews, the uniform says Israel. Even with the fraught political climate in Israel, which is experiencing an uptick in violence and widespread protests over the country’s far-right government and its controversial judicial proposals, both Kurz and Kinlser said politics were not a factor for any player.
“I don’t think in general athletes are too scared of those types of things,” Kinsler said.
Kurz added that leading up to the WBC, numerous players reached out to ask questions and gain a better understanding of the current situation in Israel. But nobody expressed hesitation about identifying with the country. (There have not been protests or anti-Israel demonstrations, as there have been at times in the past when Team Israel plays in the United States and abroad.)
“They’re definitely interested, they want to know what’s going on,” Kurz said. “They want to know who they’re playing for.”
Kelly, who was part of those types of discussions in the clubhouse with the Olympic team, said the players are keeping an eye on the news, but they haven’t had many conversations about it yet.
“I think it’s sort of the nature of the team, having a lot of new guys and people not really knowing what their roles are supposed to be, as far as talking about that stuff, or what their opinions are supposed to be,” Kelly said. “I think that happens as guys get to know each other more.”
Building camaraderie was also a priority for the team. Prior to the tournament, Israel held a private screening of the new documentary “Israel Swings for Gold,” which followed the team’s Olympic experience in Tokyo.
Kinsler said that while the event was not mandatory, he encouraged players to attend.
“I think that’ll be a great bonding experience for us, and something that other teams don’t really have the luxury of using as motivation or bringing togetherness,” Kinsler said beforehand. “That could be an advantage for us.”
And with a tough draw in Pool D, which pits Israel against top teams including the Dominican Republic, Venezuela and Puerto Rico, Israel will need any advantage it can get.
But Israel is no stranger to being the underdog. In fact, the team relishes it.
“We’re certainly the David against the Goliath of the baseball world. But you know, we love it,” Kurz said.
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The post How Israel built its most talented baseball roster ever for the 2023 World Baseball Classic appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Pope Leo Condemns Antisemitism, Says Church Must Fight Against It ‘On the Basis of the Gospel Itself’
Pope Leo XIV leads the Angelus prayer in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, July 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Yara Nardi TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday condemned antisemitism and affirmed the Catholic Church’s commitment to combating hatred and persecution against the Jewish people, arguing his faith demands such a stance.
Speaking in St. Pete’s Square at the Vatican for his weekly “general audience,” the pontiff acknowledged the 60th anniversary of Nostra Aetate, a declaration from the Second Vatican Council and promulgated on Oct. 28, 1965, by Pope Paul VI that called for dialogue and respect between Christianity and other religions.
Since the publication of Nostra Aetate, “all my predecessors have condemned antisemitism with clear words,” Leo said. “I too confirm that the Church does not tolerate antisemitism and fights against it, on the basis of the Gospel itself.”
“This luminous document teaches us to meet the followers of other religions not as outsiders, but as travelling companions on the path of truth; to honor differences affirming our common humanity; and to discern, in every sincere religious search, a reflection of the one divine mystery that embraces all creation,” Leo continued.
He then added that the primary focus of Nostra Aetate was toward the Jewish people, explaining that Pope John XXIII, who preceded Paul VI, intended to “re-establish the original relationship.”
Representatives from other faiths including rabbis, imams, and Buddhist monks attended Wednesday’s gathering. Leo thanked them for joining him and acknowledged that “we cannot deny that there have been misunderstandings, difficulties, and conflicts” in the previous 60 years.
“Even today, we must not allow political circumstances and the injustices of some to divert us from friendship, especially since we have achieved so much so far,” Leo said. “More than ever, our world needs our unity, our friendship and our collaboration.”
Leo added that “each one of our religions can contribute to alleviating human suffering and taking care of our common home, our planet Earth.”
The pontiff also addressed Jewish-Catholic relations specifically.
“Today we can look with gratitude at everything that has been achieved in Jewish-Catholic dialogue during these six decades,” he said. “This is due not only to human effort, but to the assistance of our God who, according to Christian conviction, is dialogue itself.”
Leo described how through Nostra Aetate, “for the first time in the history of the Church, a doctrinal treatise on the Jewish roots of Christianity was to take shape, which on a biblical and theological level would represent a point of no return.” He said that the origins of the Catholic Church “are found already among the Patriarchs, Moses, and the prophets.”
Jewish leaders have expressed optimism for interfaith relations under Leo’s leadership.
Rabbi Noam Marans, director of interreligious affairs at the American Jewish Committee (AJC), told The Algemeiner in May that “his remarks to the Jewish people have actually been extraordinary.”
At the time, just after being elected to the papacy, Leo met with Jewish leaders and other faith representatives at the Vatican. “Because of the Jewish roots of Christianity, all Christians have a special relationship with Judaism,” he said during the meeting. “Even in these difficult times, marked by conflicts and misunderstandings, it is necessary to continue the momentum of this precious dialogue of ours.”
Before the beginning of Leo’s pontificate, Israeli-Vatican relations had come under strain due to the late Pope Francis’s statements about the war to defeat Hamas in Gaza, including his suggestion that the Jewish state was committing genocide.
“According to some experts what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide. It should be carefully investigated to determine whether it fits into the technical definition formulated by jurists and international bodies,” Francis said.
In his Wednesday speech, Leo stated, “Together, we must be vigilant against the abuse of the name of God, of religion, and of dialogue itself, as well as against the dangers posed by religious fundamentalism and extremism.”
“Our spiritual and cultural differences are called to encounter one another and to live together fraternally,” the pontiff added.
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Cuomo dominates Jewish vote in final Quinnipiac poll before election
Andrew Cuomo has consolidated all of Eric Adams’ Jewish support in the final days of the mayoral campaign, while Zohran Mamdani’s share of the Jewish vote has slipped, according to a new Quinnipiac poll, the last one before Tuesday’s election.
The survey of 170 likely Jewish voters — representing 18% of the overall sample of 911 voters in the general election for New York City Mayor — conducted October 23 through October 27, shows Cuomo with 60% of their support and Mamdani, a democratic socialist and strident critic of Israel, with 16%. Curtis Sliwa, the Republican nominee, has the support of 12%. The poll, conducted via landline and cellphone, has a reported margin of error of plus or minus 9.2%.
Among all voters, Cuomo is still trailing Mamdani 43% to 33%, according to the same poll.
In the September poll conducted before Adams dropped out of the race and endorsed Cuomo, the incumbent mayor had the support of 42% of Jewish voters, while Cuomo and Mamdani each drew about 20%.
Jews make up an estimated 10% of the general election electorate. Mamdani’s positions on Israel have roiled New York’s Jewish community — the largest outside of Israel — as he courted them for support. The Democratic nominee faced scrutiny for refusing to outright condemn the slogan “globalize the intifada,” hesitating to celebrate the Gaza ceasefire and release of the last living hostages, vowing to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he visits New York, and saying he doesn’t recognize Israel as a Jewish state. He is the first major-party nominee to pledge public support for the movement to boycott Israel.
The poll found that 75% of Jewish voters view Mamdani unfavorably, while just 15% hold a positive opinion of him. Half of Jewish voters also view Cuomo negatively, indicating that much of his support stems from opposition to Mamdani rather than personal enthusiasm. Only 39% of Jews view Cuomo favorably.
The post Cuomo dominates Jewish vote in final Quinnipiac poll before election appeared first on The Forward.
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Hamas Support Grows Among Palestinians as Poll Shows Backing for Armed Struggle, Doubts Over US Peace Plan
Hamas fighters on Feb. 22, 2025. Photo: Majdi Fathi via Reuters Connect
Support for Hamas appears to be rising among Palestinians, according to a new poll, with growing numbers expressing confidence in the terrorist group’s leadership and its ability to govern after the war with Israel, as ceasefire violations threaten to derail the US-backed peace plan.
On Tuesday, the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR), a West Bank-based independent research institute, released a new representative poll revealing that 60 percent of Palestinians (66 percent in the West Bank and 51 percent in Gaza) are “satisfied with Hamas’s “performance in the current war.”
Despite Hamas’s escalating crackdown and violence on Gazans, the poll found that support for the Islamist group, which has ruled the enclave for nearly two decades, has actually grown over the course of the two-year conflict — with 19 percent of respondents saying their support increased significantly and another 17 percent saying it rose slightly.
By comparison, 18 percent of Palestinians said its support for Hamas was big and has not changed, while 16 percent responded it did not support the group before and its opposition has not changed. Meanwhile, 12 percent said its support for Hamas decreased a little, and 10 percent said its support for Hamas has decreased a lot.
“The conclusion from these numbers is that the past two years have led to greater support for Hamas rather than the opposite and that this conclusion is true in both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, but more so in the former,” the poll stated.
While such polling is among the best available data to gauge Palestinian public opinion, analysts have warned to view them with a dose of skepticism. In August, the Israeli military uncovered documents indicating that Hamas had been manipulating polling data from Gaza to inflate support for the Oct. 7 attacks and mask the group’s true level of backing.
Shortly after the US-backed ceasefire to halt fighting in Gaza took effect earlier this month, Hamas moved to reassert control over the war-torn enclave and consolidate its weakened position by targeting Palestinians who it labeled as “lawbreakers and collaborators with Israel.”
In recent weeks, Hamas’s brutal crackdown has escalated dramatically, sparking widespread clashes and violence as the group moves to seize weapons and eliminate any opposition.
Social media videos widely circulated online show Hamas members brutally beating Palestinians and carrying out public executions of alleged collaborators and rival militia members.
According to PCPSR’s recent poll, if legislative elections were held today, 44 percent of participating voters would back Hamas, while 30 percent would support Fatah, the Palestinian Authority (PA)’s ruling party.
In a presidential race between Khaled Meshaal, head of Hamas’s political wing, and PA President Mahmoud Abbas, 63 percent of respondents who would actually vote indicated they would support the Hamas candidate, while 27 percent would choose the PA leader.
The poll also revealed a sharp decline in Abbas’s support among Gazans, with 80 percent calling for his resignation and over half accusing him of corruption.
The results of a new Palestinian public opinion survey have just been released by the PCPSR. Here are some of the key takeaways:
Overall, 53% of Palestinians say the decision by Hamas to launch the October 7 attack was correct.
— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) October 28, 2025
As for the war in Gaza, 62 percent of Palestinians do not believe that US President Donald Trump’s peace plan will succeed in ending the conflict once and for all.
A majority of Palestinians — 70 percent — are also skeptical that Trump’s plan will lead to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state within the next five years.
The poll further revealed that more than half of Gazans (53 percent) oppose the concept of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
While 49 percent of Palestinians oppose the US-backed ceasefire deal, PCPSR’s survey found that most support Hamas’s response and its role in the ongoing negotiations.
Following phase one of the deal, Hamas is supposed to disarm and have no future leadership role in Gaza, according to Trump’s 20-point peace plan. However, disarmament and other unresolved issues will be subject to negotiations.
As part of the plan, an international task force involving regional powers is expected to oversee the ceasefire and train local security forces.
According to PCPSR’s poll, nearly 70 percent of Palestinians (almost 80 percent in the West Bank and 55 percent in Gaza) oppose Hamas’s disarmament, saying it would not help achieve peace, while 68 percent are against the deployment of an armed Arab force from regional countries within the enclave.
A majority of 53 percent also opposed the proposal to create a Palestinian committee of professionals, independent of the PA and Hamas, to manage Gaza’s internal affairs.
When asked about the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which triggered the current war, 53 percent of Palestinians said Hamas’s decision to carry out the assault was correct.
More than 80 percent of respondents also said Hamas has not committed the atrocities depicted in videos shown by international media, including the killing of children and the rape of women in their homes.
PCPSR’s poll found that nearly half of Palestinians (49 percent in the West Bank and 30 percent in Gaza) view “armed struggle” as the most effective way to end what they call “the Israeli occupation” and achieve an independent Palestinian state. The rest chose either negotiations or “popular peaceful resistance.”