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Team Israel is playing in the 2023 World Baseball Classic. Here’s what to watch for.

(JTA) — The fifth edition of the World Baseball Classic is just days away, as players and fans across the globe prepare for two weeks of competition beginning on Wednesday.

Jewish fans may remember that Israel took the WBC by storm in 2017, winning four straight games as an underdog and advancing to the second round before being eliminated by Japan.

Team Israel is back for the 2023 WBC, with more current MLB talent on its roster than ever. It will also face its toughest competition yet.

First held in 2006, the WBC is a quadrennial World Cup-style international tournament that has exploded in popularity in recent years. The COVID-19 pandemic postponed the event in 2021.

Ian Kinsler, Israel’s manager and a retired four-time MLB All-Star, is feeling good about his team’s chances. He played for Israel in the 2020 Olympics, and won the WBC with Team USA in 2017.

“In baseball, anything can happen,” Kinsler told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “This isn’t a five-game or seven-game series. This is one game [at a time], and if we can put together a really solid game, solid nine innings against these other teams, we have just as good a chance as anybody. I know the guys are fired up and ready to go and compete, so it’s going to be a lot of fun.”

Read on for a guide to who’s starring on Team Israel, who the team will play and more on how the tournament works.

Join JTA’s Jewish Sport Report online and in Miami on March 9 for Jews on First: A Celebration at the World Baseball Classic. The panel conversation will feature ESPN’s Jeff Passan, former Team Israel player Jonathan de Marte and other Jewish baseball insiders. 

Who is playing this year, and how did they qualify?

The Dominican Republic plays Italy at Marlins Park on March 12, 2013 in Miami, Florida. (Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)

The 2023 WBC will feature 20 teams — up from 16 in 2017 — split into four divisions (or pools) that will play in four venues: Tokyo, Phoenix, Miami and Taichung, a city of nearly 3 million in Taiwan.

Two teams from each of the four pools will advance to a single elimination bracket including quarterfinals, semifinals and a championship, all of which will be held in Miami. The first round runs from March 8 to 15, with the elimination round following immediately after. The championship game will be March 21.

Fans will not be surprised to see countries such as the United States, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela on the list — those three account for about 90% of MLB players. But there are a few less obvious countries that have qualified, including Israel.

Here are the four groups and where they will play the first round.

Pool A (Taichung): Chinese Taipei (Taiwan), Cuba, Italy, Netherlands, Panama
Pool B (Tokyo): Australia, China, Czech Republic, Japan, South Korea
Pool C: (Phoenix): Canada, Colombia, Great Britain, Mexico, United States
Pool D (Miami): Dominican Republic, Israel, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, Venezuela

The qualification rules have changed multiple times over the years. For this year’s tournament, all 16 teams from 2017 automatically qualified, including Israel. The final four teams (Great Britain, Czech Republic, Panama and Nicaragua) earned a spot through a 12-team, two-pool qualifying tournament last fall.

Who is on Team Israel?

Joc Pederson was an MLB All-Star in 2022. (Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)

Team Israel is arguably the best embodiment of the WBC’s unique eligibility rules. To play in the WBC, a player does not need to have been born in or be an official citizen of the country he is playing for (as is the case in the Olympics). Simply being eligible for citizenship in a given country is enough.

So any person eligible for Israeli citizenship can play for Team Israel. Under Israel’s Law of Return, anyone with at least one Jewish grandparent is eligible for citizenship, as are the children and spouses of Jews.

In practical terms, these rules have meant that Israel’s baseball team, at least in international competitions, has historically been composed of mostly American Jews. Native Israelis are still adopting the sport, which lags far behind soccer and basketball there in popularity. But Israel’s success on the international stage has helped raise the game’s profile.

The difference this time around is the wealth of professional talent on Team Israel’s roster. In fact, it boasts the most major league talent it has ever had: half of the roster has MLB experience.

The best-known players on Israel’s roster are All-Star outfielder Joc Pederson, who slugged 23 home runs and 70 runs batted in last year; American-Israeli pitcher Dean Kremer, who posted a stellar 3.23 earned run average as a starting pitcher for the Baltimore Orioles in 2022; and veteran reliever Richard Bleier, who had a 3.55 ERA for the Miami Marlins last season.

Big leaguers Scott Effross and Harrison Bader, both members of the New York Yankees, had planned to play for Israel but dropped out due to injuries. Outfielder Kevin Pillar was previously rumored to be on the team but did not appear on the final roster. (Chicago White Sox ace Dylan Cease, whose father is Jewish, was also on the team’s initial list of possible players.)

Here is the full 30-man roster, with their current playing level — Triple-A being the top rung of the minor leagues, Single-A being the lowest.

Starting pitchers: Brandon Gold (Triple-A), Colton Gordon (Single-A), Dean Kremer (Baltimore Orioles), Robert Stock (Triple-A)
Relief pitchers: Jake Bird (Colorado Rockies), Richard Bleier (Boston Red Sox), Daniel Federman (Single-A), Jake Fishman (Triple-A), Andrew Gross (Double-A), Rob Kaminsky (free agent), Evan Kravetz (Double-A), Kyle Molnar (free agent), Bubby Rosman (free agent), Jacob Steinmetz (Arizona Diamondbacks organization), Joey Wagman (free agent), Zack Weiss (Los Angeles Angels), Josh Wolf (Single-A)
Outfielders: Alex Dickerson (free agent), Jakob Goldfarb (free agent), Spencer Horwitz (Triple-A), Joc Pederson (San Francisco Giants)
Infielders: Zack Gelof (Triple-A), Ty Kelly (free agent), Assaf Lowengart (College of William & Mary), Noah Mendlinger (Single-A), Matt Mervis (Triple-A), Danny Valencia (retired from MLB), Michael Wielansky (free agent)
Catchers: Ryan Lavarnway (free agent), Garrett Stubbs (Philadelphia Phillies)

Teams can also add relievers if they advance past the first round. For Israel, those extras are: Jake Kalish (Triple-A), Alex Katz (free agent), Adam Kolarek (Los Angeles Dodgers organization), Jake Miednik (Single-A) and Israeli Shlomo Lipetz.

Israel’s big-league experience extends to its coaching staff, too. Along with Kinsler as manager, Israel will have former MLB and Team Israel manager Brad Ausmus and former All-Star Kevin Youkilis in the dugout, along with veteran coach Jerry Narron.

How has Israel fared previously?

Israel team players celebrate their victory against the Netherlands after their first round game of the World Baseball Classic in Seoul, March 9, 2017. (Jung Yeon-Je/AFP via Getty Images)

This WBC will be Israel’s second. Israel was not part of the 2006 or 2009 tournaments, and though it did play in qualifying for 2013, it did not make the cut. Israel’s 2012 qualifying team included Ausmus as manager and a young Pederson in the outfield.

In 2017, Israel entered the tournament as underdogs after sweeping the qualifying tournament in September 2016. ESPN called the team “the Jamaican bobsled team of the WBC.”

With their trusty Mensch on the Bench mascot, Israel won its first four games, sweeping the first round, including a 2-1 victory over the host country of South Korea. Israel also defeated Chinese Taipei and the Netherlands, and they opened Round 2 by beating Cuba.

The proverbial Hanukkah oil seemed to run out there. Israel lost 12-2 to the Netherlands and 8-3 to Japan in the second round, ending its Cinderella run with a sixth-place tournament finish.

Catcher Ryan Lavarnway earned Pool A MVP honors, and pitcher Josh Zeid was named to the All-WBC team after the tournament.

In the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, played in the summer of 2021 because of COVID-19, Israel finished in fifth place, beating Mexico 12-5 in its lone victory.

Who is Israel playing, and what should fans expect?

Members of Team Israel react with dismay as a player from the Dominican Republic hits a game-winning single to knock Israel’s baseball team out of competition in the Tokyo Olympics, Aug. 3, 2021. (Yuichi Masuda/Getty)

Israel is in Pool D, which features some of the world’s best teams.

Here is Israel’s WBC schedule (All times EST.).

Sunday, March 12 at 12 p.m.: Israel vs. Nicaragua
Monday, March 13 at 7 p.m.: Israel vs. Puerto Rico
Tuesday, March 14 at 7 p.m.: Israel vs. Dominican Republic
Wednesday, March 15 at 12 p.m.: Israel vs. Venezuela

Before the tournament, Israel will also play two exhibition games against MLB teams, part of MLB’s effort to raise awareness for the WBC. Israel will face the Miami Marlins on March 8 and the Washington Nationals on March 9;  the late Nationals owner Ted Lerner will be honored at the game.

Once the WBC begins for Israel on March 12, the team will face many of Major League Baseball’s top players, including Francisco Lindor and Edwin Diaz for Puerto Rico; Ronald Acuña Jr. and Jose Altuve for Venezuela; and a truly stacked Dominican team that features Juan Soto, Manny Machado, Rafael Devers and reigning National League Cy Young winner Sandy Alcantara.

On paper, Israel is outmatched by its competition. But as Kinsler points out, “at the end of the day, baseball comes down to execution.” And if 2017 is any indication, opponents should never count Team Israel out.


The post Team Israel is playing in the 2023 World Baseball Classic. Here’s what to watch for. appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

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Popular Right-Wing YouTuber Under Fire After Supporting Probe to ‘Expose’ Jewish ‘Invasion’ of New Jersey

Nick Shirley speaks during a roundtable on antifa, an anti-fascist movement US President Donald Trump designated a domestic "terrorist organization" via executive order on Sept. 22, at the White House in Washington, DC, US, Oct. 8, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

Nick Shirley speaks during a roundtable on antifa, an anti-fascist movement US President Donald Trump designated a domestic “terrorist organization” via executive order on Sept. 22, at the White House in Washington, DC, US, Oct. 8, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

American social media personality Nick Shirley, a 23-year-old YouTuber known for his controversial investigative videos, has drawn scrutiny after endorsing a “documentary” about a supposed “Jewish invasion.”

Shirley reposted a message from fellow content creator Tyler Oliveira promoting a 73-minute video claiming to expose a “Jewish invasion” of New Jersey. Oliveira also included a graphic appearing to show Orthodox Jews causing destruction and threatening non-Jews.

In his repost on the X social media platform, Shirley wrote “EXPOSE IT ALL,” a phrase that drew attention over his apparent call to target New Jersey’s Jewish community.

The endorsement came one day after Shirley attend the 2026 State of the Union address as the guest of Republican US Rep. Pete Stauber of Minnesota.

The “documentary” itself focuses on a narrative about Orthodox Jewish communities in New Jersey, including local disputes over welfare and land use. In the film, Oliviera depicts the state’s Jewish community as exploiting the legal system to divert funding from public schools to private Jewish schools and using political leverage to exploit the local non-Jewish community.

Oliveria has an extensive video library in which he posts lengthy documentaries characterizing the presence of local minority communities as “invasions.” In January, he posted a 22-minute video detailing the supposed “invasion” of Indian immigrants into Canada. 

Shirley, a popular right-wing political commentator and self-described investigative journalist, first gained widespread attention in late 2025 after posting a video alleging widespread fraud at Somali-run childcare centers and similar facilities in Minnesota. The video, which received millions of views on social media, led to national debate and political action including the temporary suspension of certain federal funding. 

Upon the release of the investigation, Shirley’s national profile surged dramatically. His video was shared by Elon Musk and US Vice President JD Vance.

“This dude has done far more useful journalism than any of the winners of the 2024 @pulitzercenter prizes,” Vance wrote on X while sharing the video.

Despite the video’s viral success, independent factchecking and state agency records later showed that elements of Shirley’s Minnesota report were either incorrect or lacked sufficient evidence for the claims he made. At least two of the Minnesota facilities featured in his video had been closed for some time, and state officials have not confirmed the specific fraud allegations presented in the video.

Unlike the video focused on Minnesota, the video featuring Jewish families did not uncover any systemic pattern of fraudulent activity, raising questions over the motive of the purported investigation.

Shirley’s call to “expose” the Jewish community of New Jersey comes at a time when, according to recent polling, young Republicans have increasingly embraced antisemitism and conspiracy theories.

Earlier this month, for example, a new survey by Irwin Mansdorf, a fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, and Charles Jacobs, president of the Jewish Leadership Project, found that 45 percent of Republicans under the age of 44 said Jews pose a threat to the “American way of life.”

In December, the Manhattan Institute, a prominent US-based think tank, released a major poll showing that younger Republican voters are much less supportive of Israel and more likely to express antisemitic views than their older cohorts.

According to the data, 25 percent of Republicans under 50 openly express antisemitic views as opposed to just 4 percent over the age of 50.

Startlingly, a substantial amount, 37 percent, of GOP voters indicate belief in Holocaust denialism. These figures are more pronounced among young men under 50, with a majority, 54 percent, agreeing that the Holocaust “was greatly exaggerated or did not happen as historians describe.” Among men over 50, 41 percent agree with the sentiment.

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Jewish Advocacy Groups Sue California Over K-12 Antisemitism

Students from Encinal High School and St. Joseph Notre Dame High School in Alameda, California, participating in anti-Israel demonstration on Jan 26. 2024: Photo: Michael Ho Wai Lee / SOPA Images via Reuters Connect

A coalition of leading Jewish advocacy organizations is suing the state of California for allegedly failing to address “systemic” antisemitic discrimination in K-12 public schools.

Led by the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and StandWithUs, the legal action stems from consecutive years of antisemitic abused perpetrated against Jewish students, parents, and teachers by anti-Zionists at every level of the school system. Court documents shared with The Algemeiner earlier this week revealed new, harrowing accusations of Jews being called “k—kes,” Jewish students being threatened with gang assaults, and K-12 students chanting “F—k the Jews” during anti-Israel demonstrations promoted by faculty.

In one highly disturbing incident described in the legal complaint, fifth graders from the Oakland Unified School District were filmed by the teacher saying “Another major thing that I’ve learned is that the Jews, the people who took over, basically just stole the Palestinians’ land” and “one thing that’s really surprising to me, and that appeals to me is that the US is helping the Jews.” In another incident, the Oakland Education Association confected a curriculum in which the intifada — two prolonged periods of terrorism in which Palestinians murdered Israeli civilians — was taught to third graders as a nursery rhyme.

“The California education system is teaching the state’s children that Jewish Americans and Israelis are racists, white supremacists, oppressors, and baby-killers who should be shunned,” Brandeis Center chairman and former US assistant secretary of education for civil rights Kenneth Marcus said in a statement on Thursday. “The result is not surprising: Jewish children and children perceived as Jewish are bullied and excluded by their peers and harassed by their teachers, who silence, mock, and even segregate them if they speak out. School officials have done little or nothing at all to help these children.”

Litigation related to antisemitic incidents in California K-12 schools surged following Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, which triggered a barrage of antisemitic hate crimes throughout the US and the world. The list of outrages includes a student group chanting “Kill the Jews” during an anti-Israel protest and partisan activists smuggling far-left, anti-Zionist content into classrooms without clearing the content with parents and other stakeholders.

Elsewhere in California, K-12 antisemitism has caused severe psychological trauma to Jewish students as young as eight years old and fostered a hostile learning environment, according to complaints

In the Berkeley United School District (BUSD), teachers have allegedly used their classrooms to promote antisemitic stereotypes about Israel, weaponizing disciplines such as art and history to convince unsuspecting minors that Israel is a “settler-colonial” apartheid state committing a genocide of Palestinians. While this took place, high level BUSD officials were accused of ignoring complaints about discrimination and tacitly approving hateful conduct even as it spread throughout the student body.

At Berkeley High School, for example, a history teacher forced students to explain why Israel is an apartheid state and screened an anti-Zionist documentary, according to a lawsuit filed last year by the Brandeis Center and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). The teacher allegedly squelched dissent, telling a Jewish student who raised concerns about the content of her lessons that only anti-Zionist narratives matter in her classroom and that any other which argues that Israel isn’t an apartheid state is “laughable.” Elsewhere in the school, an art teacher, whose name is redacted from the complaint for matters of privacy, displayed anti-Israel artworks in his classroom, one of which showed a fist punching through a Star of David.

In September 2023, the Brandeis Center, along with the ADL and the American Jewish Committee (AJC), sued the Santa Clara Unified School District (SCUSD) in California for concealing from the public its adoption of ethnic studies curricula containing antisemitic and anti-Zionist themes. Then last February, the school district paused implementation of the program to settle the lawsuit. One month later, the Brandeis Center, StandWithUs, and the ADL filed a civil rights complaint accusing the Etiwanda School District in San Bernardino County, California, of doing nothing after a 12-year-old Jewish girl was assaulted, having been beaten with stick, on school grounds and teased with jokes about Adolf Hitler.

“Jews consistently are being targeted with hostility because of who they are, including in California and particularly in K-12 public schools. This lawsuit seeks to remedy that,” StandWithUs chief executive officer Roz Rothstein said in Thursday’s press release. “It is imperative that California K-12 schools not be co-opted by those seeking to indoctrinate students into antisemitic hate. However, Jewish students and parents indicate that this is precisely what is happening in California. Shockingly, those tasked with enforcing non-discrimination laws in our schools have failed to intervene effectively to put a stop to this growing problem.”

She added, “This lawsuit was necessitated by that systemic failure and seeks to ensure, going forward, that California’s Jewish students are protected and have access to an education free from discrimination.”

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

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Jewish Olympic Gold Medalist Jack Hughes Honored by New Jersey Devils as NHL Season Resumes

Jan 23, 2026; Vancouver, British Columbia, CAN; New Jersey Devils forward Jack Hughes (86) handles the puck against the Vancouver Canucks in the first period at Rogers Arena. Mandatory Photo: Bob Frid-Imagn Images via Reuters

Jewish Olympic hockey player Jack Hughes was honored by his team the New Jersey Devils on Wednesday night before their loss to the Buffalo Sabres in Newark.

Ahead of the game, the Devils showed on the Jumbotron a video of Hughes, 24, scoring the overtime goal that secured the United States its 2-1 victory and gold medal over Canada on Sunday in the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics. Hughes lost a few teeth during the game when he took a high stick to the mouth from Canada’s Sam Bennett during the third period. The win marked the first time a US men’s hockey team had won gold at the Olympics since a 1980 victory against the former Soviet Union.

“I’m so proud and so happy that the men’s and women’s USA hockey teams brought gold medals back to America,” Hughes told the crowd in a pre-game speech on Wednesday given from the ice, while he held back tears. “And I’m so proud to represent the New Jersey Devils organization and to represent the great state of New Jersey. From the bottom of my heart, all of my [Team] USA teammates, we want to thank you for all the love and support. We feel it. Thank you.”

The Devils center — whose mother is Jewish while his father is Catholic — arrived in New Jersey late Tuesday night after US President Donald Trump recognized him and his Olympic teammates in the State of the Union address. Hughes played Wednesday night as Buffalo won for the seventh time in 10 games, 2-1, on goals from US Olympian Tage Thompson and Peyton Krebs. The NHL restarted its season on Wednesday after taking a break due to the Olympic Games in Milan.

On Thursday, before the New Jersey Devils took on the Pittsburgh Penguins at PPG Paints Arena, Hughes received a standing ovation as the Penguins honored athletes who represented their countries at the 2026 Winter Olympics.

Earlier in the week, the popular Hobby’s Delicatessen & Restaurant located blocks away from Newark’s Prudential Center, which is home to the New Jersey Devils, named a sandwich after Hughes. The owners said “Jack’s Golden Goal Sandwich,” which features roast beef and “golden sauteed onions” on a soft roll, is “so tender, you don’t need teeth.”

Trump announced during Tuesday night’s State of the Union that Connor Hellebuyck, the goaltender for the US men’s Olympic hockey team that won gold, will be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Hellebuyck made 41 saves in the Olympic game against Canada on Sunday and also assisted on the overtime goal by Hughes that led to the team’s gold medal win.

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