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The Jewish Sport Report: How a Jewish football star changed Harvard

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Good afternoon, sports fans!

It’s been an exciting month for Jewish athletes across sports — from last week’s Jewish pitching duel to Jewish brothers on the NHL’s biggest stage.

But one of the biggest stories in sports right now is the NBA Playoffs, which have been riveting. All four semifinal series have reached Game 6, with the Boston-Philadelphia series headed to Game 7 this weekend. The Lakers-Warriors matchup offers a cinematic face-off between all-time greats LeBron James and Steph Curry.

It’s safe to say that Hanukkah came early for NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, who is no doubt pleased with the big market matchups. And since the NBA Finals run through mid-June, the oil isn’t running out anytime soon.

How Arnold Horween changed Harvard — and America

The new book “Dyed in Crimson” shares the story of Harvard football captain and coach Arnold Horween, right, shown here with his brother Ralph. (Book cover courtesy of Zev Eleff, Horween photo via Wikimedia Commons)

The 1920s were not an easy time for American Jews.

But over in Harvard Yard, one unsung Jewish hero was quietly changing the culture of American sports.

Arnold Horween, a burly Chicagoan and the son of Jewish immigrants from Ukraine, was unanimously selected as the captain of the Harvard Crimson football team in 1920, and after a few years playing and coaching in the NFL, he would return to Harvard as head coach in 1926.

“In American Jewish culture, the only thing greater than being the captain of the Harvard Crimson, the only higher station in American culture might have been the president, or the coach of Harvard, which he eventually becomes,” said Zev Eleff, the president of Gratz College and a scholar of American Jewish history.

Eleff explored Horween’s story and its impact in his recent book, “Dyed in Crimson: Football, Faith, and Remaking Harvard’s America.” He traces the history of Harvard athletics in the early 1900s, exploring how Horween altered the landscape of America’s most prestigious college.

I chatted with Eleff about his book, Horween’s legacy and how he fits into the pantheon of American Jewish sports history.

Halftime report

EASY, YEEZY. Months after Adidas cut ties with rapper Kanye West over his antisemitic tirades, the sportswear company has finally decided what to do with its enormous stockpile of West’s signature Yeezy shoes. Adidas said it would sell the parts and donate the proceeds to charity, including organizations “that were also hurt by Kanye’s statements.”

GET YOUR HOT DOGS HERE. Wrigley Field vendor Jonah Fialkow, or @JewishJonah as he’s known on TikTok, has attracted a large following with his videos sharing his experience selling food at one of sports’ most iconic venues. Fialkow caught up with the Canadian Jewish News’ Menschwarmers podcast to talk baseball, hot dogs and Jews.

KVELLING. The New Jersey Devils were eliminated from the Stanley Cup Playoffs on Thursday, ending an exciting season for Jack and Luke Hughes. On Sunday night, Luke made his playoffs debut, tallying two assists, while Jack scored two goals and had two assists of his own. Though their season is over, the Hughes brothers’ future is bright — Jack is 21 and Luke is 19.

A day to remember for the Hughes’ Family

Luke Hughes makes his playoff debut
Luke Hughes with two assists
Jack Hughes with two goals and two assists pic.twitter.com/XKCFFbroQE

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) May 7, 2023

OUCH. This hasn’t been Max Fried’s season. After getting bested by Dean Kremer last week, Fried landed on the injured list for the second time this season — and this time he could be out a while. With Fried and Atlanta Braves pitcher Kyle Wright both hurt, prospect Jared Shuster may get another chance in the big leagues.

BALL SHEM TOV. The haredi world’s annual Adirei HaTorah event, which draws thousands of men for a night of music and prayer, is set for June 4 at Wells Fargo Arena in Philadelphia. There’s just one problem: that’s the date of Game 2 of the NBA Finals, meaning if the 76ers advance, the event may need to find a new home. The Forward has more on the story.

Israel returns to a soccer World Cup, hoping for a second goal

Oscar Gloukh is a member of Israel’s Under 20 national soccer team. (Wikimedia Commons)

After 52 years, an Israeli national team will participate in a soccer World Cup organized by FIFA, the global soccer government body.

Israel participated in only one major World Cup, the 1970 tournament in Mexico. But this month, the Israeli youth team will participate for the first time in the Under 20 Cup in Argentina — in the land of global superstar Lionel Messi.

Led by manager Ofir Haim, the team will face Colombia on May 21 and Senegal on May 24, both in La Plata City, the capital of Buenos Aires Province (35 miles south of the city of Buenos Aires). Then the team will travel almost 700 miles northwest to theMendoza province — home to the iconic wine — to play against Japan. The tournament has six groups composed of four teams each. After the first three matches, the best two of each group will qualify for the next stage.

Could Israel score another goal at a World Cup? Their only previous one at a FIFA tournament was made by Mordechai “Motaleh” Spiegler against Sweden. This month, Israeli players — especially the top scorer Oscar Gloukh — will have another chance to score.

– Juan Melamed

Jews in sports to watch this weekend

IN HOCKEY…

Zach Hyman and the Edmonton Oilers face the Vegas Golden Knights in a pivotal Game 5 tonight at 10 p.m. ET. Game 6 will be Sunday.

IN BASEBALL… 

The story of the young MLB season is the dominance of the AL East. The Baltimore Orioles have gotten off to an excellent 24-13 start, with help from Dean Kremer’s strong performance. On Wednesday night, he led them to a 2-1 victory over the first-place Tampa Bay Rays. The surging Boston Red Sox have turned things around after a slow start, and now sit in third place. Sox reliever Richard Bleier has struggled out of the gate, allowing 15 hits and 10 runs in 15 innings — but I’ll be at Fenway on Friday night to see the Team Israel veteran in action. The New York Yankees are in last place, but outfielder Harrison Bader is crushing it in his first nine games back, hitting .400 with 12 hits, three homers and 11 RBIs.

IN SOCCER…

Manor Solomon and Fulham F.C. host Southampton tomorrow at 10 a.m. ET.

Jews on first

In just six weeks, 14 Jewish players have already appeared in the MLB this season, after Chicago Cubs prospect Matt Mervis made his debut last Friday. According to Jewish Baseball News, another 15 Jewish players are currently in Triple-A, almost all of whom played for Team Israel.

Who do you think will be the next Jewish player to make his MLB debut? Email us at sports@jta.org to share your guess, and we’ll keep an eye out for the winner.


The post The Jewish Sport Report: How a Jewish football star changed Harvard appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

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Georgetown Newspaper Editorial Board Accuses Israel of ‘Genocide,’ Calls for Divestment

Georgetown University students on March 23, 2025 in Washington, DC. Photo: Andrew Thomas via Reuters Connect

A Georgetown University-affiliated student newspaper last week issued an editorial which argued that the school has been “complicit in Israel’s genocide,” describing the world’s lone Jewish state as an illegitimate entity that should be isolated.

“There is no doubt in the mind of The Georgetown Voice‘s Editorial Board that Israel has been committing genocide in Gaza,” proclaimed The Georgetown Voice, an alternative, far-left publication founded in 1969. “There is no critical mass or breaking point at which elites — including the administrative elite at Georgetown — will suddenly reform their conscience.”

The editorial board condemned what it falsely labeled as Israel’s “decades-long settler colonial project and apartheid system” and appeared to blame the entirety of the Gaza conflict on Israel while absolving Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group that started the war with its Oct. 7, 2023, massacre of Israelis, of wrongdoing.

“We must ask ourselves why every person in Gaza or the West Bank does not elicit the same righteous anger (and frenzied whitewashing or bigotry and divisiveness) that erupted after the assassination of Charlie Kirk,” the paper charged, referring to the American conservative activist who was assassinated in September. “While some — certainly not all — members of Congress have half-heartedly called for a ‘pause’ in the violence at some point, the vast majority of them were simultaneously voting to arm Israel.”

The editorial continued, “The morally bankrupt acts of our representatives made Americans complicit in this genocide. That should enrage and galvanize something in all of us. Sadly, at Georgetown, that’s not what we see.”

Capping off its philippic, the Voice broadsided the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) — accusing the civil rights organization of “anti-Palestinian advocacy” and drifting “rightward … under the leadership of current CEO Jonathan Greenblatt” — and calling for Georgetown’s divestment from Israel on the grounds that Israel is an “apartheid regime” in the same mold as Afrikaner-dominated South Africa until the 1990s.

“If the school gives any weight to the values it claims to represent, it will reconsider its rejection of the divestment referendum from last spring and move to cut all ties with Israeli and Israel-supportive institutions immediately,” the Voice concluded, hinting at the expulsion from campus of Jewish groups such as Hillel and Chabad. “We do not say this lightly; taking action is challenging; however, in the face of such atrocities, there are no excuses for inaction.”

The Voice is not the first student newspaper to promote anti-Zionism while curating facts, sources, and quotes to confect a negative image of Israel.

In 2022, The Harvard Crimson, the official newspaper of Harvard University, endorsed the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks to isolate the world’s lone Jewish state on the international stage as a step toward its eventual elimination.

“BDS remains a blunt approach, one with the potential to backfire or prompt collateral damage in the form of economic hurt. But the weight of this moment — of Israel’s human rights and international law violates and of Palestine’s cry for freedom — demands this step,” it said. “As a board, we are proud to finally lend our support to both Palestinian liberation and BDS — we call on everyone to do the same.”

At Georgetown, anti-Zionism may be fostered by foreign influence in the form of exorbitant donations.

According to a report published in June by the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism Policy (ISGAP) — titled, “Foreign Infiltration: Georgetown University, Qatar, and the Muslim Brotherhood” — Georgetown University has received over $1 billion in funding from the Qatari government over the last two decades. The 132-page document revealed dozens of examples of ways in which Georgetown’s interests are allegedly conflicted, having been divided between its foreign benefactors, the country in which it was founded in 1789, and even its Catholic heritage.

“The Qatari regime targets Georgetown due to its unrivaled access to current and future leaders. Over two decades, that investment has paid off — embedding Muslim Brotherhood scholars and narratives deep within the American academic and political culture,” Dr. Charles Asher Small, executive director of ISGAP, said in a statement on the report. “This masterful use of soft power is not only about Georgetown. It is how authoritarian regimes are buying access, narrative control, and ideological legitimacy — and too many universities are willing sellers.”

The ISGAP report called on policymakers to take action now and prevent the university’s becoming any closer to a country whose ideals may threaten US interests and ideals.

“It is time to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. As we saw, pro-Hamas antisemitism in the US has moved from rhetoric to outright terrorism on the streets of Washington,” Small said, referring to the antisemitic shooting of two Israeli embassy staffers in May. “Just three miles from the site of the murders outside the Jewish Museum, Georgetown has been the center of a 50-year indoctrination campaign aimed at infiltrating the highest echelons of US society with murderous antisemitism.”

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

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‘Hamas in a Suit’: Melanie Phillips Says the US Must Stop Treating Qatar as an Honest Broker

British author and journalist Melanie Phillips speaking at the National Conservatism Conference in Brussels, Belgium in April 2024. Photo: Nicolas Landemard / Le Pictorium via Reuters Connect

The war against terrorism will never end “until the West stops pretending Qatar is neutral,” according to British author and journalist Melanie Phillips.

The prominent commentator told The Algemeiner that Doha’s patronage of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas and its influence on Western media and universities are among the many reasons not to trust the Middle Eastern monarchy.

“Qatar is Hamas,” Phillips said in a conversation on the “J100” podcast with host David M. Cohen, the CEO of The Algemeiner. “It sponsors Hamas, it shelters Hamas, it protects Hamas’s leadership.”

Speaking from Jerusalem, Phillips called Qatar’s role “the great unspoken scandal” of modern diplomacy, describing how the regime has bankrolled Hamas while posing as a mediator in negotiations with Israel over the Gaza war.

“You can end this war tonight,” she said, “by doing what should have been done long ago: throw Qatar overboard.”

Negotiations have hit several hurdles in recent weeks to halt the advancement of last month’s Israel-Hamas ceasefire, including the refusal of the terrorist group to disarm in accordance with US President Donald Trump’s pace plan for Gaza.

Despite Qatar’s support for Hamas and far-reaching financial entanglements within American institutions, the US has designated the country as a major non-NATO ally and committed, via executive order, to defend it if attacked.

For Phillips, the danger runs deeper than money or politics. “It’s Hamas in a suit,” she said. “A power that wears respectability while advancing terror by other means.”

Since 2012, Doha has housed Hamas’s political bureau and funneled hundreds of millions of dollars into Gaza, often with Western approval. Simultaneously, it has built vast soft-power influence, financing Al Jazeera, sponsoring academic programs on Middle Eastern studies, and endowing think tanks and universities across the West.

That dual role, Phillips argued, has distorted the world’s moral compass. “You cannot be both patron and peacemaker,” she said. “That is moral incoherence masquerading as strategy.”

She connected Qatar’s reach to what she called the “eighth front” of Israel’s war against Iran’s terrorist network including Hamas — the cognitive front, where perception and truth are under siege. By funding educational and media institutions that frame Israel as the aggressor, Phillips said, Doha helps export the same ideological rot that excuses terrorism.

“You cannot build coexistence on a curriculum of hatred,” she warned. “And you cannot defend civilization if you reward the people funding its destruction.”

Cohen noted that Washington’s posture toward Doha remains contradictory. “You can’t confront a sponsor of terror,” he said, “while treating it like an ally at the same time.”

Phillips concluded that lasting peace requires more than military victory — it demands confronting the global enablers that dignify extremism. “If the West continues to pretend Qatar is neutral,” she said, “then Hamas will never truly be defeated.”

The full conversation — “The Eighth Front Is the Mind” — is available now on “J100” via Apple Podcasts, Substack, and YouTube.

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Australia Lists Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard as State Sponsor of Terrorism

Commanders and members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps meet with Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran, Iran, Aug. 17, 2023. Photo: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS

Australia has listed Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a state sponsor of terrorism, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said on Thursday, following an intelligence assessment that it had orchestrated attacks against Australia‘s Jewish Community.

Australia in August accused Iran of directing two antisemitic arson attacks in the cities of Sydney and Melbourne and gave Tehran’s ambassador seven days to leave the country, its first such expulsion since World War II.

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