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Mar 4, 2026, 7:28 AM

The Zionist’s Guide to the World Baseball Classic

There is a notion stretching back to the ancient Greeks of the "Olympic Truce." While the Olympic Games were proceeding, ongoing wars would pause. Further, parties seeking war would wait until the Games were over to commence hostilities. Based on...

Jan 17, 2026, 6:18 PM

Good News for the Jews: A reminder we are still here and still moving forward

It has been a brutal stretch. The kind of news cycle that does not just inform, but exhausts. The kind that leaves you doom-scrolling at midnight, wondering whether the world has lost its mind or just finally stopped pretending...

Dec 25, 2025, 6:58 AM

Running While Jewish in Sydney, Weeks Before Bondi

I ran the Sydney Marathon on August 31, 2025. Before I landed, I knew Sydney was already in trouble. Weeks earlier, on August 3rd, there had been a massive pro-Palestine march on the Sydney Harbour Bridge, one that crossed well...

Jonathan Shavit

Dec 8, 2025, 1:59 AM

Will UEFA’s motto “Together for football” still include Israel?

The World Cup will be coming to North America next year. Another opportunity to watch the world’s best players act on a global stage, viewed by hundreds of millions, even billions. To, once again, suffer when the Netherlands fails...

Nov 18, 2025, 5:31 AM

A Brief History – The beginning of Jews and Sport

Source: https://www.maccabi.org/who-we-are/our-story
‘speerwerfer herbert sonnenfeld galleryimage’

The beginnings of Jews relationship with sport Sport is often regarded as a kind of modern religion, serving as a bridge between cultures, nations, religions and ethnicities. Yet for centuries there has persisted a stereotype that Jews are not athletic....

Marc J. Rosenstein

Nov 14, 2025, 5:04 PM

The Jewish Power Blog: New Jews

The story we all grew up on: Theodor Herzl was an assimilated Jew who, assigned to cover the Dreyfus trial in Paris, had an epiphany, and realized that assimilation had failed and that there was no hope for the...

Stephen M. Flatow

Oct 20, 2025, 9:42 AM

Keep Politics Out of the Arena: Why banning Israel betrays the spirit of sport

Keep Politics Out of the Arena: Why banning Israel betrays the spirit of sport Every few months, someone decides that the “moral” thing to do is ban Israelis from participating in an international competition. This time, it’s calls to bar...

Oct 5, 2025, 8:07 PM

Running From and Running For

On October 5, I participated in the Toronto OCT7K Charity Run as part of Team Hillel Ontario and had the honour of offering a blessing before the run’s start. Here’s a copy of my remarks as prepared in advance. -- Thanks...

May 19, 2025, 5:27 AM

More Than a Competition: Israel’s Stand for Hope

In a world increasingly divided by misinformation and hatred, showing up is sometimes the most powerful act of resilience. For Israel—a nation that has faced relentless hostility—not just on the battlefield but on social media, in classrooms, and in...

Apr 11, 2025, 11:35 AM

Passover, Bar Kochba and Zionism

Members of the Bar Kochba sports club from Berlin at the last pre-war Macabiah games in the Land of Israel. Photo (c) Yad Vashem, 2025

Every Passover Seder the legendary second century CE warrior Bar-Kochba features in the Haggadah incognito during the unusual tale of the five rabbis sitting in ancient Bnei Brak: It once happened that Rabbi Eliezer, Rabbi Yehoshua, Rabbi Elazar Ben Azaryah, Rabbi...

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