Original Article Published On The Chabad.ORG

When Eric Brodkowitz left home in Potomac, Md., to study at Yale University and to pitch for the Yale Bulldogs baseball team, his mother, Jill, did what any concerned Jewish mother might do: She turned to her local Chabad-Lubavitch rabbi, who reached out to Chabad on Campus at Yale.

“Rabbi Shua Rosenstein at Yale was open and very inviting,” says Brodkowitz, today an investment analyst with Goldman Sachs and a pitcher on Israel’s national baseball team, which will compete in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. During his time at Yale, Brodkowitz—who in his senior year at Yale was a unanimous first-team All-Ivy League selection and finished the season with a 2.80 ERA—grew close to Rosenstein and his wife, Sara, co-directors of Chabad at Yale University in New Haven, Conn. “The rabbi invited me and my friends to Shabbat dinner. It was just a very welcoming environment.”

During his junior year, Brodkowitz lived on the same street as the Yale Chabad and began wrapping tefillin twice a week at the Chabad House.

“When Eric was on campus, we would meet often to lay tefillin,” recalls Rosenstein. “We always joked that it would help him as a pitcher.”

It certainly didn’t hurt.

Brodkowitz, who was discovered by Team Israel manager Eric Holtz towards the end of his senior year in 2018, has had a successful run so far with Team Israel. The right-hander started two games in the July 2019 European Baseball Championship B-Pool in Bulgaria—winning one game and striking out 15 in 9.1 innings pitched—as part of Israel’s sweep into the playoffs. Team Israel beat Lithuania in the best-of-three playoff series, qualifying for the 2019 European Baseball Championship, from which Israel emerged as one of six teams heading to the 2020 Summer Olympics.

Even post-graduation, Brodkowitz has continued to stay in touch with the Rosensteins. He recently stayed at their home in New Haven for the weekend of this year’s Harvard-Yale football game, and after being selected to play for Team Israel in the Olympics, he gifted a prized team jersey to one of the rabbi’s children.

“Rabbi Rosenstein was a big influence on me,” says Brodkowitz, who credits his mother for giving him the push he needed. “She said, ‘Go for a free dinner and explore… I had a great dinner, a great time and became very close to the rabbi.”

A Family That Focused on Traditions

Today an investment analyst with Goldman Sachs, Brodkowitz participated in the Sinai Scholars study program at Yale. (Photo: Margo Sugarman)
Today an investment analyst with Goldman Sachs, Brodkowitz participated in the Sinai Scholars study program at Yale. (Photo: Margo Sugarman)

Brodkowitz, who grew up in Potomac in the greater Washington, D.C. area, has always been connected to baseball, to his family and to his Judaism. His father, Ken, pitched and played outfield and first base during his student years at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore before injuring his arm. “He had Tommy John surgery and didn’t pitch after that,” says Brodkowitz. When Ken married and had children, he focused his energies on patiently and carefully coaching his children.

Brodkowitz speaks affectionately of his father, who was always “dedicated, caring and focused” with him and his two younger siblings and their sports pursuits. “He focused on mechanics, always practiced with me and never missed a game,” relates Brodkowitz, who says he continues to feel his parents’ active support.

While baseball was always a passion for the younger Brodkowitz, Jewish life holds no less an important place in his life. His family has always been affiliated, Brodkowitz attended Hebrew school and went to Jewish overnight camp for six years, and the family and continues to be connected to Chabad of Potomac.

He also benefited from a close relationship with his maternal grandfather, who he says “grew up in an Orthodox neighborhood in New York” and “faithfully practiced Judaism.” His grandfather proudly prepared Brodkowitz—and all twelve of his grandchildren for their bar and bat mitzvahs. “He is the type of guy where you learned the whole service and all the blessings; it was intense.”

Despite the high expectations, the ball player says “it was a good bonding experience.”

Despite his packed work and training schedule, Brodkowitz is never too busy to discuss his Jewish pride with reporters or fans. (Photo: Margo Sugarman)

Wrapping Tefillin, Throwing Pitches During College

Brodkowitz continued to grow Jewishly while at Yale, even with the demands of playing varsity baseball all four years, coupled with the equally intense demands of being a double major in economics and molecular, cellular and developmental biology with a concentration in biotechnology. During sophomore year, he participated in a Birthright Israel trip, an experience he describes as “transformative.” Little did he know that only a few years later, he would become an Israeli citizen and play for its national baseball team.

As his baseball career developed, so did his Jewish engagement. Along with Shabbat meals at Chabad and regular tefillin pit stops, Brodkowitz enrolled in the Sinai Scholars program run by Chabad on Campus that integrates the study of classic Jewish texts, social programming and networking for top Jewish college students around the world.

Team Israel manager Eric Holtz first saw Brodkowitz pitch when Holtz’s son, who plays baseball for Columbia University, was playing against Yale.

“My son was a freshman at Columbia when Eric was a senior. I watched a championship game in which Eric pitched eight innings, giving up one run, and was just phenomenal. He refused to let his team down,” reports Holtz. “I didn’t know he was Jewish at all. After the game, I was looking at the stats and saw the last name was Brodkowitz. I immediately called the coach at Yale; he put me in touch with Eric, and the rest is history. Beyond being a great right-handed pitcher, he is one of the most wonderful young men you will ever come across.”

When Brodkowitz got a text from his Yale coach about Team Israel’s interest in June 2018, he was both surprised and flattered. By now a college graduate, he had just recently been hired as an analyst at Goldman Sachs, so he was also unsure of what to tell his new employers. Considering that he might need to miss some work to play in various baseball tournaments in Europe and Asia—not to mention the Olympics—it was an unusual request to say the least. Instead of rejection, to Brodkowitz’s delight his chance to play for Team Israel was met with an outpouring of support. “You have our blessing. How can we help?” came Goldman’s reply almost instantly, for which the pitcher/analyst says he is forever grateful.

In the months leading up to the Olympics, Brodkowitz stays in shape by working out in the gym and throwing baseballs daily at a field close to his work. And despite his packed work and training schedule, he is never too busy to discuss his Jewish pride with reporters or fans. “It has been a blessing and privilege to be able to wear ‘Israel’ across my chest,” he affirms.

Aside from his ongoing connection with Chabad at Yale—he remains active as an alumnus—Chabad continues to play an important place in Brodkowitz’s life in his work with Team Israel. (Photo: Margo Sugarman)

An Active Alum with Yale and Chabad

Aside from his ongoing connection with Chabad at Yale—he remains active as an alumnus—Chabad continues to play an important place in Brodkowitz’s life in his work with Team Israel. Take, for instance, the team’s Friday-night experience while in Lithuania for a game against the country’s national team in the small city of Utena—about an hour and 20 minutes northeast of the capital, Vilnius. Rabbi Sholom Ber Krinsky, co-director of Chabad of Lithuania since 1994, made the trip before Shabbat to drop off all the supplies Team Israel needed to have an authentic Shabbat experience—something Brodkowitz and his teammates say they will never forget.

“There was nothing better than being in a country like Lithuania and having Shabbat dinner driven 100 miles from Chabad so that the team could celebrate Shabbat together,” adds Holtz, the manager.

Indeed, Peter Kurz, president of Israel Association of Baseball and general manager of Team Israel, has found Chabad to be an invaluable support to the team wherever they go. “Chabad has always played an important role in helping our national teams keep the Jewish spirit while we play in overseas tournaments—be it in Italy, the Czech Republic or even Bulgaria,” he says. Chabad has enabled “our team to maintain our Jewish traditions while still playing the game of baseball.”

More than a nice sentiment, Kurz says it’s this idea that stands at the heart of Israel baseball. The importance of Jewish tradition is in “our slogan,” he says: “‘Israel Baseball: Where Traditions Meet.’”

And it’s a key to what drives Brodkowitz.

“Eric takes great pride in his Jewish identity and his ability to help Israel compete in the summer Olympics,” attests Rosenstein. “I am confident that he will continue to inspire others in his journey, both as a committed Jew and a great baseball player.”

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Original Article Published On The New York Jewish Week

Inclusive Jewish summer camp options for children and young adults with disabilities now abound.

This is part of a series of essays in honor of Jewish Disability Awareness, Acceptance and Inclusion Month.

When the Ramah Camping Movement started including campers with disabilities through its Tikvah Programs in 1970, the world was a very different place.  Tikvah’s founders, Herb and Barbara Greenberg, two Long Island school teachers, faced opposition and roadblocks almost every place they turned. They were told that “including people with disabilities would bankrupt the camps, disrupt the structure, lower the level of Hebrew and cause the ‘normal’ campers to leave.”  

One Ramah director, Danny Adelman, z’l, (director of Ramah Glen Spey in New York, and later, Camp Ramah in New England in Massachusetts) felt it was a Jewish value and imperative to include people with disabilities.  With that “yes” in the late 1960s, the Jewish inclusive camping movement was underway! Every Jewish summer camp, school, youth movement and Israel which program which supports and includes people with disabilities should pause to remember and pay tribute to the pioneering, brave work of the Greenbergs.

It wasn’t easy going at first.  Once the camp agreed to Tikvah, the Greenbergs first had to find those campers.  As the Greenbergs, long-time citizens of Israel after 29 years directing Tikvah, report, “They weren’t in the synagogues!”  Rabbis weren’t very helpful in identifying participants since families of children with disabilities weren’t coming to the synagogues—they didn’t feel welcomed.  They managed to find eight participants for that first Tikvah summer. 

That first summer 50 years ago laid the groundwork for inclusive camping within Ramah and in all of Jewish camping. Now, all 10 Ramah overnight programs and it various day camps support campers with disabilities and their families through camping programs, vocational training programs, supportive employment, Israel trips and Family Shabbatons.

In the past ten years, we have seen in increase in the number of Jewish overnight and day camps supporting campers with a range of disabilities, and a general shift in attitude toward inclusion.  Camps are doing a better job training their staffs, providing tools to support all campers. The Ramah Camping Movement offers an inclusion track at its twice a year national trainings, and the Foundation for Jewish Camp (FJC) has a network for inclusion specialists, and offers a disabilities inclusion track at its biannual Leaders Assembly. 

Families of children and young adults with disabilities now have more choices in summer camping—by location, religious affiliation, and type of camp.  And camps with camping programs are increasingly looking for ways to expand vocational training and employment opportunities for people with disabilities as they get older.  Keeping Jews in Jewish camp for as long as possible continues to be a goal of Jewish camping—for people with and without disabilities.  

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Original Article Published on The New York Jewish Week

Timed to coincide with February’s JDAIM, the international group will trek Africa’s tallest mountain using Israeli designed special assistance technology.

This year, I will not be spending Jewish Disability Awareness, Acceptance & Inclusion Month (JDAIM) with my colleagues and friends at 10th annual Jewish Disability Advocacy Day on Capitol Hill (February 4th).  And I won’t be teaching about disability inclusion at synagogues or college campuses across the country.  While I will “miss” the more traditional marking of JDAIM, I will have the once in a lifetime opportunity to experience Jewish disabilities inclusion in a very unconventional setting—Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania!

I will attempt to trek up the 19,341 foot mountain, through five ecosystems and vast game preserves, with 27 hikers from Texas, Montana, New York, and New Jersey, as well as with participants from Israel.  The delegation includes a twice paralyzed Utah athlete and her husband, a Peruvian born cyclist and skier who is also an amputee with paraplegia, an Israeli army veteran who is paralyzed, a 9/11 first responder who experienced PTSD, a local Tanzanian man with paraplegia and others who believe in the mission of FAISR—Friends of Access Israel.

FAISR, started only several months ago, and Access Israel, founded just over 20 years ago in Israel, is an organization which uses education, advocacy and technology to promote accessibility, inclusion, respect, removal of actual and perceived barriers, and an equitable environment for people of all abilities around the world.

The trekkers will ascend the Marangu route, also known as the Coca Cola trail, to reach the peak.  In accordance with best practices and Tanzanian law which assures the safety of hikers with and without disabilities, the delegation will be accompanied by three cooks, 11 guides, and 70 porters.  Daily mileage will range from 3.1 miles on the acclimation days, to a grueling 13.7 miles during the final ascent, setting out just before midnight Saturday night with the goal of reaching the summit at sunrise.

The group should be well-rested for the final, all-night Saturday night ascent.  We will be spending a relaxing Shabbat at 15,420 feet and will enjoy vegan kosher Shabbat meals, prayer services (including Shabbat morning where we will read the Song of the Sea from a torah scroll (yes, we are carrying a kosher torah scroll up the mountain!). And I will have the privilege of teaching a favorite JDAIM Talmud text on inclusion!

The climb up Kilimanjaro is believed to be the largest delegation of hikers with disabilities.  Starla Hilliard-Barnes, who was selected as Ms. Wheelchair Montana in 2014, became the first wheelchair-user to compete in the Mrs. Montana pageant in 2016.   She is founder of Moving Forward Adaptive Sports and the charity, Gifts of Love, and will be accompanied by husband, Shannon Barnes.  Hillard-Barnes will use a specialized wheelchair, known as a Paratrek, as she ascends Kilimanjaro.  “I’ve dreamed since I was a little girl to go climb Mount Kilimanjaro,” reports Starla.  She has been hearing about Africa and Kilimanjaro her whole life from her grandparents, who were missionaries there.

In a phone interview three weeks before the trip, Hillard-Barnes concedes that she has “never sat on a Paratrek” and “never even touched one!”  The good natured Hillard-Barnes playfully reports, “It will be interesting.”  The experienced hand-cyclist, who has a great deal of hiking and camping experience feels her biggest challenge will be “giving up my independence and letting someone else be in control.”   Unlike with hand cycling, which she does on her own, she will need to rely on others when she uses the Paratrek.

Omer Zur, founder and CEO of Paratrek, the Israeli company that specializes in finding solutions for people with disabilities to enable them to enjoy nature with groups of people with and without disabilities, is very aware of the need to find the right balance between assuring the independence of the trekker, and offering assistance as needed.  He designed the first Paratrek to enable his fiercely independent father who was paralyzed 35 years ago during the Yom Kippur War to climb mountains and go camping.  “My parents wanted us to be the best version of ourselves and to go out in nature and be comfortable.”  On a three-year post-army trek, Zur realized that his father never had this opportunity.  He set out to design an apparatus for his dad.  His father was not pleased with the initial concept—a stretcher carried by Omer’s friends.  Zur then created the Paratrek, and he and his father set out on a 33-day journey.

The Paratrek has a rickshaw-style bar in the front that fits around another hiker’s waist and handlebars in the back that a second person can use to stabilize or push the trekker with paraplegia, if needed. Zur will be traveling from Israel to Tanzania with five Paratreks, extra shock absorbers, wheels and other supplies.  On the trip, Zur will make sure the Paratreks are in proper working order, and he will be there to help assure the comfort and safety of each participant.

Hillard-Barnes initially learned of the Kilimanjaro hike from Facebook friend and fellow paraplegic, Marcela Maranon.  Peruvian-born Maranon, who lives in Dallas, Texas, lost her left leg and became paralyzed from the waist down in a car crash at age 19.  Following what she described as a “very dark period” of several years, she entered rehab in Baltimore, Maryland.  Her experiences with ReWalk, an Israeli-made, FDA approved wearable robotic exoskeleton that provides powered hip and knee motion to enable individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI) to stand upright, walk, turn, and climb and descend stairs attracted a great deal of attention in the United States, Israel and around the world.  She went on to be the public face of Rewalk. She playfully notes, “I am the girl in the brochures!”  She has also fallen in love with Israel, reporting, “When I went to Israel, I felt Israel was my second home—it is so beautiful, the food is fantastic, they have the best beaches…”  Maranon and Hillard-Barnes will get to meet in person in Tanzania on February 2nd as they get acquainted with their fellow climbers and the Paratrek.

James Lassner, executive director of Friends of Access Israel, is inspired by the unique stories of each of the participants.  “With our collective physical strengths, mental toughness, and diverse abilities, we are all looking forward to joining together to conquer Kilimanjaro as a team.  Our goal is to unite as one, laugh together, cry together, trek together, and celebrate together at 19,341 feet.”

When the delegation gathers at JFK airport in New York on February 2nd, they will be one step closer to reaching the summit of Kilimanjaro, and spreading the word for inclusion.

Please follow the expedition’s updates on Facebook and Instagram.

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Original Article Published on The chabad.ORG

The 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics are still more than six months away (July 24-Aug. 9), but the team at Chabad-Lubavitch of Tokyo is already hard at work. Rabbi Mendi Sudakevich, who arrived in Tokyo 20 years ago from his native Kfar Chabad, Israel, is gregarious and creative—and has plenty of ideas for serving Jews who will be playing in, watching or otherwise involved with the Olympics.

The Games come in addition to a booming surge of interest in Japan. While 8 million people visited the island nation in 2010, nearly 40 million came in 2019—exceeding Japan’s own goal by 15 million. This partially accounts for why it had been so hard for the rabbi to find available event space this summer so he can meet the needs of Jewish athletes and guests.

Sudakevich and his wife, Chana, will be creating a temporary Jewish center in the Olympic Village that will have a full schedule of Shabbat and weekday services, kosher-food offerings and meals, and more. “We will have parallel activities going on at the Chabad House at the same time,” explains the rabbi, who notes that the center has a mikvah as well. Similar to the Chabad presence at previous Olympic Games—from Athens to Rio de Janeiro and Sochi to South Korea—Sudakevich will be flying out a full crew of rabbinical students to staff the various Jewish pop-up stations around the massive capital.

The rabbi says that he has been in touch with various Olympic delegations from Israel and around the world. For the first time ever, in September, Team Israel’s baseball team qualified for one of the six berths to compete in the Olympic finals. However, this won’t be Team Israel’s first trip to Japan. Sudakevich fondly recalls the baseball team’s last visit in March, when one of their games coincided with the holiday of Purim. “We read Megillah for the whole team,” Sudakevich tells Chabad.org.

One member of Team Israel’s baseball team is Danny Valencia, who has racked up impressive credentials while playing on eight Major League baseball teams. “I had a normal Jewish upbringing. I went to Hebrew school and celebrated my bar mitzvah,” says the infielder, whose mother is Jewish. “We went to synagogue on the High Holidays; my mother fasted on Yom Kippur. I was around Judaism.”

That makes Chabad an important stop for him on his baseball journey, especially when he’s with an entire team of Jewish ballplayers. Valencia particularly enjoys the Jewish rituals he has shared with fellow Team Israel players. “On Friday nights, we had Shabbat dinner with prayers, toasts and breaking bread with the boys.”

Japan's State Minister for Foreign Affairs Yasuhide Nakayama and family with Chabad of Japan emissaries at a Chanukah event last month at the Israeli embassy in Tokyo. L to R, Rachel Vaisfiche, Batya Vishedsky, Chana Sudakevich, Rabbi Shmuel Vishedsky, the Nakayamas, Rabbi Mendi Sudakevich, Rabbi Shalom Vaisfiche.
Japan’s State Minister for Foreign Affairs Yasuhide Nakayama and family with Chabad of Japan emissaries at a Chanukah event last month at the Israeli embassy in Tokyo. L to R, Rachel Vaisfiche, Batya Vishedsky, Chana Sudakevich, Rabbi Shmuel Vishedsky, the Nakayamas, Rabbi Mendi Sudakevich, Rabbi Shalom Vaisfiche.

An Opportunity for Japan to Learn About Judaism

Sudakevich says Jewish tourism in Japan will continue to rise once El Al begins direct service from Tel Aviv to Tokyo in March. Despite the rising numbers, however, most Japanese people, he notes, know little about Judaism or the Jewish people, and he hopes that the influx of Jewish tourists this year will help change that.

The Sudakeviches are one of four Chabad-Lubavitch emissary couples serving Japan. “There is one Chabad center in Kobe (a 264-mile drive or three-plus hours on the bullet train from Tokyo) and two new ones: in Kyoto, which is Japan’s No. 1 tourist destination (a six-hour drive from Tokyo), and in Takayama, Japan’s Alps (two-and-a-half hours west of Tokyo). Many tourists go there to see the real Japan.”

But Sudakevich reports that “we all work together” with a common goal of meeting the Jewish needs of their various communities. “Japan’s Jewish community is unique in that it is mostly a community of people who come to work here for a few years—bankers, lawyers, those in high-tech.” He notes that most are in their 20s and 30s, and are transient, eventually returning home to their countries of origin. “There is no second generation,” he notes.

As far as the Olympics go, locals and tourists will be able to enjoy kosher meals at Chabad of Tokyo. While Sudakevich says the community imports some kosher products from the United States, he is proud that shechitah is performed in the city of Kobe by Rabbi Dovid Posner, the Chabad rabbi of Kyoto.

Rabbi Dovid Posner will be performing shechita to help provide kosher meat for visitors. He and his wife, Chaya Mushka, arrived in Japan last year just as the island erupted with pink cherry blossoms.
Rabbi Dovid Posner will be performing shechita to help provide kosher meat for visitors. He and his wife, Chaya Mushka, arrived in Japan last year just as the island erupted with pink cherry blossoms.

Sudakevich and Chabad have experience serving larger crowds. “We hosted the Rugby World Cup over the recent High Holidays. It was a big thing. We had many visitors—Jews from South Africa, Australia and England. It was a little taste of the Olympics.”

Sudakevich expects even more visitors to the Olympics, and he says he will be ready for them. “The biggest challenge was finding an appropriate place to host the activities,” he acknowledges.

Nevertheless, he remained undaunted and finally found the perfect place. “Tourism to Japan is increasing a lot; we need a bigger Chabad House,” he says.

Reflecting on the upcoming games, the rabbi recognizes the amount of work ahead.

“It is going to be a crazy month,” he says good-naturedly. “Good, but crazy.”

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