Original article published in the JNS

A fixture in the entertainment marketing space, he spends a good deal of time with pro-athletes, hip-hop artists and other high-profile people at such events as the NBA All-Stars, Masters Tournament, U.S. Open, Grammy Awards, MTV Awards and Sundance Film Festival.

For Eli Lunzer, the road to Super Bowl Super LVI started weeks before the team match-ups were determined. Lunzer will arrive in Los Angeles for a nonstop week of work before the Cincinnati Bengals and Los Angeles Rams players even get to SoFi Stadium for kickoff, scheduled for Sunday at 6:30 p.m. EST. And he will work around the clock, except for Shabbat, for a solid week.

“I am a shadchan,” says Lunzer, using the Yiddish word for “matchmaker.” Meaning, he explains, “I connect brands, athletes, influential talents and celebrities.”

The Jewishly observant Manhattan resident in his early 40s—founder and principal of Eli Lunzer Productions—describes himself as a sports and entertainment marketing agent.

In fact, he has become a fixture in sports marketing, branding, event sponsorship and in the Jewish social-events space, specializing in talent access, brand development, and event planning and production. And he spends a good deal of time schmoozing with pro-athletes, hip-hop artists and other high-profile people at such events as the NBA All-Stars, Masters Tournament, U.S. Open, Grammy Awards, MTV Awards and Sundance Film Festival.

“We create events in conjunction with the NFL draft, the Super Bowl, the ESPYs and more. We take brands and introduce them to celebrities and athletes, get endorsement deals and look for opportunities for them to build their brand on and off the courts.” As part of his job, Lunzer also arranges appearances at various events for such celebrities and athletes as the New York Giants’ Saquon Barkley and New York Yankees’ legend Johnny Damon.

Lunzer also puts on entertaining events in the Jewish world, including the annual “Official Xmas Eve Bash for Young Jewish Professionals in NYC” and “The Official NYC Purim Bash.”

Eli with Otis Anderson, the 1991 Super Bowl MVP from the New York Giants. Credit: Courtesy.

But for now, a great deal of his energy and attention is on Super Bowl week. After all, it’s big business: In 2021, some 96.4 million people watched the 55th Super Bowl with 2020 having an even larger audience at 99.9 million viewers. The average ad spot for the 80 to 90 commercials during the Super Bowl costs $6.5 million per half a minute.

Pro-athletes ‘understand routines’

Lunzer, who has attended the past 10 Super Bowls, described the week before as “a convention for the sports industry,” where he will be meeting with current and prospective athletes, managers and agents and brands, and helping plan, produce and attend events. He will have three other members of his team on the ground in Los Angeles. “I am always adjusting (I may have six events in one night). But I am happy if I get to two!”

One event he attends will be an “invite-only” red-carpet, music and food event, where 25 major brands such as Under Armor, a CBD company and a private jet company will meet and reach out to sports legends. “It is the closest opportunity for the brands to get their products in their hands.”

Lunzer and his company also sell Super Bowl packages that include tickets and tailgate parties. His company also arranges an after-party for one of the teams.

Yet he is clear about one thing—Shabbat is a true day of rest—even during the frenzy of this week. “No matter what happens, Shabbos is Shabbos. My phone is off.”

He acknowledges that it is “super-hard” since many events take place on Friday nights and Saturdays. “I have missed some of the biggest events,” he acknowledges. On the flip side, he adds that he has also “walked hours and hours” to synagogues in various cities and has had Shabbat meals with interesting people in the industry.

Lunzer has found athletes to be interested in and supportive of his Jewish religious practices. “I daven [‘pray’] three times a day and eat only kosher anywhere I am in the world. Pro-athletes are often more understanding than others since they understand regimens and daily routines. They work out at the same time, eat at the same time, sleep at the same time; they understand routines.”

A graphic displaying Super Bowl LVI featuring the Los Angeles Rams and the Cincinnati Bengals. Credit: Kovop58/Shutterstock.

He recounted that he had an interesting experience when some pro-athletes walked in on him praying early one morning. They saw him with his tefillin on his arm and head. When he explained what they were, some asked if they could also put them on.

Lunzer, who says he takes his role as an ambassador for Judaism seriously, responded as to how Jewish men use them, saying “at the end of the day, it is about being good, doing good and giving the Jewish nation a good name.”

‘Always action going on’

How does a nice Jewish boy, who attended MTA Yeshiva University High School for Boys create a career path that has taken him from a childhood in both Englewood, N.J., and New York to the NFL, NBA and many high-profile events?

Lunzer notes that he especially enjoyed growing up in New York, where “there was always action going on.”

He adds that “I was never a traditional student. I always went with my passions. There was no real path. I always did what I loved to do.”

Lunzer holds a bachelor’s degree in marketing and management from Touro College, as well as a master’s degree in events and entertainment marketing from New York University. “My first job was selling season tickets for the New York Knicks. I wanted to work at Madison Square Garden,” he says.
Eli at the ESPY Awards with members of the 2016 Denver Broncos Super Bowl team. Credit: Courtesy.

This led to a six-year stint at MSG, where he eventually headed up a sales and marketing initiative for the New York Rangers and New York Knicks. He then worked in a senior management position with a large food manufacturer where he was able to focus on consumer branding and marketing.

His love for MSG and for sports continues. He proposed to his now-wife, Yosefa, on the court at MSG during a New York Knicks game. Lunzer enjoys playing tennis, golf, basketball and surfing. He spends a great deal of time volunteering for a wide range of organizations, including Yachad, Save a Child’s Heart, Project Sunshine, Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem and Chabad of the Upper East Side. His desire to help others may come in part from his close relationship with a younger brother with developmental disabilities.

Lunzer also serves informally as a veritable shadchan—a “matchmaker” for real. He says he has successfully brought at least 33 Jewish couples together.

All of these important activities, however, may need to wait a few weeks until the Super Bowl and the NBA All-Star Game (Feb. 20) are behind him.

And while the job may look glamourous, Lunzer is quick to point out that it’s a tough business: “There are a lot of no’s. People see the outcomes and that you get to meet the players, but a lot of work goes into it.”

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“The Jewish Disability Inclusion toolkit is a comprehensive resource which brings together not only RespectAbility’s near decade of work on this issue, but the work of key partners including Howard Blas, Gateways: Access to Jewish Education, and Matan,” said Matan Koch, Vice President for Workforce, Leadership and Faith Programs at RespectAbility.


“It is an example of the new paradigm of collaboration sweeping the Jewish disability inclusion community.”  Here is a link to the tool kit:  https://www.respectability.org/jewish-toolkit/#more-30843

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Originally published in the Jerusalem Post

Thanks to Prof. Shmuel Kornblit, the Spanish-speaking world has access to an incredible range of texts and Jewish educational resources in their mother tongue.

Thanks to the passion and hard work of an oleh from Argentina, the Spanish-speaking world has access to an incredible range of texts and Jewish educational resources in their mother tongue. 

Prof. Shmuel Kornblit, director of Spanish language programs at Herzog College, made aliyah at age 17, twice served as a shaliach (emissary) in Argentina and continues to meet the needs of Spanish-speaking Jews through a variety of in-person and online programs and resources. 

Kornblit’s deep connections to Israel and Judaism – and to the Spanish-speaking world – together with his deep curiosity, boundless energy and passion, fuel his desire to continuously expand the one-stop-shop Spanish-language website Masuah (www.masuah.org) he created five years ago. So far, over half a million people have visited the site. 

Kornblit’s love for Jewish texts and culture, and his devotion to sharing it with others have been growing since his childhood in Argentina. While Kornblit, 50, was not particularly observant as a boy, he can partially trace his connection to Jewish learning to his grandparents. They had immigrated to Argentina from Eastern Europe and learned in cheder, but stopped at age 14 due to everyday practicalities. “They had to work for a living,” reports Kornblit. 

Kornblit’s parents did not attend Jewish school though they did send Shmuel to a Jewish kindergarten “until it became too expensive.” They subsequently sent him to a public school, and he received only a modest Jewish and Hebrew education. He chuckles when he recalls, “I couldn’t read Hebrew. I learned the maftir for my bar mitzvah in transliteration [English characters]!”

BEING INTERVIEWED on i24. (credit: Shmuel Kornblit)
BEING INTERVIEWED on i24. (credit: Shmuel Kornblit)

Kornblit’s bar mitzvah preparation sparked his interest in Jewish learning. He signed up for a course for 13- and 14-year-olds to learn to be a shaliach tzibur (prayer leader), and he joined Beitar, the Revisionist Zionist youth movement founded by Ze’ev Jabotinsky. Soon after becoming involved in Beitar, Kornblit announced to his parents that he would be making aliyah when he turned 17. 

His supportive parents somewhat surprisingly informed him, “We are also thinking of making aliyah!” In order to avoid leaving school in Argentina in the middle of a school year, they decided to move up Shmuel’s aliyah time frame. 

Kornblit enrolled at the Yemin Orde Youth Village, located on 77 acres atop Mount Carmel in northern Israel near Haifa. He describes it as a “school for new olim” and received quite an education in the many faces of Israel during his year and a half at the school. 

“In my class, there were Jews from Ethiopia and Iran, and Israelis from tough situations.” He adds playfully, “I was neutral!” Hearing the stories of these olim, including boys from Ethiopia coming to Israel on foot, helped Kornblit realize just how uneventful his own aliyah experience had been compared to theirs. 

“I thought to myself – how easy I had it. I went to the Jewish Agency in Buenos Aires and got a plane ticket!” 

Kornblit next explored options for army service. “I was looking for a context for the army and found a Garin Torani from Bnei Akiva – it was all Israelis except for me – 14 boys and 14 girls.” As part of garin nachal, he spent three years and eight months rotating between army service, yeshiva learning and work on Kibbutz Merav. 

After serving in the army, Kornblit decided to return to Argentina for two years. “Instead of doing a post army trip, I decided to go on shlichut.” The 22-year-old returned to Argentina five and a half years after making aliyah. On shlichut, the still rather young Kornblit was involved with many denominations and organizations within the Jewish community. He worked with Bnei Akiva, taught in both a Conservative shul and Reform temple, served as a shaliach tzibur, and studied a bit in a Chabad yeshiva. 

Kornblit’s shlichut from 1993 to 1995 meant being in close proximity to the July 18, 1994 AMIA suicide van bombing at the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (Argentine Israelite Mutual Association). The bombing is Argentina’s deadliest terrorist attack to date; 85 people were killed and hundreds were injured. “A friend I davened with the morning of the bombing was killed,” he recalls.

Kornblit quickly became involved in affairs related to the bombing. “Rabbi Avi Weiss came to Buenos Aires from America and I was his right-hand man, taking him around to speak with the press, government officials, etc.”

Kornblit returned to Israel after his shlichut and began studying Bible, Jewish History, Talmud and Jewish Thought at Bar Ilan University. He also spent time learning in the yeshiva at Bar Ilan. His formal education includes an MA in Bible, a teacher’s certificate in Talmud, rabbinic ordination, and doctoral course work in contemporary Judaism. 

IN 1996, Kornblit had a life-changing experience working with Latin American olim through the Masuah organization: “I spent one Shabbat with them and was made director.” This experience has impacted all of Kornblit’s work in Israel since. 

He served as director of Masuah for 25 years, facilitating activities for young immigrants from Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries. “We organized one to two activities a month, and Shabbatons all around Israel to see different places and learn about different topics.” 

Kornblit was always mindful of the many needs of these young olim for resources in Spanish. “I also began thinking about older people and their need to access material in their native language.” 

He accumulated useful resources and started the Masuah website. “We created one of the biggest Spanish sites with information on Judaism, Zionism and Israel.” 

The site is comprehensive, with materials on the Jewish year, life cycle, Jewish texts, and activities for children, links to courses and more.

In 2001, the vegan-from-his teen-years Kornblit met his Belgian wife over a Shabbat dinner. He impressed the Spanish-speaking Belgian with both his vegan challah and the Spanish language benchers he had at the Shabbat dinner.

That same year, Kornblit founded the Yeshivat Hakotel program for Spanish speakers. He has had similar roles at Machon Meir and at the Machon Or Bnei Akiva program for women, and he continues to serve as an advisor to many Spanish-language yeshiva and seminary programs. 

In 2006, Kornblit returned to Buenos Aires for two more years of shlichut – this time with a wife – and with even more responsibilities than in his previous stints. He was responsible for Bnei Akiva in all of Latin America and taught several courses for Hillel. Kornblit also served as a shaliach for aliyah, traveling to Uruguay, Brazil and Mexico to discuss and facilitate aliyah from Latin and South America.

Back in Israel, Kornblit’s desire to bring Judaism and Jewish texts to the Spanish speaking world – both in person and online – continued. “It bothered me a lot that there was no Spanish-language Bible on the Internet. It was only in books, but not digital.” 

In 2016, he approached Herzog College with his idea. Herzog College’s, director of Bible Initiatives, Rabbi Dr. Shuki Reiss, encouraged him to expand his vision beyond the 929 chapters of the Bible. Reiss suggested that the Bible project also include Spanish-language commentaries, explanations, maps – even podcasts. 

The resource, www.hatanakh.com/es, was launched in November, 2020 and is currently used by Jewish teachers in 80 Jewish schools across Latin America.

While Kornblit’s many professional activities keep him busy, he manages to enjoy life in Jerusalem, the city he has called home for 19 years. He lives in Jerusalem’s Baka neighborhood with wife Irit, a linguistics researcher, and four daughters, ages nine, 12, 16 and 19. 

In his “free time,” the gregarious, always industrious Kornblit enjoys being a member of his local synagogue and giving divrei Torah in Hebrew – a welcome departure from the Spanish language which is so much part of his daily life in Israel. ■

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