Original Article Published On The JNS

“This is an opportunity to come together to promote friendship between the Latino and the Jewish communities,” says Jesse Rojo, director of the Philos Project.

The Israeli and Dominican Republic baseball teams will face off on the field at Miami’s LoanDepot Park this evening as part of the World Baseball Classic. But the two teams had a very different sort of encounter this morning.

Rather than competing on the diamond, players and coaches from both teams joined diplomats from the two countries, as well as the baseball team from David Posnack Jewish Day School in Davie, Fla., to discuss and strategize about antisemitism and to sign a Memorandum of Understanding, or MoU.

The origin of the group, which gathered at the Dominican Republic’s consulate and a downtown Miami park, dates back several years to when the Dominican Republic’s ambassador to Israel asked Israeli counterparts if the two nations’ baseball teams might begin to communicate, Jordy Alter, president of Israel Baseball, told JNS.

Independently, a Christian Zionist group in the Dominican Republic—part of the Philos Project—also contacted Alter about bringing a Christian group to Israel, he told JNS.

A relationship was already blooming. A delegation of Dominican players offered a clinic for Israelis at Ezra Schwartz Field in Ra’anana, and six Israeli players went to the Dominican Republic to train.

“At the end of the day, we hope that through baseball and nonviolent means, we can expose antisemitism, bring it out into the open and bring an awareness to help defeat it. I think baseball is a good way,” Alter told JNS on the field on March 13, prior to Israel’s loss to Puerto Rico in a near-perfect game.

On the morning of March 14, the Israeli and Dominican Republic baseball teams signed an MoU at the Dominican consulate.

Alter was enthusiastic about the development when he spoke to JNS at the event. “It was crazy,” he said. “It says the Dominican Republic will help Israel with baseball.”

Players from the David Posnack Jewish Day School in Davie, Fla., on March 14, 2023. Photo by Howard Blas.

‘We share the same dream’

Jesse Rojo, director of Philos Latino at the Philos Project, told JNS that members of his organization love Israel and also hope to expand relations with Israel’s baseball organization.

“This is an opportunity to come together to promote friendship between the Latino and the Jewish communities,” he said.

Amid a rise in antisemitism, Rojo said it felt like a “good time to step up and promote friendship.”

Jews and Latinos have lived in the same communities for hundreds of years, both in the Dominican Republic and the United States, said Rojo. He cited a long history of Jewish and Dominican neighbors living together in Washington Heights, the neighborhood in the northernmost part of Manhattan where he grew up, also home to Yeshiva University. Of course, it wasn’t without some tensions; it’s something to note and move forward with, Rojo alluded to in his comments.

“Let’s just get along and promote understanding for all human beings,” he said. “We share the same dream. This is what baseball does. It brings people together.”

Rojo brought three Dominican baseball players to Israel last November. “It is the birthplace of Christianity and the more Christians come to Israel, the better,” he said. “I fell in love with Israel.”

He expected 25 people to turn out for the baseball clinic in Ra’anana. “There were 300!” he reported.

At the event at the park, Alter welcomed attendees and introduced players, coaches and elected officials. Israeli team manager Ian Kinsler was on hand, as were Israel’s bullpen coach Nate Fish and players Dean Kremer and Assaf Lowengart. Nelson Cruz, general manager of the Dominican Republic team, was present, as was Frank Valdez, the team’s assistant hitting coach.

Maor Elbaz-Starinsky, consul general of Israel in Miami, and representatives from the Miami City Council were also present.

Everyone at the event received a white rose.

Alter told those assembled that “the White Rose was a German anti-Nazi group founded by non-Jewish medical students,” most of whom were killed during World War II. He called on everyone to “internalize the message and create our own non-violent responses” to antisemitism and hate.

At the event, Kinsler said that visiting Israel brought him closer to his Jewish identity and to the country. He also spoke of his long-standing friendship with Cruz, a seven-time Major League Baseball all-star.

“We are here for connections between neighbors,” he said.

Cruz told those assembled that it is important to love one another and be on the same page. Prior to the event, he told several journalists: “There is no difference between races. We try to bring that awareness to kids.”

“Hopefully, what starts today will grow all over the world,” Cruz said at the event.

The local Jewish day school’s baseball team had the chance to pose questions to players and coaches—like “How do you know when a curve ball is coming?” and “How do I recover after a long game pitching?”—before posing for photos and singing the Dominican Republic, Israeli and U.S. national anthems.

Even after the event ended, players, coaches and students lingered for a while, chatting informally. That kind of continuing communication seems to be just what the organizers had in mind.

Jewish day-school players hold up the team’s mutual flags, on March 14, 2023. Photo by Howard Blas.

Original Article Published On The JNS

Jordan Gladstone got permission from his Jewish day school to play hooky for a week.

It was a muggy, cloudy day in Miami, but it was comfortable in the air-conditioned stadium with a retractable roof, where Team Israel was taking batting practice on March 13 ahead of its second game—this one against Puerto Rico following a win the night before against Nicaragua.

Adam Gladstone, who works in operations for the team, confided in JNS that his mother-in-law did not believe her grandson’s Jewish day school would offer him a week’s respite to be the team’s batboy.

Gladstone and his wife, Julie, had indeed asked Beth Tfiloh Dahan Community School in Baltimore for permission for Jordan to serve as a batboy for Team Israel in the World Baseball Classic for a week.

“She bet me $5 that Dr. Schorr wouldn’t approve,” Gladstone told JNS.

He took the bet and won. Zipporah Schorr, the school’s director of education, is proud of the 14-year-old resident of Pikesville, Md.

“What a wonderful opportunity for a Jewish day-school student to enhance his connection to Israel in a positive and meaningful way,” Schorr told JNS. “Jordan Gladstone, as Team Israel batboy, embodies a sense of pride as a strong Jew and confident BT kid,” she added, using the abbreviation for Beth Tfiloh. She also said the experience was a “true statement” of Am Yisrael Chai (“The People of Israel Lives”).

Julie is pleased Schorr and Yehuda Oratz, a rabbi and middle-school principal, supported her son.

“They said, ‘Wow, what an honor,’” she told JNS. “All of his teachers have been so supportive of this opportunity that he has been given. They are so excited for him to be representing his Jewish school as well as Israel.”

She is sure that working with a team that represents Israel on the world stage will have a lasting impact on him.

Jordan, who celebrated his bar mitzvah a year ago at the Reform Har Sinai-Temple Oheb Shalom Congregation, has attended Beth Tefiloh since preschool.

“Judaism is a big part of my life,” he told JNS on the field in Miami. He reports not being particularly observant ritually but is proud he remembers most of his bar mitzvah portion, the story of Noah. (He calls the narrative “relatable.”)

Although his parents let him look at a variety of schools, Jordan chose to study at a Jewish day school. “He fell in love with the school,” said his father. “He absolutely loves it.”

Jordan, whose favorite subjects are math, history and gym, chose Beth Tfiloh because all of his neighbors went there. “I was the last one who didn’t,” he said.

Gladstone is not surprised that his mother-in-law owes him $5. His son was also a batboy for the team prior to their 2021 run at the Tokyo Olympics.

“When he was a batboy, he thrived at school. There is mutual admiration between him and the school,” he said.

‘The place went crazy after each hit’

Jordan told JNS he loved working with Team Israel leading up to the Olympics.

“One coach in charge of physical training asked me and another kid to lead all of the stretches before a game, and were surrounded by the whole team,” he said. “We were shy.”

Jordan’s first game as Team Israel batboy this time was Israel’s come-from-behind win against Nicaragua.

“Last night was crazy. The atmosphere. The place went crazy after each hit,” he told JNS. “I got a headache.”

As batboy, Jordan gets the bat from the plate following a hit, he told JNS. “I am excited about what tonight has in store,” he said of the March 13 evening game, although Jack, son of coach Ian Kinsler, was slated to be batboy at that game.

And even though he is some 1,150 miles away from school, he is still getting a Jewish education for the week.

As he noted: “It is cool to see the different corners of the baseball world Jews come from—Israel, the minors and the majors.”