Category: Jewish

Shlomo the Offensive Lineman

Post author By Rabbi Jason Miller
Post date October 10, 2007

Today, there are several Jewish football players in the National Football League. Of course, my favorite is Josh Miller, the New England Patriots kicker. But that’s only because he shares his name with my son Josh. There’s also Jay Fielder (New York Jets), Lennie Friedman (Washington Redskins), Sage Rosenfels (Miami Dolphins), Mike Rosenthal (Minnesota Vikings), and Mike Seidman (Carolina Panthers). There is also Igor Olshansky of the San Diego Chargers, who attended San Francisco Chabad’s Hebrew Academy. Like other Jewish pro athletes these guys are all over the map in terms of their level of commitment and observance to Judaism.

There is one Jewish pro football player who’s Jewish identity is very strong. Former Dallas Cowboys offensive lineman Alan Veingrad was a religiously indifferent Jew when he was an active player, but today he is ultra-Orthodox and goes by the name “Shlomo.” Several articles have been written about Shlomo Veingrad’s transformation, but the most comprehensive is the recent Dallas Morning News article, “Ex-Cowboy finds faith after football.”

Veingrad, who won a Super Bowl championship with the Cowboys in 1993, has his own website that focuses on his life in football and today as a frum Jew. He explains, “As a Dallas Cowboy and member of the Super Bowl championship team of 1992, I got to play for coach Jimmy Johnson and protect the now legendary quarterback Troy Aikman. Being Jewish left me open to a fair amount of good-natured ribbing and kidding, more the by-product of insensitivity than of malice. In the rough and tumble environment of an NFL team, a Jew is an outsider. But now, as I continue to discover even more the rich traditions of Yiddishkeit, I’m happy to be on the inside of Hashem’s army.”

You can also listen to a radio interview of Alan “Shlomo” Veingrad on “JM in the AM” from 2006.

children Fatherhood Jewish

Inspiring Writers: Chanan Tigay and Sam Apple

Post author By Rabbi Jason Miller
Post date September 30, 2007

I recently stumbled upon two great first-person articles by guys I know. Reading Newsweek magazine on an elliptical machine last week, I immediately recognized Chanan Tigay’s photo on the My Turn page. Chanan went to the University of Pennsylvania with a close friend of mine, and is the son of a Conservative rabbi, Professor Jeffrey Tigay of Penn. I got to know Chanan in 1998 when he was an administrative assistant in the rabbinical school of the Jewish Theological Seminary, where I was in my first year of the program. Sure enough, in the essay Chanan mentions that he got his professional start at JTS doing clerical work:

Yet I was still having trouble thinking of myself as an actor. I was slogging through my day job as an administrative assistant at a rabbinical school, answering phones, making copies and praying for lunch-time, while those around me prayed for something holier.

Chanan penned a truly inspiring and touching tribute about his former director, Gian-Luigi (“Igi”) Polidoro. He writes, “Igi was funny and sharp, and when I was with him I began to see myself as an adult and an actor.” In 900 words, Chanan paid homage to this eccentric artist in a captivating and beautiful way. Perhaps he’ll consider writing a book or screenplay about Igi’s life.

The next author I stumbled upon was the witty Sam Apple. I first met Sam in an Upper West Side Starbucks on Broadway in 1999. Sam was the editor of New Voices magazine and I was in need of some advertising for a small startup Web company some friends and I were trying to launch (JewishStudent.com never saw the light of day). We later reconnected at Sam’s alma mater, the University of Michigan, where I worked at the Hillel and Sam would visit the executive director with whom he was close. A couple years ago, when the Melton Book Club I led discussed Sam’s wonderful book Schlepping Through the Alps, he was gracious enough to speak to the group by speaker phone. I highly recommend Schlepping Through the Alps — it’s a masterpiece.

Well, it wasn’t until I had read the first few paragraphs of a hilarious article in Parents Magazine titled “What’s It Really Like to Be a Baby?” that I realized it was written by Sam Apple. I shouldn’t have been surprised that Sam wrote it because of how witty it was. When Sam and Jennifer Apple’s son Isaac was six-months-old, Sam wondered about what went through his newborn’s mind. So, in typical Sam Apple fashion he conducted some experiments including pouring “no tears” shampoo in his eyes and having Jennifer swaddle him. Funny stuff.

Since becoming a dad, Sam has written some laugh-out-loud articles about fatherhood. I think his best article was about hunting for a mohel (ritual circumcisor) for Isaac’s bris. This was part of a contest in the LA Times in which a guest columnist had to write a column in the trope of Joel Stein. Sam won the contest with a majority of the votes (I only voted once!). Sam’s also got a great article about being a videotaping-obsessed new dad and putting the home movies on YouTube. I can certainly relate!

Baseball Jewish Sports

Ryan Braun Revisited

Post author By Rabbi Jason Miller
Post date September 25, 2007

Since my posting about the decisions that Jewish professional athletes make about whether to play on Yom Kippur, I’ve received many inquiries as to whether Ryan Braun actually played on the Day of Atonement. Yes, he did play, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Braun will play: Third baseman Ryan Braun said he would play during the Jewish holy day Yom Kippur this weekend in Atlanta. Braun’s father is Jewish, but his mother is a Catholic and said he had not observed that holy day in the past.

“I don’t really celebrate the (Jewish) holidays so it won’t be much of an issue with me,” Braun said. “Growing up half-Jewish, half-Catholic, I’ve never really celebrated one holiday over the other.”

Yom Kippur begins at sundown Friday and continues to sundown Saturday, and Jews are supposed to fast during that period, including drinking no water. The Brewers play a night game Friday and an afternoon game Saturday against the Braves.

After my post, however, I realized that the focus is always on famous professional athletes when it comes to the Yom Kippur decision. What about all the Jewish college athletes playing in Yom Kippur football games throughout the NCAA? Does it matter that they’re not getting paid? What about other famous Jews choosing to work on Yom Kippur? Are we as interested in Jewish actors who take the day off from filming their next blockbuster movie? What if Jon Stewart filmed an episode of the Daily Show on Yom Kippur? Does the Jewish community even look to these Jewish celebrities as Jewish role models anyway or should their decisions to not observe Yom Kippur be judged any differently than your average Jew who chooses to work on the holy day?

Perhaps we can learn a lesson from the case of Ryan Braun. Yes, the Jewish world should celebrate his All-Star year, and that he might be the first Jewish player* to win the Rookie of the Year award (even though many will call his Judaism into question because he is not Jewish by matrilineal descent — that is, his mom’s not Jewish). But since he doesn’t make a big deal about Yom Kippur, why should the media cover his decision to play on Yom Kippur as if it’s a big deal to us.

When I met Ryan Braun and some of his Milwaukee Brewers teammates in Phoenix last month, I asked one player on the team if Braun was the only Jewish player on the Brewers (I thought Gabe Gross might be). He told me that he didn’t even know that Braun was Jewish.

*The Rookie of the Year award did not exist when Hank Greenberg played

Celebrities Football Holidays Jewish Rabbi Synagogues

Don’t Say Videotape in Your Rosh Hashanah Sermon

Post author By Rabbi Jason Miller
Post date September 23, 2007

An embarrassing event occurred at a Conservative synagogue in Newton, Massachusetts. I’m sure that the synagogue’s rabbi had no idea about the NFL’s New England Patriots‘ videotaping scandal when she sat down to write her Rosh Hashanah sermon. She probably also didn’t know that the Patriots’ owner (and her congregant) Robert Kraft (pictured at right) had said that he didn’t know his team was using a sideline camera that caused a $750,000 fine and the loss of a draft pick. The video camera was confiscated at the beginning of the Patriots’ season opener and Mr. Kraft embarrassingly expressed his displeasure with his head coach.

Jason Schwartz wrote about the awkward shul moment in the Boston Magazine’s blog “Boston Daily”:

After a week of Cameragate, you’d have to imagine that Bob Kraft was looking for that type of escape when he strolled into his Newton temple late this morning. But thanks to a faux-pas from a rabbi who’s apparently had her head stuck in a giant blintz for the last week, no such luck.
I go to the same temple as Kraft, so I’m pleased to report that he did an outstanding job chanting a lengthy haftorah portion (a selection from the prophets) before the congregation today, but things got a little bumpy at the end of the service when our rabbi rose to deliver the sermon.Her main trope was that people should act as as though God is always watching them. Not a bad lesson, except that in making her point she must have made an endless number of references to acting like you’re being videotaped. This was awkward.Somewhere in the middle of the sermon, she somehow managed to stumble onto a story about Cal Ripken, Jr. and what a positive role model he is (why she referenced Cal Ripken of all people, I have no idea–this sermon was all over the place). Her basic point was that Ripken always knew he was being recorded on the field, so he behaved accordingly. This was especially significant, she said, in this modern age where “sports scandal” is so prevalent.

Of course, the rabbi at the Newton synagogue really can’t be blamed for her awkward references in her sermon to videotaping and sports scandals. But the old adage that one must consider the audience is relevant here. The last sermon that she gave that made headlines was a couple years ago when she spoke about gay rights in the Conservative Movement causing the synagogue’s cantor, who objected to the sermon, to resign his position and start a new congregation.

I remember being a guest rabbinical student at a Houston synagogue while I was studying at the Jewish Theological Seminary. My visit was immediately following the Enron debacle and, knowing there were former Enron executives at this congregation, I recall scrutinizing my sermons for that Shabbat to make sure there was nothing that if taken out of context would be embarrassing.

I also remember choosing my words very carefully when I delivered a sermon this past June about Princess Diana. Having just read an article about her and the upcoming tenth anniversary of her tragic death, I was eager to speak about her life from the pulpit. It so happened that I gave this sermon on the Shabbat that one of Leslie and Abigail Wexner’s sons was celebrating his bar mitzvah at my former Columbus synagogue. I was hesitant to give this sermon because I didn’t want the audience to mistakenly think I was comparing Abigail Wexner to Princess Diana, although there are several striking similarities between the two women including their marriages to older, public figures and their humanitarian and charitable activities. Of course, one man approached me following the prayer service to tell me how brilliant my sermon was and that he understood the hidden comparison I was making. I told him that was not my intention at all, but he wouldn’t hear of it.

Perhaps the real lesson of this rabbi’s sermon is that rabbis should choose their words carefully… and watch Sports Center before the High Holidays.

Charity Israel Jewish

Trees in Israel and the Playboy Mansion… An Odd Mix

Post author By Rabbi Jason Miller
Post date September 19, 2007

Two weeks ago I attended the Jewish National Fund Michigan Region’s annual event at Congr egation Shaarey Zedek in Southfield, Michigan. To raise money for the JNF and its programs in Israel, works of art by world renowned artist Yaacov Agam (pictured with me at right) were auctioned off. In fact, Agam was a guest at the event and I was thrilled to have the chance to meet him. No one would dispute that it is appropriate for an organization such as the JNF to auction artwork by such a revered Jewish artist as a fundraising mechanism.

However, auctioning off a subscription to Playboy magazine and an all-expenses-paid trip to a VIP party at the legendary Playboy Mansion in California might not be the best idea for a Jewish organization. That is what the Greater New York branch of the JNF planned to do for its “JNF Sports Bonanza,” but in the end they created the “Playboy Scandal” for an institution committed to planting trees in Israel and improving Israel’s water sources.

Of course, Jewish feminist groups and some Israeli officials were none too pleased with this fundraising idea. And so this week the Jewish National Fund decided that it would no longer auction the Playboy package for charity.

The JNF released the following statement:

Thank you for your concern regarding the auction of more than 100 items including the Playboy Mansion golf tournament item at a local New York JNF event. JNF more often than not gets things right, but of course sometimes we don’t. Clearly this is a case of poor judgment. The item in question was donated by local New York lay leaders who were only trying to help raise money. If JNF could reverse its course we would, but since we can’t, we apologize for accepting the donation and have removed the item from the list.

I’m sure in the future JNF will vet its donated auction items a little closer.

Baseball Holidays Jewish Sports Yom Kippur

Rookie Sensation Ryan Braun and Yom Kippur

Post author By Rabbi Jason Miller
Post date September 18, 2007

Every year before Yom Kippur there has to be at least one article about whether a Jewish baseball player will play on the holiest day of the year. The Jewish community seems to get all excited about whether baseball players will suit up on Yom Kippur ever since 1934 when Detroit Tigers Hall of Famer Hank Greenberg chose to attend Yom Kippur prayer services at Congregation Shaarey Zedek in lieu of playing against the Boston Red Sox in a critical game in the middle of a pennant race.

That year Greenberg played on Rosh Hashanah and hit two home runs that won the game, but didn’t play on Yom Kippur. Sandy Koufax made it a point to never play on Yom Kippur, even sitting out a World Series game in 1965 (although he did not go to synagogue). Some Jewish ballplayers like Shawn Green have been less consistent in taking off the Jewish holy day. In 2001, Green (then with the Dodgers) sat out an important pennant race game because of Yom Kippur. That same year Green appeared in more games than any other Dodger (161 of 162 games), and had the longest consecutive-game playing streak in the majors (408 games). That streak, however, came to an end when he didn’t play on Yom Kippur, a decision supported by the team. In more recent years, Shawn Green has opted to play in the night game on Erev Yom Kippur (Kol Nidrei) but not play on Yom Kippur day.

In a 2004 article for J, The Jewish news weekly of Northern California, Seth Swirsky explains, “In 2001, I wrote to [Shawn] Green asking him why, in the recent past, he had chosen not to play baseball on Yom Kippur. The letter was included in my book Something to Write Home About. This was Green’s inspiring response:

“Though I didn’t grow up in a religious household, I was raised with a strong sense of identity. I was a huge baseball fan, just like lots of kids. At the time I was growing up, there really weren’t any well-known Jewish players (at least as far as I knew). I was, however, very aware of Greenberg and Koufax and the tremendous role models they were for Jewish people everywhere.

“As my baseball career progressed, I always remembered the decisions that the two greatest Jewish ballplayers made, and I told myself that if I was ever in their position to, in any way, fill that role, I would. Thus, I feel a strong responsibility to make the right choices when it comes to such topics as not playing on Yom Kippur. I’m not trying to be ‘the next Greenberg or Koufax,’ but I am trying to do my part as a Jewish ballplayer.”

Even prominent rabbis like David Wolpe have tried to convince Shawn Green to sit out Yom Kippur. Some other prominent Jewish players in major league baseball like Gabe Kapler and Kevin Youkilis have also made news about their Yom Kippur playing decisions (Kapler usually plays; Youkilis sits it out).

Well, this year there’s a new Jewish player making news in the big leagues. Ryan (“The Hebrew Hammer”) Braun (pictured at right) is on his way to becoming the first Jewish Rookie of the Year. I met Ryan Braun last month when he was staying with his team at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Phoenix, Arizona during the Milwaukee Brewers’ series against the Arizona Diamondbacks. I found Ryan to be very friendly and I told him how great it is to have a Jewish athlete playing as well as he has been this year. In a very “small world” story, Ryan told me that he lived with his grandfather for a while in the same house that once belonged to Hank Greenberg.

Of course with Ryan Braun making a name for himself with his All-Star season, the JTA recently raised the question of whether he will play on Yom Kippur. Braun was quoted in the Milwaukee Jewish Sentinel saying, “Being Jewish is something I take great pride in. There aren’t too many Jewish athletes who have achieved success at the highest level, so it’s something I’m very proud of.” Hopefully, he’ll make the Jewish community proud and sit this one out even though his team needs him.

The Jewish community’s preoccupation with Jewish baseball players and Yom Kippur is likely due to the pennant races and playoffs at the end of the regular season when Yom Kippur falls. Afterall, if the NFL Superbowl or college bowl games ever overlapped with Yom Kippur, I’m sure we’d hear about more conflicted Jewish football players!

Celebrities Jewish Kosher

Celebrities Love the Kosher Restaurants

Post author By Rabbi Jason Miller
Post date July 29, 2007

My favorite Kosher restaurant outside of Israel is Prime Grill in New York City. That’s where I dined to celebrate my ordination from rabbinical school and also where I took our group of congregants from Agudas Achim when we visited NYC last December. The Kosher steaks are delicious and the ambiance is very classy.

Well, according to a ynet news article, many celebrities are big fans of Prime Grill as well. Madonna brought her dancers and musicians to Prime Grill NYC each night after her concert. Sasha Baron Cohen (“Borat”) and Paris Hilton frequent the Prime Grill in Beverly Hills and Donald Trump and Bono are regulars at Prime Grill’s Solo restaurant in Manhattan.

The article does more than just name drop the celebs who are choosing to go Kosher when they dine out. It raises the question of why Kosher food is now in vogue. Is it akin to the Kabbalah fad? Do people believe it is healthier?

“[I]n spite of the star dust being sprinkled over kosher foods, some claim that making kosher trendy is not a kosher thing to do. Most in the Jewish community are not swayed by star dust and are against turning Judaism into ‘a modern, trendy cult,’ says one of the heads of the rabbinical committee in America, who choose to ignore the phenomenon. ‘This is just a fashion that will soon disappear”, he says. “Everything Jewish is suddenly popular, but after the noise has quietened down and the storm has passed, only the core will remain, but anyway, the core is what’s important in Judaism.“

Baseball Jewish Sports

Jews, Baseball, and a Book

Post author By Rabbi Jason Miller
Post date July 6, 2007

I love Jews. I love baseball. And I love books. So, I’ve really been looking forward to Jews and Baseball, Volume I: Entering the American Mainstream, 1871-1948 by Burton A. Boxerman and Benita W.Boxerman (Published by McFarland & Company, Inc.).

The Forward published a fair review of this book. This is clearly not a coffee table book. Nor is it one of those “Famous Jews in Sports”-type books that shows nice photos of Mark Spitz and a few heavyweight boxers before explaining that most Jews in sports are the owners and agents. This is a book with statistics and footnotes.

As the reviewer explains, “Although ultimately this book is about the men who played a game, it has the feel of a thesis, and that’s too bad. When you want real-life anecdotes, instead you get citations that often are merely repeats of other bobe-mayses. The book is 184 pages of text, and it also includes an additional 20 pages of notes and an eight-page bibliography.”

I’m excited to buy a copy, read it, and then use it for reference. Even if there haven’t been too many Jewish baseball players in the big leagues (an average of one per year in the past 140 years of the game), it’s fun to learn more about the MOTs (Members of the Tribe) who made it to the show… even if they weren’t Hank Greenberg or Shawn Greene.

Camp Jewish Ramah

Is Camp Ramah TOO Jewish?

Post author By Rabbi Jason Miller
Post date June 28, 2007

The Forward just published an interesting article about a long-standing debate: “Is Jewish summer camp fun enough?” Many parents of Jewish day school students argue that their kids should get a “break” over the summer and not be subjected to more Jewish education. Of course, Jewish summer camps that emphasize prayer and Talmud Torah (Jewish learning) like Camp Ramah, Camp Moshava, Camp Yavneh, Camp Stone, etc. also have other activities like sports, waterskiing, art, and drama.

The opening paragraph of this article is misleading. Columnist Rebecca Spence writes, “At Camp Ramah in the Berkshires, Jewish campers wake up every morning at 7:30 and daven the morning prayers. After some swimming or maybe a Frisbee game, the older kids can, if they want, daven again in the afternoon. And at the end of a day that includes a 45-minute Judaic learning session, well, they can… daven again.” Add up the time spent in prayer services (even including the “optional” afternoon and evening minyanim), the 45-minute class, and mealtime and these campers are still left with many hours of typical camp activities.

My colleague Rabbi Mitch Cohen (pictured), director of the Ramah Camps, makes a bold (but true) statement in this article, explaining, “Families who spend a fortune on day school education and then send their kids to nonreligious programs in the summer in some ways are wasting their investment.”

The trick of course is to create summer camping experiences that emphasize Jewish living 24/7 with prayer services, learning opportunities, and Shabbat observance while also offering serious summer activities like sports. Having served as a staff member at three of the Ramah camps (Wisconsin, Nyack, and Canada), I can honestly say that they are successful at this synergy.

For three summers I served as the director of the Ropes Challenge Course at Camp Ramah in Nyack and was always cognizant of the synergy between Jewish education and outdoor camp fun. In that vein, I published a curriculum that was used at Ramah to teach Jewish values, Hebrew, and Torah to the campers while they were participating in the Ropes course and climbing wall.

I’m optimistic that the Foundation for Jewish Camping will work to ensure that Jewish summer camps where Judaism is a focus will be able to provide top-notch extra-curricular programs like sports taught by instructors one would find at the best sports camps in the country, as well as outdoor adventure activities that rival any secular camp.

Celebrities Jewish Music

"Dirty Dancing" Star Sings Klezmer

Post author By Rabbi Jason Miller
Post date June 6, 2007

I just saw this very funny YouTube video of Jennifer Grey, the star of “Dirty Dancing”, singing a hillarious Klezmer parody song called “Duvid Crockett” on Conan O’Brien. The Klezmer song was actually written and performed by her grandfather, the Jewish comedian Mickey Katz. Jennifer’s father (and Mickey Katz’s son) is the Broadway actor Joel Grey, who was recently in Wicked.