Menschwarmers

What is a very special announcement from Jamie? Credits Hosts: James Hirsh and Gabe Pulver Producer: Michael Fraiman Music: Coby Lipovitch (intro), chēēZ π (main theme, " Organ Grinder Swing ") Support The CJN Follow the podcast on Twitter @menschwarmers Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Menschwarmers (Not sure how? Click here )

Alfred Nakache is a famous athletic icon within France—but outside the country, his story is not well known. Born in 1915 to a Jewish family that fled Iraq for Algeria, Nakache rose to become one of France's top swimmers, breaking records and competing in the 1936 Berlin Olympics in Nazi Germany—he even finished fourth, beating the German team. By 1944, however, Nakache, his wife and their young daughter were taken and thrown in the Auschwitz concentration camp. His wife and daughter were killed there—but he survived. Emaciated and traumatized, Nakache returned to France after the war and did something few thought possible: he resumed training, reclaimed national titles, and competed in the 1948 London Olympics. Now, decades after he passed away, his story has become the subject of an emotional new film, Butterfly, which has been nominated for the Academy Award for best animated short. The 15-minute movie, tenderly painted frame-by-frame by director Florence Miailhe, follows the ebbs and flows of Nakache's life, from his childhood fear of water to the loss of his family and his remarkable Olympic comeback. Producer Ron Dyens, who previously won the Oscar for animated feature for Flow, joins the Menschwarmers to explain more. Credits Hosts: James Hirsh and Gabe Pulver Producer: Michael Fraiman Music: Coby Lipovitch (intro), chēēZ π (main theme, " Organ Grinder Swing ") Support The CJN Follow the podcast on Twitter @menschwarmers Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Menschwarmers (Not sure how? Click here )

The 2026 Winter Olympics start this week, taking over northern Italy from Feb. 6-22. But while Jewish sports fan might be eager to root for their fellow members of the Tribe... there just aren't that many this time around. Canada isn't sending any Jewish athletes that we could find (having snubbed some key hockey players), which leaves the United States and Israel as the only visible representatives of Jewish athletics in this year's winter games. Fortunately, there are still some unique stories to watch. A.J. Edelman, who was recently profiled for Scribe Quarterly, has been on a years-long mission to qualify for Olympic sliding sports; he will lead his bobsleigh team—dubbed "Shul Runnings"—after coming 28th in the skeleton competition in the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. American curler Korey Dropkin will look to hold Team USA's reigning gold medal in mixed curling. Israel is sending a sizeable delegation of nine athletes, including a brother-sister alpine skiing duo, a nationally celebrated figure skater, and a Floridian lawyer looking to break new ground in skeleton racing. Hear all about them and more in the latest episode of Menschwarmers. Credits Hosts: James Hirsh and Gabe Pulver Producer: Michael Fraiman Music: Coby Lipovitch (intro), chēēZ π (main theme, " Organ Grinder Swing ") Support The CJN Follow the podcast on Twitter @menschwarmers Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Menschwarmers (Not sure how? Click here ) Credits Hosts: James Hirsh and Gabe Pulver Producer: Michael Fraiman Music: Coby Lipovitch (intro), chēēZ π (main theme, " Organ Grinder Swing ") Support The CJN Follow the podcast on Twitter @menschwarmers Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Menschwarmers (Not sure how? Click here )

The Menschwarmers return after a lengthy winter break! In this mid-January catch-all catch-up, Gabe and James get started looking at arguably the biggest trade of the NHL season last, involving two Jewish players—Quinn Hughes and Zeev Buium—who were swapped with predictable results. Then they start looking at Winter Olympics rosters, starting with Olympic hockey: which Jewish players got snubbed? After that, a glimpse at Deni Avdija's odds at being the first Israeli NBA All Star and an obsessive look at golf in the dead of winter. Credits Hosts: James Hirsh and Gabe Pulver Producer: Michael Fraiman Music: Coby Lipovitch (intro), chēēZ π (main theme, " Organ Grinder Swing ") Support The CJN Follow the podcast on Twitter @menschwarmers Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Menschwarmers (Not sure how? Click here )

As far as Jewish filmmakers go, the Safie brothers could well be the GOATs (Greatest Of All Time) when it comes to Jewish sports cinema. One of their earliest collaborations was a 2013 documentary on high school basketball star Lenny Cooke; their breakout feature, Uncut Gems, was a sports-adjacent thriller featuring a Passover Seder with Adam Sandler and Idina Menzel; then younger brother Benny Safdie went on to star in Sandler's Happy Gilmore sequel—another sports film with a Jewish lead character. Now, in late 2025, the brothers (who are great-nephews of architect Moshe Safdie, for those wondering) have gone their separate ways, each directing their own sports movie. Benny directed The Rock in a biopic of MMA fighter Mark Kerr in The Smashing Machine, while older brother Josh Safdie tapped Jewish actor Timothée Chalamet to play table tennis champion Marty Reisman in Marty Supreme. While Marty Supreme is slated for a Christmas Day release 2025, the Globe and Mail's film editor, Barry Hertz, just published a review of the Oscar contender, in which he says the story "burns with the relentless, fight-for-your-life spirit of the Maccabees.... With apologies to Adam Sandler’s Eight Crazy Nights, Marty Supreme is, thematically and spiritually, the greatest Hanukkah movie ever made." Hertz joins the Menschwarmers to explain his reasoning and how this ping pong epic fits into the larger canon of Jewish cinema. And before that, the boys chat about Jake Retzlaff leading the Tulane Green Wave to success, and get to the source of an incorrect rumour about the Toronto Blue Jays' Eric Clement being Jewish. Credits Hosts: James Hirsh and Gabe Pulver Producer: Michael Fraiman Music: Coby Lipovitch (intro), chēēZ π (main theme, " Organ Grinder Swing ") Support The CJN Follow the podcast on Twitter @menschwarmers Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Menschwarmers (Not sure how? Click here )

Even though the Toronto Blue Jays traded away Spencer Horwitz, their only recent Jewish player, there are still multiple Hebraic angles that our Jewish sports podcasters are celebrating as the team charges into the World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers this week. The father-son team of Dan and Ben Shulman will be calling the Jays' broadcasts; macher Mark Shapiro sits as team president and CEO; two of the biggest celebrity fans include Eugene Levy and Geddy Lee; and at least two rabbis—one in Toronto, the other in L.A.—have engaged in a friendly wager over the outcome. Menschwarmers co-hosts Gabe Pulver and James Hirsh dig into all this as the two lifelong Jays fans get ready for Game 1 on Friday night. After that, Gabe sits down with soccer journalist and broadcaster David Gass (co-host of the Kickback Committee podcast), who explains all the chaos of the last week involving Israeli soccer teams, including Birmingham's decision to ban fans of the Maccabi Tel Aviv team and a subsequent called-off match between Maccabi and Hapoel Tel Aviv. Credits Hosts: James Hirsh and Gabe Pulver Producer: Michael Fraiman Music: Coby Lipovitch (intro), chēēZ π (main theme, "Organ Grinder Swing") Support The CJN Follow the podcast on Twitter @menschwarmers Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Menschwarmers (Not sure how? Click here)

After a tumultuous season, international cycling team Israel–Premier Tech, co-owned by Canadian-Israeli billionaire Sylvan Adams, is officially going to change its name and remove the word "Israel". The decision comes after repeated anti-Israel protests across Europe disrupted the team—whose international roster of 31 cyclists includes just three Israelis—during their open-road events, which can last hundreds of kilometres across the continent. Several cyclists crashed due to protester intervention. The decision to remove Israeli branding from Israel–Premier Tech led co-owner Adams to announce he would step away from day-to-day involvement with the team. There's a lot to be said about the political ramifications of wearing the Israeli name on your shirt in 2025, but our sports podcasters have a different theory about the shift. Israel–Premier Tech enjoyed a successful season that brought them back to full status with the UCI World Tour, after being relegated down to the secondary UCI ProSeries since 2023. That means the stakes are higher, the stage is bigger, and the league's propensity for risk and disruption may well have shrunk considerably. Is this purely a move to placate protesters, or are the team members—and possibly UCI executives—trying to prevent more bad press in the coming year? Also on the docket: the boys talk about the Toronto Blue Jays' run to the American League championship series, big baseball moves, early NHL impressions and a quick NFL check-in. Credits Hosts: James Hirsh and Gabe Pulver Producer: Michael Fraiman Music: Coby Lipovitch (intro), chēēZ π (main theme, "Organ Grinder Swing") Support The CJN Follow the podcast on Twitter @menschwarmers Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Menschwarmers (Not sure how? Click here)

Canadians who've never before heard of the Davis Cup, a men's team tennis tournament, grew outraged when they discovered Canada was hosting Israel in a match on Sept. 12 and 13. Anti-Israel activists demanded a ban on the Israeli athletes over their country's war in Gaza; pro-Israel advocates insisted the sport remain free of political interference. In the end, nobody won: Tennis Canada announced they would not permit any fans to enter the venue this weekend, refunding anyone who bought a ticket. What will likely ensue is a relatively uneventful match between two lower-seeded tennis teams, accompanied by some everyday protests outside. But while Tennis Canada cited security concerns for their decision, our sports podcasters ask: is that really the reason? The venue holds 5,000 people, and only 1,500 people were expected to attend. Of that, a small handful of anti-Israel protesters—in the realm of a dozen people—said they bought tickets with the explicit intention of disrupting the event. Team Israel has significant security resources, and has said nothing that indicates they were worried for their players' safety. So was this really a security concern, or is Tennis Canada more concerned with a clean product for television and to encourage the opportunity of hosting international events in the future? Was this a political move, or simply a bureaucratic one? The hosts dig into all this, plus what happened with Israeli teams in European cycling and soccer. Credits Hosts: James Hirsh and Gabe Pulver Producer: Michael Fraiman Music: Coby Lipovitch (intro), chēēZ π (main theme, "Organ Grinder Swing") Support The CJN Follow the podcast on Twitter @menschwarmers Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Menschwarmers (Not sure how? Click here)

In July, the New York Yankees drafted a Canadian shortstop from Wyoming, Ont., named Core Jackson. They did so despite knowing that Jackson, as a 17-year-old freshman at the University of Nebraska, had drawn a swastika on a Jewish student's dorm room while he was, he later told The Athletic, "blackout drunk." But this isn't a run-of-the-mill case of antisemitism. By all accounts, according to the Yankees' ground scouts and the recent investigation by The Athletic that ran Aug. 20, Jackson was, simply, acting like an ignorant drunk teenager, and was forthright about the incident with teams before the draft. The team did significant due diligence, engaging with New York's Jewish community and sending scouts to learn about Jackson's family and personality. The resulting story is less about the insipid rise of casual antisemitism, and more about the power of forgiveness when people—especially teenagers—make mistakes and try to do better. Keith Law, a longtime baseball journalist and former front office worker with the Toronto Blue Jays, broke this story for The Athletic. He joins us to share his impressions of Core Jackson and how the Yankees are viewing this opportunity. After that, podcast hosts Gabe and Jamie run through this year's hottest Jewish sports movies, from Happy Gilmore 2 to both Safdie brothers' award-season offerings, The Smashing Machine and Marty Supreme. Then they give a quick NFL preview and recap Zach Hyman's ceremonial opening of the new ice hockey rink at the Schwartz/Reisman Jewish Community Centre in Vaughan. Credits Hosts: James Hirsh and Gabe Pulver Producer: Michael Fraiman Music: Coby Lipovitch (intro), chēēZ π (main theme, "Organ Grinder Swing") Support The CJN Follow the podcast on Twitter @menschwarmers Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Menschwarmers (Not sure how? Click here)

Jake Retzlaff has earned a spot as one of America's top college football quarterbacks, rising with the Brigham Young University Cougars as the first Jewish quarterback to ever play at the Mormon university. But it's precisely that religious juxtaposition that got Retzlaff in trouble with the BYU Cougars, after a brief legal action in May 2025 saw an anonymous accusation of sexual assault lobbied against the college athlete. Even though the case was dismissed with prejudice on June 30, Retzlaff conceded that he had sexual relations with the woman, which is against BYU's religious rules. Instead of facing a lengthy suspension, Retzlaff applied for a transfer. BYU's loss turned into Tulane University's gain, as Retzlaff will now vie for the starting QB spot on the Tulane Green Wave, repping a university that proudly stands as one of the first in the American South to allow Jews—and now has, according to some estimates, a Jewish student population as high as 40 percent. How will Retlaff perform at "Jewlane" University? What are the expectations? We ask Isaac Popper, an insider with the Green Wave and sports reporter based in New Orleans, for answers. Credits Hosts: James Hirsh and Gabe Pulver Producer: Michael Fraiman Music: Coby Lipovitch (intro), chēēZ π (main theme, "Organ Grinder Swing") Support The CJN Follow the podcast on Twitter @menschwarmers Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Menschwarmers (Not sure how? Click here)

On the first night of the NBA draft on June 25, the most surprising team was undoubtedly the Brooklyn Nets. They had five first-round picks—and, for the first time in NBA history, kept all of them. They picked Egor Demin earlier than anyone would have predicted. And they used two of their picks—back-to-back at numbers 26 and 27—on this year's only Jewish prospects, Ben Saraf and Danny Wolf. Saraf, an Israeli guard, is a skilled passer and playmaker who just took his German team to the finals of Germany's national league; Wolf, an American who has played for Israel's national team, brings a seven-foot frame, excellent court vision and smart footwork. Both will vie for permanent roster spots in Brooklyn's young core, making their Summer League debuts this week. To learn more about who these players are and how they fit into Brooklyn's future plans, the Menschwarmers invited on Nick Agar-Johnson, the editor-in-chief of No Ceilings, a website, Substack and podcast that specialize in year-round NBA draft coverage. Credits Hosts: James Hirsh and Gabe Pulver Producer: Michael Fraiman Music: Coby Lipovitch (intro), chēēZ π (main theme, "Organ Grinder Swing") Support The CJN Follow the podcast on Twitter @menschwarmers Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Menschwarmers (Not sure how? Click here)

In March 2025, Josh Goldenberg had all but given up his dreams of playing professional golf. Using his finance degree from the University of Pennsylvania, he took a job at Goldman Sachs. But when he saw an opening to play in a qualifying tournament for the RBC Canadian Open, he signed up and flew up north on a Sunday—so he wouldn't have to take work off—and ended up earning a spot on his first PGA Tour. Goldenberg shares his remarkable story on this week's Menschwarmers, along with his thoughts on being a proudly Jewish player and how he carries that through his life. Also in this episode: Gabe recounts how Robert Shwartzman fell as quickly as he rose in his recent F1 race, and the hosts pay homage to Zach Hyman, who won't play in the Stanley Cup Finals due to injuries—despite the Edmonton Oilers remaining both the most Canadian and most Jewish team to root for this year. Credits Hosts: James Hirsh and Gabe Pulver Producer: Michael Fraiman Music: Coby Lipovitch (intro), chēēZ π (main theme, "Organ Grinder Swing") Support The CJN Follow the podcast on Twitter @menschwarmers Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Menschwarmers (Not sure how? Click here)

Jewish racing fans were thrilled to see rookie Robert Shwartzman win what's called "pole position"—the starting spot, ahead of all other racers—at this week's forthcoming Indy 500 competition. The surprise victory vaults Shwartzman into rare company as one of the only rookies to earn the feat, and sets him up to possibly become the first Jewish winner of the famous race since the 1940s. It's major international news—and podcast host Gabe Pulver knows the sport well enough to explain it all to you on this week's Menschwarmers. Also in this episode, we've got two other big stories out of Indiana. First, the hosts recap the legacy of former Indianapolis Colts owner and general manager Jim Irsay, whose father was Jewish and who passed away just hours before our recording. Later on, they discuss the competitor team to the Indiana Pacers in the NBA Eastern Conference Finals: the New York Knicks, the most Jewish-seeming team remaining in the NBA playoffs, and certainly the one with the loudest Jewish fanbase. (We're looking at you, Timothée Chalamet.) Credits Hosts: James Hirsh and Gabe Pulver Producer: Michael Fraiman Music: Coby Lipovitch (intro), chēēZ π (main theme, "Organ Grinder Swing") Support The CJN Follow the podcast on Twitter @menschwarmers Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Menschwarmers (Not sure how? Click here)

Yeshiva University's men's basketball team rose to prominence during a Cinderella run in the 2021-22 season, earning the league's longest winning streak under star Ryan Turell and snatching the number-one seed in Division III basketball. Now, the team is back in the national spotlight for a different reason: a new documentary that follows the boys as they navigate their 2023-24 season in a post-Oct. 7 world. Rebound: A Year of Triumph and Tragedy at Yeshiva University Basketball premiered in April 2025 on FOX Nation. The team, which had six Israeli players on the roster, deliberated whether to cancel their season outright or play on. They ended up taking a mid-season trip to Israel, where they visited family and bore witness to the recent tragedy, ultimately deciding to use their platform to support Israel publicly. Director Pat Dimon joins Menschwarmers to discuss why he felt compelled to tell this story and what it was like following the team all the way to the Skyline Conference championships. Credits Hosts: James Hirsh and Gabe Pulver Producer: Michael Fraiman Music: Coby Lipovitch (intro), chēēZ π (main theme, "Organ Grinder Swing") Support The CJN Follow the podcast on Twitter @menschwarmers Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Menschwarmers (Not sure how? Click here)

If you're the type of sports fan who wants to root for the most Jewish team in any given postseason, the Edmonton Oilers deserve consideration for your pick this NHL Stanley Cup playoffs. The Oilers may not be looking great against the Los Angeles Kings so far, having been blown out 6-2 on Wednesday night to fall 0-2 in the series, but they're still sporting not just one, but two Torontonian Jewish players in Zach Hyman and Jake Walman. For a stronger Canadian showing, though, you might look to the Winnipeg Jets. Not a lot of Jewish on-ice representation there, but it's the hometown team of former sports radio host and new Jewish podcaster Matthew Leibl. Leibl is one of the three new voices of Not in Heaven, The CJN's podcast discussing the future of Jewish communal life, which launched this week. He joins the Menschwarmers to chat about working as a sports journalist in Winnipeg during the Jets' return, what the team meant to his community, why he left the life of sports radio, and why he once embarked on a 77-day roadtrip across North America to visit every major league ballpark in a single season. Hear Leibl's stories and what else is new in the world of Jewish sports on this latest episode of Menschwarmers, The CJN's Jewish sports podcast. Credits Hosts: James Hirsh and Gabe Pulver Producer: Michael Fraiman Music: Coby Lipovitch (intro), chēēZ π (main theme, "Organ Grinder Swing") Support The CJN Follow the podcast on Twitter @menschwarmers Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Menschwarmers (Not sure how? Click here)

For many Jews, spring means Passover is coming. For the Menschwarmers, it means baseball season has started—and we're here to take a look at the top athletes in the MLB right now, including some of the league's highest-paid stars and young guys being shuffled around like baseball cards. We'll catch up on Alex Bregman, Max Fried, Spencer Horwitz, Bubby Rossman and many more. After that, we share some listener excitement about baseball being back, and read a poem submitted to us by Henry Schipper, who wrote a book of Jewish baseball poetry called The Ball Dreams of the Sky. But to kick things off, we celebrate the four top Jewish NCAA basketball coaches—Bruce Pearl, Todd Golden and Jon Scheyer—who all brought their teams to the NCAA Final Four. If you missed last week's episode diving deeper into their Jewish identities, catch up here. Credits Hosts: James Hirsh and Gabe Pulver Producer: Michael Fraiman Music: Coby Lipovitch (intro), chēēZ π (main theme, "Organ Grinder Swing") Support The CJN Follow the podcast on Twitter @menschwarmers Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Menschwarmers (Not sure how? Click here)

Some might call Purim "March Madness", but in the sports world, that title is reserved for the NCAA men's Division I basketball tournament, when some of the world's brightest young stars prove their worth, with many holding NBA aspirations. And this year, in an unusual twist, three of the four number-one seeds are coached by Jews. There's Bruce Pearl, the storied coach of the esteemed Auburn Tigers since 2014; the Florida Gators' Todd Golden, a dual citizen of the U.S. and Israel; and Maccabi Tel Aviv champion Jon Scheyer, whose Duke Blue Devils include top draft prospects like Cooper Flagg, Khaman Maluach and Kon Knueppel. Is there a reason Jews are excelling in college coaching? The Menschwarmers have some thoughts, like maybe it's the fact that a good college coach combines elements of a camp counsellor with a disappointed parent. The CJN's sports podcasters dive deep into the many Jewish angles of this NCAA basketball tournament, including Jewish players worth keeping eyes on, like Danny Wolf, Sam Silverstein and Alex Karaban, as well as notable women like Israeli-born Yarden Garzon, touted as a WNBA draft lock in 2026. Credits Hosts: James Hirsh and Gabe Pulver Producer: Michael Fraiman Music: Coby Lipovitch (intro), chēēZ π (main theme, "Organ Grinder Swing") Support The CJN Follow the podcast on Twitter @menschwarmers Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Menschwarmers (Not sure how? Click here)

The pandemic famously sparked new public interest in golf courses, the outdoor sport one could argue was designed for social distancing. It was at that time that Jake Adams, a Jewish stand-up comic, started a new social media channel called "Country Club Adjacent". Leaning into his longtime love of the sport—including its famous exclusion of Jews—he began making videos that blended roast humour, self-deprecating Jewish jokes and actual insight into the game of golf. Now Country Club Adjacent has nearly 1 million followers on Instagram, with hundreds of thousands more across YouTube and Facebook. With this surge in popularity has come a podcast, merchandise, invitations to celebrity games and a viable career as a sports influencer for Adams. He joins Gabe and James on Menschwarmers to talk about the long history and intersection of Jews, golf and comedy. And before that, the boys catch up on other Jewish sporting news, including: Noteworthy Jewish players from the 4 Nations Face-Off Alex Bregman's new $120-million, three-year contract with the Boston Red Sox Spencer Horwitz's wrist surgery Credits Hosts: James Hirsh and Gabe Pulver Producer: Michael Fraiman Music: Coby Lipovitch (intro), chēēZ π (main theme, "Organ Grinder Swing") Support The CJN Follow the podcast on Twitter @menschwarmers Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Menschwarmers (Not sure how? Click here)

The International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, with an accompanying museum in Israel, recently announced their inductees for 2025—including former NBA star Amar’e Stoudemire, soccer announcer Andrés Cantor, Canadian cyclist Leah Goldstein and many others. But they're not just honouring veteran Jews—they're also trying to attract younger ones. With a rebrand and plans for an enhanced digital presence, the prominent Jewish sports institution is aiming to showcase generations of Jewish athletic accomplishments to teenagers and kids growing up in a post-Oct. 7 world. To discuss the evolution, the Menschwarmers are joined by president Jed Margolis and vice-president Lenny Silberman, who also leads the digital youth-oriented Jewish sports organization Lost Tribe. And before that, the hosts recap the latest news in Jews and sports, including how billionaire casino magnate Miriam Adelson, who owns the Dallas Mavericks NBA team, has become the target of virulent online antisemitism in the wake of the bombshell announcement that her team was trading away young superstar Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers. Credits Hosts: James Hirsh and Gabe Pulver Producer: Michael Fraiman Music: Coby Lipovitch (intro), chēēZ π (main theme, "Organ Grinder Swing") Support The CJN Follow the podcast on Twitter @menschwarmers Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Menschwarmers (Not sure how? Click here)

On Jan. 21, the Prosserman JCC in Toronto will host the Canadian premiere of Israel Swings for Gold, the documentary sequel to the sleeper hit Heading Home: The Tale of Team Israel, which followed the team's assembly and Cinderella run at the 2017 World Baseball Classic. Reunited for the Tokyo Olympics, the Israeli baseball team—a hodgepodge of Jewish American rookies, former MLB players and native-born Israelis—wound up disappointing Jewish fans worldwide with an early loss to the Dominican Republic. But the story of the team's coming together, educating Israelis about a sport that Diaspora Jews have excelled at for decades, makes the thrust of this new documentary worthwhile. To chat about the film and the important of bringing it to Canada, The CJN's sports podcasters invited on Alex Voihanski, chairperson of Unity Through Sport, which is sponsoring the premiere, and communications consultant Alan Hudes. Credits Hosts: James Hirsh and Gabe Pulver Producer: Michael Fraiman Music: Coby Lipovitch (intro), chēēZ π (main theme, "Organ Grinder Swing") Support The CJN Follow the podcast on Twitter @menschwarmers Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Menschwarmers (Not sure how? Click here)