Image by youtube

Israelis might be known for their athletic prowess, but when they talk about football, they usually mean what we call soccer.

Yaniv Kovalski, a 23-year-old Israeli, might have a hand in changing that, as he arrives in the United States as the first college student from Israel to attend an American school on a football scholarship.

The Washington Post reported that the Jerusalem native will soon begin university at Stonehill College, a small liberal arts school outside Boston, Massachusetts. It’s a big milestone for Israeli football, which has gotten its start over the past decade with the help of Robert Kraft, the Jewish owner of the New England Patriots who financed the building of a football stadium and helped set up the Kraft Family Israel Football League.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

Kovalski is already on campus, gearing up for the season and prepping with his teammates. He told the Washington Post that he’s excited to get into the football season but has been discovering cultural differences at Stonehill, which is operated by the Catholic Church. “This is a culture shock,” he said. “I’ve been learning so much. I’ll tell you a funny story: I was walking around campus with no shoes on a couple weeks ago and my teammates, they looked at me funny. I said, ‘What? We do this all the time at home in Israel.’”

Contact Daniel J. Solomon at [email protected] or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

$90 → $180 $180 → $360

$360 → $720

Other amount