Image by Courtesy Estee Ackerman

(JTA) — An 18-year-old pingpong star may have to skip this year’s Olympics because the U.S. trials are scheduled for Shabbat and she is an Orthodox Jew.

While many Orthodox Jews will informally play sports on Shabbat, they generally do not take part in organized competition.

Estee Ackerman, who won the women’s division at the 2018 Table Tennis U.S. Open, reached out to USA Table Tennis via her father in January requesting to reschedule the matches to another day. The trials are set for later this month.

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)

But the request has not been approved, according to the New York Post, and the deadline for that decision is Friday.

“I’m really disappointed,” Ackerman, who is from suburban New York’s Long Island, told the Post. “I’d like them to give me the opportunity to go for my dream.”

The Anti-Defamation League weighed in on Friday, asking USA Table Tennis “to accommodate the Jewish religious observance of an Orthodox teenager.”

Ackerman has been playing pingpong since she was a little kid, and once beat tennis champion Rafael Nadal in a match.

This is not the first time she has had to forgo a competition because of her religious observance. In 2012, Ackerman forfeited her place in a tournament after reaching the round of 16 because her match fell on Shabbat.

“I said to myself, this situation was going to happen to me one day,” Ackerman told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency for a 2016 profile. “I had to choose my religion or the love of the sport. On Shabbat, to be in my uniform, to go down to be competing in a national tournament, this is not in the spirit of Shabbos. This is not what Hashem would want me to do.”

The post Teenage Orthodox pingpong phenom may have to skip Olympics because trials are on Shabbat appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

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. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

$90 $180

$360

Other amount