Play Ball on Yontif? Ask My Mother
By Debra Nussbaum Cohen September 29, 2010
Boychik, as a rabid Yankees fan, usually avoids discussing the Mets (or Red Sox) unless they’re losing to his favorite team, but he was so amused by the recent tale of Mets rookie first baseman Isaac Benjamin “Ike” Davis, that he shared it with me.
Davis, whose mother is Jewish, and who identifies himself as “culturally Jewish” but not religious, was asked by Mets management if he would play on the Friday night of Yom Kippur and he, winning a spot in the Great Jewish Sons Hall of Fame, told them to ask his mother. She indicated that she preferred he not play on Yom Kippur, but left the decision to her 23 year-old-son.
According to this ESPN story, Davis:
suggested that if he did refrain from playing, it would be out of respect for his ancestors lost in the Holocaust and because he described himself as “culturally Jewish.”
He also met, earlier this week, with descendants of Holocaust survivors at a meeting at Citi Field, according to this story in The New York Times.
In the end, Davis decided to play ball on Yom Kippur.
No word yet on whether that’s why his team is way behind the Yankees in the Major League standings.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
