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News Israel, Meet Lacrosse
Taglit-Birthright brought Scott Neiss to Israel. And Neiss, in turn, brought lacrosse. That’s the story, more or less, behind Israel Lacrosse, a not-for-profit organization engaging Israeli boys and girls ages 8 to 18 in the sport. Neiss, who worked as a general manager for several professional lacrosse teams in the States, founded the group in…
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Books Is the U.S. Getting Better at Soccer?
Getty Images As Team USA carries the hopes of the English-speaking world in Brazil, inquiring minds are wondering why England is so perennially terrible at the sport it invented (and let’s not get started on cricket). It is a question that was surprisingly well answered in 2009, along with the corollary question about how America…
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Books From One Soccer Writer to Another
There are two Jonathan Wilsons writing about soccer in a knowledgeable way. One is Jonathan Wilson from the Guardian, arguably the foremost journalistic expert on tactics in the modern game, the other is Jonathan Wilson, the Tufts University Fletcher Professor of Rhetoric and Debate, who covered the 1994 World Cup for The New Yorker and…
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Books Jewish Roots of the ‘Beautiful Game’
British Jews have never accounted for more than 1% of the population. And their contribution to soccer has always been obscured. But, in his well-researched and compellingly-written history, “Does Your Rabbi Know You’re Here?: The History of Football’s Forgotten Tribe,” Anthony Clavane explains the outsize contribution of British Jews to British soccer and their pivotal…
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Books Why Soccer Creates the Best Middle East Dialogue
Getty Images Thinkers from Cass Sunstein to Eli Pariser in “The Filter Bubble: What the Internet is Hiding From You,” have elucidated the threat to social discourse posed by the Internet. Increasingly able to insulate ourselves from disagreement, we live in bubbles of like-mindedness. From whichever angle, it’s epistemic closure in sociological jargon, “bullshit mountain”…
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Books Abraham Klein, The Greatest Soccer Referee
Image courtesy Abraham Klein Israel has reached the World Cup finals just once — Mexico 1970 — where, after losing to Uruguay and tying with Sweden and Italy, it failed to progress beyond the group stage. That year in Mexico, though, there was an outstanding Israeli success — referee Abraham Klein. An unlikely figure to…
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Culture Why We’re Living in the Golden Age of Jewish Baseball
Jewish museums in the United States often walk a tightrope when planning special exhibitions: Should they focus exclusively on the Jewish experience or study other ethnic communities as well? The former approach risks parochialism, while the latter would make the museum’s focus overly broad. In its new exhibit on Jews and baseball, “Chasing Dreams: Baseball…
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Culture Sandy Koufax’s 10 Greatest Jewish Baseball Moments
1) September 9, 1965: Koufax pitches a perfect game (no hits, walks or errors) against the Chicago Cubs at Dodger Stadium, and sets a record for the most Ks in a perfecto by striking out 14 batters. The victory gives Koufax four career no-hitters, the most by any major league pitcher at the time. 2)…
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Exclusive Mahmoud Khalil wants to reassure you
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Culture 70 years ago, this Jewish choreographer predicted our epidemic of loneliness and isolation
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Communications The Forward publishes exclusive interview with Columbia protest leader Mahmoud Khalil
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Fast Forward London music festival canceled after UK bars Kanye West’s entry amid pressure from Jewish groups
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