Menschwarmers

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 Jewis...

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 so...

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 Au...

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...

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 presen...

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 nat...

On Dec. 10, news broke that the Toronto Blue Jays were trading Jewish first baseman Spencer Horwitz to the Cleveland Guardians in exchange for second baseman Andrés Giménez and right-handed reliever Nick Sandlin. The CJN's sports podcasters, the Menschwarmers, have some mixed feelings about that: on the one hand, Giménez is an elite middle infielder; on the other hand, it's never easy to see your...

Professional women's sports are having a banner year in 2024. The new pro women's hockey league welcomed record-breaking numbers in January; the WNBA has produced bona fide basketball stars like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese; and now, just last month, news broke that a Women's Pro Baseball League will launch in 2026—and it's being spearheaded by two Jewish industry vets. One is Justine Si...

We've just wrapped up one of the most special days in any Jewish sports fan's calendar: no, not Simchat Torah or Yom Kippur, but the so-called "sports equinox", a rare occurrence when all four major American sports leagues host games on the same day. Whether you're rooting for the Dodgers to win the World Series or gearing up for NFL season, yesterday there was something for everyone. Th...

The leaves have begun falling and NHL season is around the corner, so the Menschwarmers are back with a hockey season preview. Will Zach Hyman thrill Edmonton fans with another 50-goal season? With Jack Hughes make the MVP leap? Will the Bruins ever re-sign Jeremy Swayman? We don't have any of these answers, but we have fun asking them. Then, we move from the beginning of one sport season to the e...

With the Summer Olympics in the rearview mirror, all eyes are now on the Paralympic Games, spotlighting the world's most impressive athletes with disabilites. Yet few know that it was a Jewish postwar doctor, Ludwig Guttmann, tasked with treating Second World War veterans with spinal cord injuries, who founded a small competition in Britain that would evolve into the modern-day Paralympics. One sp...

The Canadian Jewish world erupted with cheers when a young, musclar, mustachioed British Columbian named Ethan Katzberg won a decisive gold medal in hammer throw at the 2024 Paris Olympics. A Katzberg! Named Ethan! Whose father's name is Bernie! Alas, after doing extensive research—contacting the local Jewish community in his native Kamloops, investigating his family history, scouring social media...

In the days leading up to the 2024 Paris Olympics, numerous Israeli athletes have received anonymous death threats, proclaiming a repeat of the 1972 Munich massacre. A far-left French lawmaker denounced the Israeli delegation as being "not welcome in Paris." Rather than bowing out, Israel has been assured of 24-hour security by the French interior minister. It's a tremendous amount of ex...

It was the summer of 2016 when Sam Schachter and Josh Binstock—both Jewish beach volleyball players competing for Canada— just barely qualified for the Olympics , less than a month before the games were to start in Rio de Janeiro. Eight years later, history is repeating itself. Schachter (sans Binstock, instead with new partner Daniel Dearing) just recently qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics, s...

We're entering the post-Shavuot dog days of summer, which means a wind-down for most Jewish athletes. After a short break, The CJN's sports podcasters return with a late spring catch-up to talk golf, baseball and the end of the NHL and NBA seasons. Atlanta Braves pitcher Max Fried has emerged as a genuine candidate to win the 2024 Cy Young Award; Spencer Horwitz has firmly ascended to the majors;...

It's May, which means you can still wish people a happy Jewish Heritage Month. You can also wish them a happy Asian Heritage Month—because, in Canada, both minority groups got their politically fluffy cultural celebrations crammed into the same 31-day timespan. To honour the stuffing-together of both heritage months, the Menschwarmers wanted to take a look at a different minority group with some s...

You may not be familiar with Rickwood Field, America's oldest baseball field. It isn't used by any Major League Baseball teams. It's not even regularly used by the team it was built for, the Minor League Birmingham Barons in Alabama. But it's still standing—more of a working museum than a proper field, hosting occasional games and special events, preserving the sport's complicated history. That wi...

By now, you've probably had one seder. You may have even had two seders. But it's time for an annual CJN tradition totally unlike those slow-moving family get-togethers: the Menschwarmers' Jewish baseball seder. Combining the start of baseball season with the week of Passover, our Jewish sports experts have rewritten the haggadah to focus on Jewish baseball legends and potential future stars, from...

This weekend, the long-running Jewish comedy Curb Your Enthusiasm will air its final episode. Over more than 20 years, creator Larry David did more than redefine what improv comedy could look like in a single-camera sitcom—he also showed the world what diehard Jewish sports fandom looked like. But before the show plays its iconic theme song one last time, the hosts of our Jewish sports podcast, Me...

In Game 6 of the Major League Baseball World Series in November 2021, in the bottom of the second inning, the Houston Astros' two-time All-Star Alex Bregman stepped up to bat. He faced off against the Atlanta Braves' Max Fried, slammed the ball high into the right field, and found himself out of luck when outfielder Joc Pederson caught the ball. Jewish baseball fans recognized the significance of...

Mitch Albom has sold tens of millions of copies of his popular inspirational books—among them Tuesdays with Morrie, The Five People You Meet in Heaven and The Stranger in the Lifeboat —but never has the Jewish author focused so explicitly on Judaism until his latest book, The Little Liar . Set in Greece during the Holocaust, the novel tells the story of a young boy who never tells a lie—until he i...

They say two events can be a coincidence, but three make a trend. And in the past month, three Jewish or Israeli athletes have been controversially kicked out of the public sphere. First, Israel's hockey team was barred from competing in an international match in Bulgaria—the decision was reversed, and Israel wound up winning the tournament. Around the same time, the Jewish captain of South Africa...

Feb. 7, 2024, marks the 28th annual National Girls and Women in Sports Day, a global movement that aims to inspire and encourage young girls and women around the world to get active, play sports and break boundaries. But the barriers are real. There are societal prejudices and fewer opportunities for girls to get into sports—and even more stereotypes about Jews as un-athletic, giving young Jewish...

This weekend, on Feb. 3, Toronto will host the NHL All-Star Weekend—and it might just be the most Jewish one yet. There are three (maybe four?) Jews playing, including two of the three Hughes brothers (Quinn and Jack), the New York Rangers' Artemi Panarin, and Jeremy Swayman—who may or may not be Jewish, with different media outlets putting out conflicting reports. It's just one of the big Jewish...

This is the most recent episode of The CJN Daily , about the recent fracas between the International Ice Hockey Federation and Israel's national teams. We thought Menschwarmers subscribers would be especially interested, so we're cross-posting it on this feed—listen and enjoy. Last week, the International Ice Hockey Federation—the sport’s governing body—announced they were barring Israeli national...