The Franchise: Jews, Sports, and America

Covering Their Tracks is the extraordinary story of a young man’s escape from a moving train bound for the Auschwitz concentration camp during the Holocaust, and his fight to hold the French national rail company, the SNCF, accountable for their actions as they later bid for lucrative high-speed rail contracts in the United States. For more information visit http://tabletmag.com/coveringtheirtracks or search for Covering Their Track wherever you get your podcasts.

The Franchise has been nominated for the best sports documentary series in Signal Awards’s Listener's Choice competition! And we need your vote. Voting closes THIS THURSDAY October 5: Now is the time to show your love for this series, Jews in sports ... even the Mets (tell us we’ll lose in catastrophic fashion without telling us we’ll lose in catastrophic fashion). Vote NOW by clicking here [https://vote.signalaward.com/PublicVoting#/2023/limited-series-specials/general/sports-documentary] or by going to https://tabletm.ag/votethefranchise [https://tabletm.ag/votethefranchise]

Over the course of this series, host Meredith Shiner has explored how Jewish culture, American culture, and sports culture intersect. She's talked to journalists, athletes, amateur and professional sports nerds, and fans who have spent as much time obsessing over these topics as she has. And in this final episode, she looks back on what she’s learned—and what surprised her—through the process of reporting and writing this series.  Previous episodes: Ep. 7: Sports, Identity, and Justice [https://www.tabletmag.com/podcasts/the-franchise/episode-7-jewish-sports-identity-sue-bird-ernie-grunfeld] Ep. 6: The Sports Mitzvah [https://www.tabletmag.com/podcasts/the-franchise/episode-6-sports-bar-mitzvahs-sandy-koufax-yogi-berra-ernie-johnson-jr] Ep. 5: Shondas and Stereotypes: Jewish Sports Team Owners [https://www.tabletmag.com/podcasts/the-franchise/episode-5-jewish-sports-owners-shondas] The Halftime Show [https://www.tabletmag.com/podcasts/the-franchise/halftime-show-kyrie-irving-antisemitism-controversy-1990s-new-york-knicks] Ep. 4: Jewish Sports Nerds and Their Path to the Promised Land [https://www.tabletmag.com/podcasts/the-franchise/episode-4-jewish-sports-nerds-moneyball-statistics] Ep. 3: Forty Years in the Desert: Jews and the New York Mets [https://www.tabletmag.com/podcasts/the-franchise/episode-3-new-york-mets-most-jewish-team-baseball] Ep. 2: Reevaluating ‘Jewish Jordan’ Tamir Goodman [https://www.tabletmag.com/podcasts/the-franchise/episode-2-reevaluating-jewish-jordan-tamir-goodman] Ep. 1: Genesis: Sandy Koufax as Model Minority [https://www.tabletmag.com/podcasts/the-franchise/episode-1-genesis-sandy-koufax-alex-bregman-max-fried-joc-pederson-jewish-athletes] Subscribe on Apple Podcasts [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-franchise-jews-sports-and-america/id1648348990], Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/6INe9yRdLMZS7e4A0CkLY8?si=bpfy3FIvQK-W9jvS8s1uQg], or wherever you get your podcasts. Email us at franchise@tabletmag.com. Check out the full series at tabletmag.com/thefranchise [http://www.tabletmag.com/thefranchise]

On this series, we’ve explored sports as a tool for American Jews to assimilate into their broader  communities, to establish and pass down family traditions, and even how sports can be a love language for us. But what if sports is quite literally a way we can tell a rich story of Jewish identity?  This episode focuses on how sports have acted as a cipher to crack the code of what it means to be Jewish in America. We talk to Dan Grunfeld, son of Ernie Grunfeld—the only NBA player to be born to Holocaust survivor parents—and a former professional basketball player himself, about his family’s deeply intertwined [https://www.dangrunfeld.com/] Jewish and basketball identities. We discuss the strange saga of Major League Baseball’s Ryan Braun, an all-star who did not really identify as Jewish, until he did, and a player American Jews were excited to claim as Jewish, until they weren’t. We also parse the question of whether sports are just, and trace a path from Sandy Koufax to WNBA star Sue Bird.

Jews don’t have to go pro in sports to love them, and nothing demonstrates that amateur love more than dedicating a whole lifecycle event to it. On this episode, we’re diving into the sports-themed bar mitzvah—and, of course, the coveted shoutout from a professional athlete—and what the confluence of sports and this rite of passage tells us about Jewish identity in America.  In this episode, we’ll hear about the time Sandy Koufax showed up to a DC-area synagogue for a bat mitzvah, and about the bat mitzvah at The Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center [https://yogiberramuseum.org/] that Yogi himself attended. We’ll talk to parents and their now-adult children about pulling off their own b’nai mitzvah sports miracles. We’ll even hear from long-time sports broadcaster Ernie Johnson, Jr. [https://twitter.com/turnersportsej?lang=en] about why he always says yes when he’s asked to record mazel messages for bar mitzvah boys and girls, and about one specific message that he’s never forgotten. Plus, Rabbi Erez Sherman [https://www.sinaitemple.org/about/clergy-senior-staff/rabbi-erez-sherman/] of Sinai Temple explains why these connections between sports and faith can help bring meaning to both.  Over the course of this series, host Meredith Shiner explores how Jewish culture, American culture, and sports culture intersect. She’ll talk to journalists, athletes, amateur and professional sports nerds, and fans who have spent as much time obsessing over these topics as she has. Previous episodes: Ep. 4: Jewish Sports Nerds and Their Path to the Promised Land [https://www.tabletmag.com/podcasts/the-franchise/episode-4-jewish-sports-nerds-moneyball-statistics] Ep. 3: Forty Years in the Desert: Jews and the New York Mets [https://www.tabletmag.com/podcasts/the-franchise/episode-3-new-york-mets-most-jewish-team-baseball] Ep. 2: Reevaluating ‘Jewish Jordan’ Tamir Goodman [https://www.tabletmag.com/podcasts/the-franchise/episode-2-reevaluating-jewish-jordan-tamir-goodman] Ep. 1: Genesis: Sandy Koufax as Model Minority [https://www.tabletmag.com/podcasts/the-franchise/episode-1-genesis-sandy-koufax-alex-bregman-max-fried-joc-pederson-jewish-athletes] Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Email us at franchise@tabletmag.com. Check out the full series at tabletmag.com/thefranchise [http://www.tabletmag.com/thefranchise]