If he’s not careful, Rabbi Yosef Langer might end up as much of a fixture at Bay Area sports games as that guy with the beard, cape and propeller hat who plays the banjo while wandering around the stadium.
(For the record, that guy’s name is Stacy Samuels and he’s made a living the past 30 years selling millions of those propeller caps through his own business, which explains how he affords tickets to all the major local teams.)
But while Samuels may be at the Golden State Warriors’ Jewish Heritage Night on Monday, March 12, Langer definitely will. As the Bay Area’s “Rally Rabbi,” he’s one of the featured attractions.
Langer gained nearly 40,000 new fans last year at AT&T Park during the San Francisco Giants’ Jewish Heritage Night, when he was shown on the big screen during a crucial moment with the caption “Rally Rabbi.”
“The Giants asked me to come and blow the shofar last year for Jewish Heritage Night, and by the end of the night I was ‘Rally Rabbi.’ The Giants lost, otherwise I’d have attained sage status,” joked the spiritual leader of Chabad of S.F.
He’ll have the chance to dust off his shofar and lead on the Warriors vs. the Dallas Mavericks. And against the Mavs and their 7-foot German superstar Dirk Nowitzki, the hometown five will need all the help they can get.
Frank Winston, commissioner of the Northern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, said he pushed for the game vs. Dallas for a number of reasons: It wasn’t on Shabbat, the Mavs are damned good, and, like last year’s Jewish Night opponent, the Washington Wizards, the Mavs’ owner is Jewish.
Yes, Mark Cuban, the outspoken, self-made Internet billionaire who wears gaudy Nowitzki jerseys in the stands, has picked up millions in fines from the league and even ran a Dairy Queen for a day after stating the National Basketball Association’s head of officiating wasn’t qualified to make a Blizzard, is a Jew. His Russian Jewish grandparents changed the name from Chopininski when they came to America.
If that’s not enough to pull you to Oakland’s Oracle Arena, the Warriors’ senior group sales account executive Chris Murphy has more: Special tickets with a face value of $35 will be sold for $25. That price includes shirts for the first 500 buyers, reading “Go Warriors” in Hebrew, and pre-game barbecue with food from Oakland Kosher.
Grab a dog with the Rally Rabbi as well as Rabbis Dovid Labkowski of Chabad of Oakland, Yankel Kagen of Chabad of Contra Costa and Raleigh Resnick of Chabad of the Tri-Valley. Dinner music will be provided by Rabbi Yehuda Ferris and the Ferris Wheels.
Ferris’ four-piece band — which has also gone by the names “Outpost” and “The Screaming Yids” — has performed such standards as “Chanukah Night is All Right for Lighting,” to the tune of Nickelback’s “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting” at Jewish events around the Bay Area.
The Chicago-born rabbi, who grew up a Bulls fan before taking Chabad’s reins in Berkeley, plans on numbers such as “Am Yisrael Chai,” “Up to Jerusalem” and, of course, “I’m a Jew and I’m Proud to Sing it Out Loud.”
What’s more, the night is one of the Warriors’ “Hardwood Classic” games, meaning they’ll play Dallas while suited up in their vintage San Francisco Warriors “The City” jerseys — yes, the greatest uniforms in the history of organized basketball. The first 5,000 fans through the gates receive a highlighter-yellow “The City” knit cap.
Langer, meanwhile, anticipates going back to enough sporting contests that he’s even come up with a Rally Rabbi mission statement.
“From the bench, to the court and into the paint, to the fans in the stands and beyond: Rally with the Rally Rabbi to increase in acts of goodness and kindness for world peace,” says Langer, who grew up in Oakland watching Bill Russell and the University of San Francisco Dons capture back-to-back college basketball titles in 1955-56.
He laughs. “And, throw this in — ‘Win the game.'”
The Warriors’ Jewish Heritage Night is March 12 at the Oracle Arena in Oakland. Information: Chris Murphy at [email protected] or (510) 986-2214.