Next thing you know, your daughter’s under-8 girls soccer team is going to have a Jewish heritage game on its schedule.
Or so it would seem, based on the hottest trend in Bay Area sports since garlic fries.
In August, not only are the San Francisco Giants hosting their fifth annual Jewish Heritage Night, but the San Jose Giants minor league baseball team is jumping into the mix with its own Jewish-themed game. The San Jose Earthquakes professional soccer team also had a Jewish-themed game on its 2009 schedule, as well, but team officials cancelled it on July 22 (see below).
Throw in the Golden State Warriors’ Jewish Heritage Game last March and the Oakland Raiders–sanctioned Sukkot tailgate party before a game last October, and it’s getting to be a busy Jewish sports landscape at local stadiums and arenas.
“Anything or any tool that you can use to bring Jews together, to bring out our Jewishness and joy of the occasion, is a good thing,” said Chabad of San Francisco Rabbi Yosef Langer, who is working with the San Francisco 49ers to launch yet another Jewish-fan event. “So many people are into sports, so if there’s a way we can spin it into a Jewish happening, and Jews come out and enjoy the sport through their Jewishness, that’s a great thing.”
San Jose Earthquakes
Jewish Heritage Day was scheduled for Aug. 2: San Jose Earthquakes vs. Seattle Sounders at Buck Shaw Stadium in Santa Clara.
But on July 22, an Earthquakes team official informed us: “Our contacts at Jewish community groups that we were working with are no longer working with those organizations so we have cancelled the Jewish Day.”
Informed that our newspaper had already run a big article about the Quakes’ event in our July 17 issue, the media representative replied, “Sorry about that.”
San Jose Giants
Details: Jewish Appreciation Day. 5 p.m. Aug. 2, San Jose Giants vs. Rancho Cucamonga Quakes at Municipal Stadium (588 East Alma Ave., San Jose). Tickets: $5 each (half off regular price). Kosher dinner available for $10. Tickets or information: www.jewishgiants.com.
Lowdown: Although this is a first-time event, it is hitting the ground running. Organizers have purchased a bloc of 2,500 tickets, and if all of them get sold it will surpass the number of “Jewish” tickets sold for all but one of the first four San Francisco Giants’ Jewish Heritage Games.
Jonathan Hirshon, the former president of the men’s club at Temple Emanu-El and a San Jose Giants season ticket holder, cooked up the idea for the event and got three other South Bay synagogues to team up with his Reform congregation: Congregations Sinai and Beth David (both Conservative) and Ahavat Torah (Orthodox).
“Baseball is the great American pastime, and it does unite everybody,” Hirshon said. “It seemed to me that it would be a great way to reach out not just beyond our own shul, but also to other streams of Judaism in the area. The cooperation has been wonderful.”
At the Sunday evening game, Emanu-El Rabbi Dana Magat will throw out the first pitch and Emanu-El Cantor Meeka Simerly will sing the national anthem. Doug Brook from Sinai will sing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” apparently with a few words of Hebrew thrown in.
A “Hava Negillah” musical chairs game will take place between innings, and six rabbis will compete in a longest-note shofar-blowing contest.
There will also be an auction that Hirshon hopes will include a trip to Cooperstown, N.Y. (airfare for two and VIP tours at the National Baseball Hall of Fame); definitely included will be some CDs and memorabilia donated by Jewish reggae star Matisyahu.
While a licensing snafu put the kibosh on a souvenir giveaway, fans will have the opportunity to purchase a strictly kosher meal of a homemade pastrami sandwich on rye bread baked by Berkeley’s Metropolis Bakery, a homemade pickle, a bag of Dirty potato chips and a soda — all for $10. There will also be a falafel vendor at the game.
Hirshon is super excited about the event, as are others. He said the planning and anticipation has helped reenergize several sagging men’s clubs, and that a brand new meat smoker (purchased to ensure the pastrami will be kosher) is going to be donated to Chai House, a retirement community in San Jose. Also, 80 percent of the ticket cost gets donated to whichever synagogue the ticket buyer chooses.
“This event has really rippled throughout the community,” Hirshon said. “And San Jose Giants officials told us that of all the themed games they do, this has been the most successful launch ever of a theme game.”
As for the baseball game being on the same afternoon as the San Jose Earthquakes’ Jewish promotion, “I think that’s mostly a fluke,” said one of the baseball organizers, Gary Richman of Beth David in Saratoga.
San Francisco Giants
Details: Jewish Heritage Night. 7:15 p.m. Aug. 27, San Francisco Giants vs. Arizona Diamondbacks at AT&T Park (San Francisco). Tickets: $18 in view reserved section. Includes a free T-shirt (pictured). Tickets or information: Craig Solomon, (415) 972-2239 or [email protected], or www.sf
giants.com (click on “special events” on tickets page). Also, check with local Jewish groups and synagogues, many of which have purchased groups of tickets.
Lowdown: A Giants loss’ in this Thursday night game would drop their record in Jewish Heritage games to 1-4, but otherwise, the games have been a success story. Ticket sales in the Jewish section were 1,300 for the first game in 2005, 1,700 in 2006; 2,990 in 2007 with Barry Bonds in pursuit of Hank Aaron’s all-time home run record; and 1,800 last year.
“I’m anticipating we’ll sell more than last year,” said Craig Solomon, a Giants ticket manager, “simply because it’s been a very interesting season.”
Moreover, the Giants are adding a few new twists for this year’s game. Jewish fans are being asked to enter the game through the center-field gate, where they’ll be entertained by the Kletztets, a five-piece klezmer band from Congregation Etz Chayim in Palo Alto, and get a voucher for a free T-shirt (this year designed by the Giants rather than by a community member, like last year’s scarf). The music from 5:15 p.m. until just before the first pitch at 7:15 p.m. should help create a nice-size Jewish gathering in Center Field Plaza, where Jewish organizations will be handing out informational materials.
“Members of the Jewish community stepped up and said while it’s great what Rabbi Langer does with his annual tailgate party in the parking lot, we want to play a role in Jewish Heritage Night, as well,” Solomon said. “The whole Jewish community is really stepping up and making this a great event.”
Irv Duchowny, the executive director at Etz Chayim, and other members of Bay Area Temple Administrators took a leading role in coming up with some new ideas.
Langer and other Chabad rabbis also have a new twist on their annual tailgate party in parking lot B, and it’s all about shofars. Since the game falls in the month before Rosh Hashanah on Sept. 19, there will be a lot of shofar-blowing going on, and there will also be a Chabad-run Shofar Factory, at which people can make their own shofars (horns and tools will be provided).
Of course, there will also be the Chabad tailgate standards: kosher hot dogs, He’Brew beer, other food and music — all for free.
During the game, there will be the usual assortment of Jewish-oriented promotions, video clips and maybe even a shofar-blowing contest. “We’re going to try to get away from showing ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ for every clip,” Solomon said. For regular Jewish Heritage Night attendees, that might be the best news of all.