JCC BASEBALL ALUM PLAYING FOR ISRAELI TEAM
Former Kansas City resident Avinoam Sachs is on the Israeli national team that is competing at the Under-18 European Baseball Championship from July 5-11 in Macerata, Italy. The 6’6” pitcher is one of 18 players on the squad.
Sachs, 18, lived in Overland Park with his family from 2008 through 2014 and learned to play baseball at the Nall Hills League and at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City. His maternal grandparents are Bob Strom and the late Barbara Phipps of Leawood and SueAnn Strom of Prairie Village.
This season Sachs pitched for the Tel Aviv Comrades in the Israeli Premier League and helped the team reach the finals, where they lost to Ra’anana.
TAKING IT TO THE STREETS
Chabad at KU took to Facebook recently to tease some exciting automotive news. Here’s the post:
“When we unveiled our beautiful new Jewhawk Mobile we thankfully got such amazing feedback... and we still do every single day as people all over are honking and expressing their joy in seeing such awesome Jewish pride. Well, friends — you ain’t seen nothing yet!!! We are excited to announce that something big is coming with some massive upgrades to the Jewhawk Mobile that will be taking it to the next level with incredible sights and sounds. Shout out to the awesome team at Multiplicity KS for their partnership in making this happen. Stay tuned for some real BIG things coming! #JewhawkMobile #JewhawkPride #RovingMitzvahs #MultiplicityKS”
LOCAL JEWISH SOCCER PRO GETS SOME PRESS
The Kansas City Star recently profiled Gadi Kinda, the Ethiopian-born Jewish midfielder for Kansas City’s Major League Soccer team.
In the story, The Star’s Shaun Goodwin recounts Kinda’s emigration to Israel with his family at age 3. That was in 1999, and Kinda joined Sporting Kansas City last year.
The story tells how Kinda’s older brother introduced him to organized soccer when he was just a boy, and Star readers also learn about Kinda’s observance of shabbat.
Of his faith, Kinda told the paper: “It will always be a part of my life, because I grew up like this, and my family like this, in my house.”
The story is subscriber-only content and can be accessed online here: ( www.kansascity.com/sports/mls/sporting-kc/article252362818.html ). More information about Kinda is available on the Sporting Kansas City website at www.sportingkc.com/players/gadi-kinda/.
KC NATIVE WINS WRITING AWARD
Kansas City native Nathan Goldman was honored by the American Jewish Press Association (AJPA) on June 24, winning second place in Excellence in Arts — Review/Criticism for Monthly Newspapers and Magazines at the 40th Annual Simon Rockower Award Ceremony held online. Goldman’s essay, “The Sound of Messianic Time,” was published last August in Jewish Currents, where he is Managing Editor. His review of “We Have Amnesia Sometimes’’, an EP recorded by the indie rock band Yo La Tengo during the COVID-19 quarantine, relates the album’s overwhelming sense of unfulfilled anticipation to the tradition of Jewish messianism. Goldman, who lives with his wife Bridget Bergin in Minneapolis, is the son of Martha Gershun and Don Goldman, members of The New Reform Temple.