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 extra pressure on the country's top athletes, who are already under stress to compete internationally and make their country proud. At the last Summer Olympics in Tokyo, the Holy Land's delegation came out with a record-breaking 90 athletes—and won two golds and two bronzes, their best showing ever. Can they improve this year in Paris?

To guide us through the top Olympic sports to watch, the Menschwarmers are joined by Ido Rakovsky, the sports editor at Ha'aretz covering the 2024 Summer Games. And before that, the hosts walk through some notable Diaspora Jews worth keeping eyes on as the games kick off on July 26.

Credits

Menschwarmers is hosted by James Hirsh and Gabe Pulver, and produced and edited by Michael Fraiman. Our intro music is by Coby Lipovitch, and our outro music is "Organ Grinder Swing" by chēēZ π. This show is a member of The CJN Podcast Network. Follow the Menschwarmers on Twitter @menschwarmers or TikTok @menschwarmers. Support the show by subscribing to this podcast or donating to The CJN.

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, scheduled start on July 26. Once again, he's racing to get ready to compete on the world stage with less than a month to prepare—and this time, it's a stage that's been built directly in front of the Eiffel Tower.

Schacter joins Menschwarmers to share what his journey's been like, how he handles life as a Jewish athlete in global competition, and how he's prepping for Paris.

Before that, hosts Gabe and James recap the biggest news in Jewish sports, including Israeli NBA player Deni Avdija's sudden trade to the Portland Trail Blazers and burgeoning NHL star Zach Hyman's remarkable run through the Stanley Cup Finals.

Credits

Menschwarmers is hosted by James Hirsh and Gabe Pulver, and produced and edited by Michael Fraiman. Our intro music is by Coby Lipovitch, and our outro music is "Organ Grinder Swing" by chēēZ π. This show is a member of The CJN Podcast Network. Follow the Menschwarmers on Twitter @menschwarmers or TikTok @menschwarmers. Support the show by subscribing to this podcast or donating to The CJN.

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; we're expecting Zach Hyman to step up if the Edmonton Oilers want to survive in the Stanley Cup Finals; and we offer congratulations to Yam Madar, an Israeli basketball player currently playing in Turkey, whose draft rights have been retained since 2020 by the Boston Celtics—who just won the NBA Finals.

Credits

Menschwarmers is hosted by James Hirsh and Gabe Pulver, and produced and edited by Michael Fraiman. Our intro music is by Coby Lipovitch, and our outro music is "Organ Grinder Swing" by chēēZ π. This show is a member of The CJN Podcast Network. Follow the Menschwarmers on Twitter @menschwarmers or TikTok @menschwarmers. Support the show by subscribing to this podcast or donating to The CJN.

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 solidarity in mind: Asian athletes. The similarities and societal hurdles between both Asian and Jewish athletes are striking, with both groups coming from largely immigrant communities, facing stereotypes about mathematic abilities and flippant derogatory comments.

To examine the subject, we invited on Adrian Lee, an opinion editor at the Globe and Mail who is also a longtime sports fan and good friend of the hosts. They discuss these themes and more, including the complicated relationship between minority fans and players who share their ethnicity—and even rattle off a few Asian-Jewish athletes worth remembering.

Credits

Menschwarmers is hosted by James Hirsh and Gabe Pulver, and produced and edited by Michael Fraiman. Our intro music is by Coby Lipovitch, and our outro music is "Organ Grinder Swing" by chēēZ π. This show is a member of The CJN Podcast Network. Follow the Menschwarmers on Twitter @menschwarmers or TikTok @menschwarmers. Support the show by subscribing to this podcast or donating to The CJN.

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 will change on June 20, 2024, when the St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants face off at Rickwood to commemorate Juneteenth, in honour of the field's status during the Negro leagues. The field will undergo intense renovations and updates in preparation for media attention unlike any it has seen in more than a century, telling stories of the many historical figures involved in its creation—including several key Jews, such as team owner Abe Saperstein and Yankees announcer Mel Allen.

One person helping to share these stories with modern audiences is Alana Schreiber, a producer with New Orleans Public Radio. She's spearheading a new radio documentary called Road to Rickwood, produced by NPR with help from the MLB, and hosted by comedian Roy Wood Jr. A longtime listener of Menschwarmers, Schreiber joins to discuss the project and all the complex Jewish themes within.

Credits

Menschwarmers is hosted by James Hirsh and Gabe Pulver, and produced and edited by Michael Fraiman. Our intro music is by Coby Lipovitch, and our outro music is "Organ Grinder Swing" by chēēZ π. This show is a member of The CJN Podcast Network. Follow the Menschwarmers on Twitter @menschwarmers or TikTok @menschwarmers. Support the show by subscribing to this podcast or donating to The CJN.

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 Hank Greenberg to Spencer Horwitz, with commemorations and celebrations in between.

And before that, as always, the boys give a roundup of the latest news of Jews in sports, including Jewish NHL stars dominating the playoffs, Max Homa's near-win at the 2024 Masters Tournament and whether New Orleans Pelicans fans consider themselves Zionists.

Credits

Menschwarmers is hosted by James Hirsh and Gabe Pulver, and produced and edited by Michael Fraiman. Our intro music is by Coby Lipovitch, and our outro music is "Organ Grinder Swing" by chēēZ π. This show is a member of The CJN Podcast Network. Follow the Menschwarmers on Twitter @menschwarmers or TikTok @menschwarmers. Support the show by subscribing to this podcast or donating to The CJN.

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, Menschwarmers, wanted to pay tribute to what they've decided is the most Jewish sports TV show of all time. It's unlikely we'll see another TV program so unabashedly Jewish embrace baseball, basketball and golf in the same culturally specific way, so let's dive in and remember some of the show's best sports episodes and gags.

Plus, the boys talk about Zach Hyman's recent "Jew-bilee", scoring 50 goals this season (to much acclaim and a little antisemitism), as well as Jewish golfers to root for this month and Jewish NHL players worth keeping eyes on ahead of the summer Olympics.

Credits

Menschwarmers is hosted by James Hirsh and Gabe Pulver, and produced and edited by Michael Fraiman. Our intro music is by Coby Lipovitch, and our outro music is "Organ Grinder Swing" by chēēZ π. This show is a member of The CJN Podcast Network. Follow the Menschwarmers on Twitter @menschwarmers or TikTok @menschwarmers. Support the show by subscribing to this podcast or donating to The CJN.

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 this swift moment, in which all three players in this high-stakes game were themselves Jewish. It has since been called the most Jewish play in any MLB matchup, let alone a World Series. But Bregman himself didn't think about it until later—he has since joked about it in his group chat with other Jewish MLB players, in between pipedream chats about joining up to play for Team Israel at the World Baseball Classic.

He tells these stories and more on the latest episode of Menschwarmers, The CJN's Jewish sports podcast. Will he suit up for Team Israel in 2026? What was it like when he finally met Sandy Koufax? What was the reception like after he wore a Star of David on the field in the aftermath of Oct. 7? Listen and subscribe to find out.

Credits

Menschwarmers is hosted by James Hirsh and Gabe Pulver, and produced and edited by Michael Fraiman. Our intro music is by Coby Lipovitch, and our outro music is "Organ Grinder Swing" by chēēZ π. This show is a member of The CJN Podcast Network. Follow the Menschwarmers on Twitter @menschwarmers or TikTok @menschwarmers. Support the show by subscribing to this podcast or donating to The CJN.