Yes, we do still need Jewish sports heroes
Does it matter if a famous athlete is Jewish?
I’ve doubted it. My position used to be that while it once meant a great deal, decades after the Holocaust and the creation of the modern-day State of Israel — with all it means for Jewish empowerment — it stopped being quite so important. But last week, I realized that I needed to rethink that assumption.
Most American sports fans have been celebrating Jack Hughes, the 24-year-old member of the ice-hockey team who scored the “golden goal” in the final of the 2026 men’s Olympic final, giving Team USA its first victory in that competition since the “miracle” defeat of the Soviet Union in 1980. But the negative reaction on social media to the way some Jews pointed with pride to the fact that he was Jewish was a sobering reminder of the antisemitism that has been surging around the globe.
It was hardly surprising that Piers Morgan, the British media personality and consistent Israel-basher since Oct. 7, would respond negatively to a post by Israeli influencer Noa Tishby that noted that he was a member of the tribe.
Morgan asked, “Who cares what religion he adheres to?” He never questions other faith, ethnic or national groups taking pride in the achievements of their fellow adherents.
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Hughes, who plays for the NHL’s New Jersey Devils when not representing his country, was a particular target for celebration and opprobrium for what he said after the Olympic final.
He had been injured in the game’s final minutes, struck by the hockey stick of a Canadian opponent, and lost parts of his front teeth. But he quickly returned to the ice, and soon after, he scored the winning goal. Afterward, he couldn’t stop grinning, exposing his missing teeth and creating an image of undaunted pride, as well as a stereotypical one of tough-as-nails hockey players.
And he warmed the hearts of many of his fellow countrymen when, draped in an American flag, he also used that moment to express his patriotism, saying, “This is all about our country right now. I love the USA. I love my teammates. … I’m so proud to be American today.”
This was an Olympics where some of the American athletes in Milan used their 15 minutes of celebrity to speak of their opposition to President Donald Trump and lack of comfort in representing their country at this time.
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Indeed, much of the commentary about Hughes and the rest of the team after their triumph seemed to focus more on criticizing them for not refusing to have anything to do with Trump, rather than ending a 46-year-old drought in Olympic hockey. Jerry Brewer, lead columnist for The Athletic (the national online sports magazine that replaced the sports department at the New York Times), claimed they had tarnished their legacy by not realizing that all decent people must oppose Trump. Politics, or at least a left-wing version of it, was considered more important than national pride.
One can argue that the history of the Olympics, in which totalitarian governments like Nazi Germany and Communist China have used the event to whitewash their regimes, has discredited the games. So, too, did the Olympic movement’s long resistance to honoring the 12 Israeli athletes and coaches murdered by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Summer Games held in Munich, Germany.
But if we’re going to hold the Olympics, then there is no reason why Americans should have to refrain from supporting their country’s national teams just because some of their compatriots and many foreigners don’t like the current president.
If Americans think that illegal immigrants should have the same rights as citizens (a point made by Trump in his State of the Union address that infuriated Democrats), then flag-waving over US sports victories can seem off-putting. But for the majority who disagree with such attitudes, defending the red, white and blue — like the blue and white of Israel, as well as the whole idea of the nation-state being a necessity for the defense of liberty — is all the more necessary.
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Meanwhile, the question for Jews is: How important is it to treat successful athletes as heroes?
A century ago, that was not a question that was often asked. The image of Jews was the opposite of the strong and confident persona of an athlete. Two millennia of exile and persecution, coupled with the lack of opportunities to shine in anything but religious and other scholarship, reinforced not merely a general attitude about Jews but the truth about their place in the world. They were a weak people unable to defend themselves with anything but their wits and ability to flee.
In that context, the attachment of Jews to the exceptions understandable.
One such was baseball player Hank Greenberg, the first baseman for the Detroit Tigers and a dominant force in the 1930s, who challenged Babe Ruth’s home-run record and led his team to a championship. Though he was not observant, his decision not to play in a crucial game in 1934 on Yom Kippur was an inspiring example of how one could participate in secular society without sacrificing one’s self-respect or identity as a Jew.
A generation later, Sandy Koufax of the Los Angeles Dodgers did the same when he didn’t pitch the first game of the 1965 World Series. Both are still the only Jewish members of baseball’s Hall of Fame.
But at a time when Jews are fully integrated into the upper echelons of virtually every sector of American society, the need to point with satisfaction to the achievements of anyone who can be connected to the Jewish community is no longer quite so obvious.
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Hughes’s family background is typical of his generation, where the majority of American Jews who are non-Orthodox don’t marry within their faith.
His mother, Ellen Weinberg Hughes, is Jewish. A pioneering women’s hockey player, she is currently the head of player development for the gold medal-winning Team USA women’s team. His father is Jim Hughes, a veteran hockey coach who is Catholic. The main theme of their family life is clearly hockey. Older brother Quinn was also one of the key players on Team USA and scored the winning goal in overtime in the Olympic quarterfinals. Their younger brother, Luke, also plays professionally in the National Hockey League.
The boys attended a Catholic high school in Michigan, chosen by the family because it helped their development as athletes. Despite that, the boys were raised as Jews, had bar mitzvahs and have publicly embraced their faith as adults. By any standard, halachic or otherwise, their Jewish identity is not in question. Nor is their loyalty to their country.
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It can be argued that the only true Jewish heroes of our day are the soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces, who put their lives on the line to defend the Jewish people against genocidal foes like Palestinian and Lebanese terrorists, and their Iranian paymasters. The same can be said about Jewish members of the US armed forces.
Still, at a time when so much hatred from the left and the far right is being spewed daily, Jews are in dire need of all sorts of role models, not just those in the military.
From that perspective, there is nothing wrong and much that is right about calling attention to the achievements of Jews in every field, not least those that involve physical courage and athletic skill. That is particularly true when those who exhibit such qualities and accomplish great things are not only proud of their Jewish heritage but also unabashed American patriots.
The same toxic ideological trends behind the hostility to patriotism are making college campuses unsafe for Jews. Haters of all backgrounds are particularly interested in reinforcing negative stereotypes about Jews as weak, while at the same time demonizing those who contradict that image.
When so many seek to avoid being identified as Jewish in public or are stereotypical “as a Jew” members of the community using their heritage to help attack Israel and its supporters, the need to celebrate proud Jews is not a frivolous concern.
Seen from that perspective, holding up the Hughes brothers or Aerin Frankel, the 26-year-old goalie for the women’s ice-hockey team, whose record-setting performance throughout the Olympics was essential to their victories (including the overtime gold-medal game thriller against the Canadians), for praise and communal pride isn’t silly or a throwback to an earlier era.
Refraining from doing so because of contempt for nationalism or Trump isn’t just wrongheaded. It’s downright unsportsmanlike.
Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com
