their parents and/or grandparents reading this magazine.) Semitic semantics James, Gabe and I are all big word-gamers, from the New York Times ’ digital Spelling Bee and Wordle to the biggest of them all, Scrabble. And if there’s a cash prize for an international competition of skill, and esports are now a thing, why shouldn’t we celebrate our Canadian Scrabble champions? Josh Sokol is a staple at Montreal’s celebrated Scrabble club, which—in addition to having a lot of Jewish members—has produced mul- tiple champions of the NASPA tournament in Las Vegas, the biggest Scrabble event on the continent. Sokol is the latest. Of all the media interviews he did after his victory in July, I can guarantee he never had an interview like this one: it was great fun hearing three hardcore Canadian Jewish word gamers talking about the nitty-gritty of punctuation politics and Jewish jargon. n thecjn.ca/menschwarmers
for the Holy Land. Turns out that wasn’t an anomaly. Jays fans have since embraced the Jewish rookie, who swooped in after his teammates got injured in September, as someone who doesn’t shy from big mo- ments. Our interview with him before his big MLB breakout turned into one of the year’s most popular episodes—and it shed some light on his goals beyond the big leagues. “Playing in the World Baseball Classic has been a dream of mine forever,” he told us. “To be able to represent Israel, and my family, and where we come from, is just an unbelievable experience.” Cristall clear Only one Jewish hockey prospect was select- ed in this year’s NHL draft: Andrew Cristall, an 18-year-old out of Vancouver. Drafted by the Washington Capitals, Cristall headed out to training camp in mid-September, forced to navigate his way through this momentous opportunity during the High Holidays. But before any of that, he sat down with Gabe and Ellin Bessner of The CJN Daily for this special crossover episode that became one of our biggest of the summer. When the world came to North York Golf fans will remember that week over the summer when the PGA Tour announced it was merging with the Saudi-backed LIV Golf League. That groundbreaking news— shocking sports fans, analysts, athletes and sponsors—happened to coincide with a golf tournament that would normally have only attracted a modest amount of international attention: the RBC Canadian Open. The mer- ger news transformed the Open into a media circus, ground zero for instant reactions, heated debates and geopolitical analysis. And where was the event held? The Oakdale Golf & Country Club, a historically Jewish venue in North York. And the Menschwarm- ers , golf fanatics as they are, were on the ground to cover the event. It was a great opportunity to talk about the history of golf as a restricted sport, including Oakdale’s origins, while also tackling the merger of these massive leagues that stood oceans apart—including all the baggage the Saudis are carrying into the new partnership. Putting the ‘bet’ in aleph-bet
pervasive the onslaught of sports gambling has become, ever since the government lifted its ban on single-game sports betting. Anti-gambling activists, who look at the broader mental health implications, liken this trend to shoving cigarettes in the face of addicts who quit smoking. Meanwhile, most mainstream fans could easily argue that small-dollar bets are just another way of feeling more personally invested and excited about teams, players and games. But this is a Jewish sports podcast, so we had to ask: what does Jewish law say about this? We looked across the podcast network aisle to bring on Rabbi Avi Finegold, host of The CJN’s weekly current affairs podcast, Bonjour Chai , to chat about the halakhic implications of sports gambling in one of our most unique conversations of the year. Suiting up for the NHL After owner Eugene Melnyk—who was often mistakenly thought of as Jewish—died in 2022, the Ottawa Senators had to scramble to begin organizing the sale of the team. The board of directors began working quickly on negotiations that only wrapped up in Sep- tember 2023. A key figure: Sheldon Plener, a lawyer from Toronto who is the chairman of the Senators’ board and filled in as governor after Melnyk’s passing. Plener also happens to be close friends with James’s family. (Jewish lawyer geography is a tighter-knit game than the usual Jewish geography, apparently.) Plener took some time to sit down with us and explain his unusual path to becoming a highly successful sports lawyer, including how he helped nego- tiate the expansion of an NBA team into Toronto. A must-listen episode for any young professionals looking to get into sports law. (I’m taking a
Andrew Cristall
gamble here and as- suming, yes, there are young lawyers and/or
Anyone who watches any professional sport for even just five minutes can tell you how
THECJN.CA 29
Made with FlippingBook Digital Proposal Creator