‘It was only positivity; only smiles’
Their win against the Philadelphia Eagles wasn’t the only thing fans of the Washington Commanders were excited about on Sunday. Nearly 450 community members gathered for the second annual Jewish Heritage Day with the Commanders at a pregame party that served up kosher food and smiles.
The sold-out tailgate at Northwest Stadium was organized by three local Chabad rabbis: Rabbi Mendel Kaplan of Chabad of Maryland, Rabbi Levi Shemtov of Chabad of D.C. and Rabbi Sholom Deitsch of Chabad of Northern Virginia.
The three took care of ticket sales, and the Commanders’ team provided a kosher buffet, souvenir T-shirts with the team name written in Hebrew and a DJ who played Jewish and Israeli music. Jewish community members came from Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia in larger numbers than last year’s Jewish Heritage Day event.
“It was really something special for people to come together to express their Jewish pride, to celebrate their passion for sports, their passion for the Commanders and their passion for Judaism,” Kaplan said in an interview. “It was only positivity; only smiles, and that’s an amazing thing.”
He said attendees had the opportunity to wrap tefillin — black leather boxes containing Hebrew parchment scrolls — and take home a Commanders kippah.
“It was amazing,” Deitsch said of the event, adding that he and the other Chabad rabbis wrapped tefillin for people in the stands during the game, as well.
“I think people really felt a sense of pride in being Jewish,” Kaplan said. “Being Jewish today is something that people are thinking about deeply because of all the antisemitism that’s going on. What does it mean to be Jewish? Are there only drawbacks to being Jewish, that you’re singled out and people dislike you? What are the benefits of this?
“I think being able to come out and to be able to wear a kippah in public, be proudly Jewish, and to feel good about it, to feel it’s something you can celebrate in a special Jewish Heritage Day — that really reinforces people’s identity and makes them feel proud to be who they are.”
The hundreds of attendees heard from Josh Harris, the managing partner of the Commanders, who was greeted by raucous applause at the pregame party in the stadium’s lounge. Harris told the crowd he was proud to be there and that this event was one of many more Jewish Heritage Days to come, Kaplan said.
“I grew up right here in Chevy Chase, [Maryland], and was bar mitzvahed at Washington Hebrew Congregation,” Harris said in a statement emailed to Washington Jewish Week. “To be able to celebrate the Jewish community in the DMV is incredibly important to me, especially now, and it’s fantastic to see continued momentum around this initiative.
“Jewish Heritage Day is a meaningful opportunity to reflect on the deep history, traditions, and contributions of the Jewish community. I look forward to joining everyone at Northwest Stadium to honor Jewish heritage in such a special way.”
The day was made more meaningful due to the nature of the event: a pregame party at a major sporting event.
“Jews can’t necessarily partake in the food that’s typically served in the stadium because it’s not kosher,” Kaplan said. “The Jewish community is a community within a community … so to be able to come to a sports game where others are tailgating and having a good time, and to be able to gather the Jewish community at the same time and eat kosher food together at the stadium, that’s something unique and special.”
Kaplan added that he spoke with an avid sports fan who said he’s “not sure that there’s anything of this kind anywhere else in the country,” referring to having a kosher pregame party in a lounge hosted by the sports team.
Kaplan credits Harris and the consortium of owners for making this event possible: “They’re very community-oriented.”
Andrew Sidney, the senior vice president of sales and service at the Commanders, spoke to the importance of using sports as a means of bringing people together.
“Sports is about building relationships and connecting people of different backgrounds,” he said in an emailed statement. “We hope that everyone who attend[ed left] with the feeling that they’ve developed a closer connection with the Jewish community.”
Kaplan said Jewish people of all denominations attended the party — those who were nonobservant, Orthodox and everything in between: “There’s no differences; we’re all Jews.”
Attendees introduced themselves to one another, talked, and laughed in a demonstration of unity and joy.
“People walked away strengthened,” Kaplan said. “That’s a very positive thing, because it’s one thing to go to synagogue and feel strengthened, but it’s another thing to be able to strengthen people in a football stadium. That’s very unique.”
