On a podcast last year, Wayne Gretzky quietly—almost meekly—revealed his "grandfather was 50 percent Jewish", and fled Eastern Europe at a time when having any Jewish blood was a good reason to get out. Now that this news is out in the open, our Jewish sports podcasters need to dig in. The most pressing question: is one-eighth of Wayne Gretzky the greatest Jewish hockey player of all time?

That dovetails with this week's roundup of Jewish sports stories from our sports podcasters the Menschwarmers, including how Jewish athletes are performing in this year's Stanley Cup playoffs. We also have some Jewish stories from women's pro leagues, including the PWHL and WNBA.

Then we dig into the ridiculous controversy surrounding the FIFA World Cup, where president Gianni Infantino tried to make peace between the Israeli and Palestinian delegations in Vancouver—and failed, miserably, on a global stage.

Finally, the boys give a send-off to John Sterling, an iconic sports broadcaster who left an indelible mark on the industry.

Credits

• Hosts: James Hirsh and Gabe Pulver
• Producer: Michael Fraiman
• Music: Coby Lipovitch (intro), chēēZ π (main theme, " Organ Grinder Swing ")

Support The CJN

• Follow the podcast on Twitter @menschwarmers
• Subscribe to The CJN newsletter
• Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)
• Subscribe to Menschwarmers (Not sure how? Click here )

Alan Shipnuck is one of the most celebrated golf writers in the industry. When he began penning a biography of Rory McIlroy in 2024, he assumed he had some time to work on it—until McIlroy won the acclaimed Masters Tournament just a few months later. His publisher called him and said they needed the book in the fall.

Shipnuck's book, Rory: The Heartache and Triumph of Golf's Most Human Superstar, was released March 31, 2026, just weeks before McIlroy won his second consecutive Masters this past Sunday. The timing could not have been better for Shipnuck, who joins the Menschwarmers sports podcasters to explain more about his book, his professional journey and the world's best Jewish golfers.

Credits

• Hosts: James Hirsh and Gabe Pulver
• Producer: Michael Fraiman
• Music: Coby Lipovitch (intro), chēēZ π (main theme, " Organ Grinder Swing ")

Support The CJN

• Follow the podcast on Twitter @menschwarmers
• Subscribe to The CJN newsletter
• Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)
• Subscribe to Menschwarmers (Not sure how? Click here )

Curling is consistently one of the most-watched Winter Olympic sports, pulling in millions of viewers worldwide. But when the athletes return home—and curlers return to their day jobs—audiences don't have much opportunity to keep up with the sport, even if they wanted to.

Nic Sulsky wants to change that. This week, the Toronto-based entrepreneuer is debuting Rock League, the world's first professional curling league, launching out of the Mattamy Athletic Centre (formerly Maple Leaf Gardens) in downtown Toronto. With broadcast deals across Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and South Korea, Sulsky is hoping to capitalize on the momentum garnered by some of the top curling teams from the recent Milano Cortina Olympics—while keeping Canada at the centre of it all.

One of Sulsky's star players is Korey Dropkin, a 2026 silver medalist with Team USA, who's travelling up to Toronto to play—and, like Sulsky, happens to be Jewish. Both Sulsky and Dropkin join the Menschwarmers to talk about how they got this league off the ground, why the sport is appealing to watch, and what is was like coming in second place at the 2026 Olympics.

But before that, hosts Gabe and James recap a major couple weeks in Jewish sports news, including the start of baseball season (with disappointingly few Jewish players) and Amar'e Stoudemire's induction into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.

Credits

• Hosts: James Hirsh and Gabe Pulver
• Producer: Michael Fraiman
• Music: Coby Lipovitch (intro), chēēZ π (main theme, " Organ Grinder Swing ")

Support The CJN

• Follow the podcast on Twitter @menschwarmers
• Subscribe to The CJN newsletter
• Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)
• Subscribe to Menschwarmers (Not sure how? Click here )

In 2024, the image of Jake Retzlaff—the only Jewish quarterback ever to play for Brigham Young University’s football team—adorned special editions of Manischewitz matzah boxes. That brand deal, to showcase a promising Jewish pro-football prospect, was the inspiration for a company co-founded by former Montrealer Jeremy Moses.

His sports-marketing company is called Tribe NIL. (NIL stands for Name, Image and Likeness, a new monetization route for college athletes to make money off their work.) The company aims to boost the careers of hundreds of talented Jewish college athletes, including more than a half-dozen Canadians playing for U.S. college football, baseball, hockey, basketball and swim teams, among others.

Moses was raised in Montreal. He’s the middle son of retired Montreal Rabbi Lionel Moses and Yiddish scholar and editor Joyce Rappaport. His brother, Zev Moses, is the founder and executive director of the Museum of Jewish Montreal.

Jeremy Moses moved to Brooklyn where he’s worked in the sports and entertainment field. He and business partner, the comedian Eitan Levine, founded Tribe NIL last spring. This year, they’re doubling down on the Manischewitz campaign, looking for one male and one female Jewish athlete to reward with $10,000 in prize money each, a “L’Cheisman Trophy” and international fame as this year’s faces of Manischewitz matzah.

On today’s episode of The CJN’s flagship podcast North Star, Jeremy Moses joins host Ellin Bessner to share more about his campaign—plus they get into the myriad Jewish sporting news of the week, including Jewish Olympians and Robert Kraft’s controversial Super Bowl antisemitism ad.

Related links

• Learn more about co-founder Jeremy Moses’s company, Tribe NIL and see some of the 250 Jewish NCAA college athletes they represent (including some Canadians).
• Follow Manischewitz’s contest with TribeNIL for Jewish male and female college athlete of the year, with winners to be announced in March.
• Listen to The CJN’s Not in Heaven podcast debate the hesitance among many Jewish parents to see their kids try and become professional athletes.

Credits

• Hosts: James Hirsh and Gabe Pulver
• Producer: Michael Fraiman
• Music: Coby Lipovitch (intro), chēēZ π (main theme, " Organ Grinder Swing ")

Support The CJN

• Follow the podcast on Twitter @menschwarmers
• Subscribe to The CJN newsletter
• Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)
• Subscribe to Menschwarmers (Not sure how? Click here )

The 2026 Winter Olympics ended on a very Jewish note with an overtime goal scored by NHL star Jack Hughes. Brother Quinn Hughes, also a member of the gold-medal winning American team, has a legitimate chance to lead his team, the Minnesota Wild, to a Stanley Cup this year.

With the Winter Olympics behind us, there’s so much more to catch up on in the world of Jews and sports.

The World Baseball Classic kicked off last weekend, and Team Israel secured its spot in the next tournament — which will happen in a few years — with a 5-0 win over Nicaragua. The bats are solid, but pitching depth remains a challenge in a pool led by powerhouse Dominican Republic, as well as Venezuela. Team Israel was eliminated from the 2026 tournament, with a record of 2-2 and finished a respectable third place in Pool D.

Daniel Berger narrowly lost the Arnold Palmer Invitational on the PGA Tour, and in the NBA, Deni Avdija returned from an injury.

The Menschwarmers are back together after Jamie’s appearance on Jeopardy — where he won three games and gave the podcast a national shout-out.

Credits

• Hosts: James Hirsh and Gabe Pulver
• Producer: Michael Fraiman
• Music: Coby Lipovitch (intro), chēēZ π (main theme, " Organ Grinder Swing ")

Support The CJN

• Follow the podcast on Twitter @menschwarmers
• Subscribe to The CJN newsletter
• Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)
• Subscribe to Menschwarmers (Not sure how? Click here )

Last week, millions of people watched one of our own stand behind a podium on Jeopardy! — and win. Toronto lawyer James Hirsh, co-host of The CJN’s long-running Menschwarmers podcast, became the latest Canadian contestant to compete and succeed on the iconic American game show.

Hirsh says it was “the thrill of a lifetime” to be selected, to fly down to the Alex Trebek studio at Sony Pictures in Culver City, near Hollywood, where he taped several episodes of Jeopardy! It all happened about three weeks ago, but he’s had to keep quiet about how he fared. Until now, as the episodes started airing this week on millions of television screens across North America.

Hirsh had decades of practice to prepare for his small-screen debut: as a teenager, he was reigning champion at his summer camp’s version of the game show, over four seasons. The prize money back then was enough to buy some beers. This time, his actual Jeopardy! winnings will help the father-of-three pay off his family’s mortgage. He also won a custom Jeopardy! hat and a tote bag, but he says the best prize is a coveted tagline to his bio: he can now say “I was on Jeopardy!”

On today’s rebroadcast of The CJN’s North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner chats with James Hirsh about what it was like under the bright lights, what questions stumped him and how he regrets wearing the wrong shoes.

Credits

• Hosts: James Hirsh and Gabe Pulver
• Producer: Michael Fraiman
• Music: Coby Lipovitch (intro), chēēZ π (main theme, " Organ Grinder Swing ")

Support The CJN

• Follow the podcast on Twitter @menschwarmers
• Subscribe to The CJN newsletter
• Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)
• Subscribe to Menschwarmers (Not sure how? Click here )

What is a very special announcement from Jamie?

Credits

• Hosts: James Hirsh and Gabe Pulver
• Producer: Michael Fraiman
• Music: Coby Lipovitch (intro), chēēZ π (main theme, " Organ Grinder Swing ")

Support The CJN

• Follow the podcast on Twitter @menschwarmers
• Subscribe to The CJN newsletter
• Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)
• Subscribe to Menschwarmers (Not sure how? Click here )

Alfred Nakache is a famous athletic icon within France—but outside the country, his story is not well known.

Born in 1915 to a Jewish family that fled Iraq for Algeria, Nakache rose to become one of France's top swimmers, breaking records and competing in the 1936 Berlin Olympics in Nazi Germany—he even finished fourth, beating the German team. By 1944, however, Nakache, his wife and their young daughter were taken and thrown in the Auschwitz concentration camp. His wife and daughter were killed there—but he survived. Emaciated and traumatized, Nakache returned to France after the war and did something few thought possible: he resumed training, reclaimed national titles, and competed in the 1948 London Olympics.

Now, decades after he passed away, his story has become the subject of an emotional new film, Butterfly, which has been nominated for the Academy Award for best animated short. The 15-minute movie, tenderly painted frame-by-frame by director Florence Miailhe, follows the ebbs and flows of Nakache's life, from his childhood fear of water to the loss of his family and his remarkable Olympic comeback. Producer Ron Dyens, who previously won the Oscar for animated feature for Flow, joins the Menschwarmers to explain more.

Credits

• Hosts:

James Hirsh and Gabe Pulver

• Producer:

Michael Fraiman

• Music:

Coby Lipovitch (intro),

chēēZ π

(main theme, "

Organ Grinder Swing

")

Support The CJN

• Follow the podcast on

Twitter @menschwarmers

• Subscribe to The CJN newsletter
• Donate to The CJN

(+ get a charitable tax receipt)

• Subscribe to Menschwarmers

(Not sure how?

Click here

)