"First: a Los Angeles Dodgers jersey. But it wasn't the version worn last year when the Dodgers defeated both the Mets and the Yankees on their path to a World Series win. Instead, it was the version worn in 1965 by Sandy Koufax when the Jewish ballplayer famously skipped a postseason game for Yom Kippur. "Sixty years ago, nobody knew where Sandy Koufax was," Cosgrove said, alluding to contested lore about whether Koufax attended synagogue that day. "But we know where he was not.""
"Cosgrove, a Dodger fan himself, said he had studied the episode and determined that "the mythology that came to be associated with it" was more significant than Koufax's decision not to play. What was most important, the rabbi said, was that American Jews learned that they could embrace their Jewish identity without giving up their hard-fought place in mainstream society."
Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove presented a 1965 Los Angeles Dodgers jersey worn by Sandy Koufax to mark Koufax's decision to skip a postseason game for Yom Kippur. Cosgrove argued that the mythology around Koufax's choice encouraged American Jews to embrace public Jewish identity without sacrificing mainstream standing. He called Koufax's refusal to pitch a watershed that energized Jewish life. For a second surprise, Archbishop Timothy Dolan joined Cosgrove on the bimah to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Nostra Aetate. Nostra Aetate declared that Jews were not responsible for Jesus's death and is credited with transforming Catholic-Jewish relations and countering antisemitism.
Read at Jewish Telegraphic Agency
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