The Cougars are the Brigham Young University football team. #BYJew – student Jake Retzlaff’s self-selected and proudly used social media handle – is their Jewish quarterback. Their shared story is not only interesting in all the ways covered in a recent Atlantic article by McKay Coppins but also suggestive of where we are in the Jewish journey in America.
For those not regularly reading the Atlantic or following college football, a bit of background information: The Cougars were matched up against the University of Arizona Wildcats in a high-stakes game whose outcome, if they won, would not only make the Cougars bowl-eligible; it would also maintain the team’s chances at a Big 12 championship and keep their national playoff berth alive. The game was set for October 12th, which also happened to be Yom Kippur. What was #BYJew to do?
For Jewish baseball lovers of any age, or for Jews — especially men — of a certain era, this story immediately conjures up memories of Sandy Koufax, “The Left Arm of God,” and his decision to sit out Game 1 of the 1965 World Series against the Minnesota Twins because it fell on Yom Kippur. Although not classically religious in any sense of the term, that decision was, according to Koufax when I asked him about 15 years ago, “a no-brainer.”
Koufax’s “no-brainer” was a formative event in the lives of many Jews at that time. The Dodgers’ ace pitcher was confident and comfortable enough as a Jew in 1965 America to declare that he would not pitch on Yom Kippur, and he trusted that his teammates and their fans would understand and even appreciate his decision. And for many of his fellow Jewish Americans, who saw that he was right, that was a moment to trust that they, too, could feel the same.
So, all that might suggest that Jake Retzlaff would have and should have made a similar decision about playing against the Wildcats just a few weeks ago. It was Yom Kippur. The stakes were high. His team needed him. But again, it was Yom Kippur, so he would do “the right thing” and sit out the game, right? Wrong!
According to BYJew, there was never a question in his mind about playing that day. It was a given for him — one I really appreciate and think has something to teach all of us, whether we agree with his choice to play or not. And not because the Cougars walloped the Wildcats 41-19, either.
Retzlaff’s decision to play was more like Koufax’s decision not to play than people may appreciate. Each was a powerful statement of where Jews were/are in America, and how we make decisions based on those circumstances. Each was a decision born of deep Jewish pride and a sense of being more at home in America than many of their fellow Jews seem to understand.
In 1965, Sandy Koufax reassured American Jews that it was okay to step out of the mainstream and live our particularity with pride. He showed us that while Jews were still more outsiders in many ways than not, we were also sufficiently at home and appreciated as fellow citizens – so much so that he could step back from playing without being a traitor. That was a relatively new and wonderful thing in 1965.
But 2024 is not 1965. In 2024, Jake Retzlaff knew that nobody would have hassled him for choosing not to play on Yom Kippur, and certainly not at BYU, which honors religious commitment not only for Mormons but for people of all faiths. For Retzlaff, as for members of any group that is as widely accepted as Jews are in America — we’ll address rising antisemitism in a moment — the issue was not proving that he could sit out and still be accepted. He knows he is accepted. The issue was living into the obligations that come with acceptance and making the most of the opportunity it presents.
Retzlaff chose to play on Yom Kippur because, as he has told others, playing on that Saturday was a chance to represent his faith on a stage that is not exactly teeming with people like him. For #BYJew, like for Sandy Koufax, playing was a chance to publicly celebrate who he was, which, based on his hashtag, his predilection for wearing a Magen David necklace, his hiring of a kosher falafel truck to visit campus, and many other decisions, is something to which he is quite committed.
And whatever one believes about the nature of rising antisemitism in contemporary culture, Retzlaff reports that he’s encountered more anti-Mormonism than antisemitism. The year before he joined the team, some fans at the University of Oregon greeted the Cougars with chants of “F–k the Mormons,” and his teammates have continued to face religious taunts in opposing stadiums. “The blatant disrespect for their faith—it’s something to think about. What if there was a Jewish university that had a Jewish football team, and they were saying that in the stands? That would be a big deal. There’s a lot of people who just don’t like Mormon people, for no reason. That’s what happened to the Jews all throughout history.”
So, you may agree or disagree with his decision to play on Yom Kippur, but Jake Retzlaff — #BYJew — knows that he is at home. He celebrates it and he uses his “at-homes” to stand up for others. Sounds pretty wonderfully Jewish to me.
Listed for many years in Newsweek as one of America’s “50 Most Influential Rabbis” and recognized as one of our nation’s leading “Preachers and Teachers,” by Beliefnet.com, Rabbi Brad Hirschfield serves as the President of Clal–The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, a training institute, think tank, and resource center nurturing religious and intellectual pluralism within the Jewish community, and the wider world, preparing people to meet the biggest challenges we face in our increasingly polarized world.
An ordained Orthodox rabbi who studied for his PhD and taught at The Jewish Theological Seminary, he has also taught the University of Pennsylvania, where he directs an ongoing seminar, and American Jewish University. Rabbi Brad regularly teaches and consults for the US Army and United States Department of Defense, religious organizations — Jewish and Christian — including United Seminary (Methodist), Yeshivat Chovevei Torah (Modern Orthodox) Luther Seminary (Lutheran), and The Jewish Theological Seminary (Conservative) — civic organizations including No Labels, Odyssey Impact, and The Aspen Institute, numerous Jewish Federations, and a variety of communal and family foundations.
Hirschfield is the author and editor of numerous books, including You Don’t Have To Be Wrong For Me To Be Right: Finding Faith Without Fanaticism, writes a column for Religion News Service, and appears regularly on TV and radio in outlets ranging from The Washington Post to Fox News Channel. He is also the founder of the Stand and See Fellowship, which brings hundreds of Christian religious leaders to Israel, preparing them to address the increasing polarization around Middle East issues — and really all currently polarizing issues at home and abroad — with six words, “It’s more complicated than we know.”