Weekly Kibbitz
What better way to recover from an injury than some Jewish penicillin?
New York Yankees Jewish outfi elder Harrison Bader, who is missing the beginning
of the 2023 MLB season due to an oblique muscle injury, starred in a recent episode
of “Home Plate: New York,” a program hosted by celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson.

In each installment of the show, which is available on the YES Network mobile app,
Samuelsson and a New York sports star visit an iconic New York eatery to discuss
food, heritage and, of course, sports.

In the show’s most recent episode, Bader and Samuelsson visit Liebman’s Deli
— a kosher spot that’s the last Jewish deli in the Bronx — which is just a short drive
from where Bader grew up in Bronxville. Bader attended the Horace Mann School
in the heavily Jewish neighborhood of Riverdale.

“For Passover I wanted to give a shoutout to Liebman’s Kosher Delicatessen, an
absolute classic Jewish deli here in the Bronx,” Samuelsson wrote on Facebook.

While at Liebman’s, Bader and Samuelsson met owner Yuval Dekel, who has led
the popular Bronx deli for 20 years, after taking over for his father, who himself ran the
restaurant for 20 years.

Dekel walked them through the deli’s process for preparing its beloved pastrami
— even letting Bader apply the spice rub to pre-brined brisket. Bader, who called
himself “a mustard guy,” said he grew up eating a lot of pastrami.

Once the briskets were ready to go into the oven, Bader and Samuelsson enjoyed
some matzah ball soup, before sitting down to a full meal of pastrami sandwiches,
stuff ed cabbage, pickles and other classic Jewish delicacies.

Bader, 28, played the fi rst 5½ seasons of his career in St. Louis before being
traded to the Yankees last season. Bader’s father, who is Jewish, told the Forward
that his son is considering formally converting to Judaism. (Bader would not be
considered Jewish under matrilineal descent, which says only a child born to a
Jewish mother or a person who formally
converts to Judaism is Jewish.)
Bader initially planned to play for Team
Israel in the 2023 World Baseball Classic
in March, but ultimately dropped out
due to his injuries. He said he would
From left: New York Yankees
“absolutely consider” playing for the
outfi elder Harrison Bader
team in the future. (Bader’s fellow Jewish
and celebrity chef Marcus
teammate Scott Eff ross, whom the
Samuelsson at Liebman’s Deli in
the Bronx
Yankees acquired one day before Bader,
also missed the WBC because of an injury.)
During his meal with Samuelsson, Bader talked about growing up in New York and
playing baseball — and he credited his parents with helping to launch his career.

“Obviously my father was my fi rst coach,” Bader said. “Without my dad pitching to
me every day, since I was 5 years old, I would be nowhere.”
Bader said his father likes to visit every stadium he plays in, and often travels to
see Bader’s games when he plays at a new stadium for the fi rst time.

He said his mother’s cooking has played a key role in his success, too.

After joining the Yankees last year, Bader lived at home with his parents during
the playoff s, during which Bader enjoyed a breakout performance. “I was just in my
little bubble — mother’s cooking me breakfast, grabbing coff ee with my dad in the
morning, then we’re going to play some ball at Yankee Stadium,” Bader recalled. “It’s
so cool. It was so fun for all of us.”
Perhaps his postseason success was no coincidence? “Something in my mom’s
eggs, I don’t know,” he said. ■
— Jacob Gurvis | JTA.org
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APRIL 27, 2023 | JEWISH EXPONENT
E.H. Wallop/YES Network via JTA
Jewish Yankee Harrison Bader Talks Baseball at Liebman’s Deli



local
Jewish Federation Sells
2100 Arch St. Building,
Reassesses Real Estate Strategy
Sasha Rogelberg | Staff Writer
Photo by Eric Schucht
T he Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia
has sold the Jewish Community Services
Building at 2100 Arch St. as part of a strategic
plan to assess its real estate ownership.

Philadelphia developer MM Partners bought the
building for $12 million and has tentative plans to
convert the building into “mixed-use” residential
space. The Jewish Community Services Building was
home to the Jewish Federation, the Jewish Exponent
and other Jewish organizations.

“Owning a number of properties means that we
have a number of other areas that we have to
focus on — maintenance, building, the relationship
of landlord to tenant — and all of those pieces
ultimately can compromise our needing to focus on
our core mission of enriching Jewish life,” Jewish
Federation President and CEO Michael Balaban said.

According to Michael Markman, the president of
BET Investments, a Jewish Federation of Greater
Philadelphia board of directors member and head of
the Jewish Federation’s real estate committee, the
Jewish Federation will save about $500,000 annually
in operating costs. The Jewish Federation will be able
to incorporate that money into the budget, with $11
million going into the nonprofi t’s endowment to be
distributed to the Jewish organizations it supports.

Due to the pandemic and changing work culture,
which supports more work-from-home opportunities,
Jewish organizations were no longer eff ectively using
the offi ces at 2100 Arch St., a 121,500-square-foot
building. Increasingly, non-Jewish entities, including
for-profi t organizations, were renting space there.

“It put us in a position of being a landlord,”
Balaban said. “So from that perspective, again, it’s
not mission-focused.”
The Jewish Federation owns four other proper-
ties in the Greater Philadelphia area, including
the Saligman, Mandell Education, Schwartz and
Feinstein campuses in Wynnewood, Elkins Park,
Bryn Mawr and Northeast Philadelphia, respectively,
which they are considering selling.

“Being in the real estate business just wasn’t the
most effi cient use of our capital,” Markman said.

The Jewish Federation is speaking with its Jewish
tenants of their campuses to assess what space
The former Jewish Community Services Building at 2100 Arch St.

is needed. While some smaller organizations may
no longer need offi ce space, larger entities, such
as the Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy on the
Schwartz campus, may need the space. The Jewish
Federation wants those larger groups to buy their
respective spaces within a campus.

“We are talking to them, we’re being sensitive to
their needs and we’re trying to determine what can
be sold or leased,” Markman said.

The Jewish Federation moved to a 23,000-square-
foot offi ce at 20th and Market streets, where the
organization operates on one level, instead of multi-
ple stories. The more centralized layout of the offi ce
is more cost-effi cient and conducive to working
collaboratively. “It was beautiful, it increased morale and it allowed
the organization to operate in an effi cient manner,”
Markman said.

The Jewish Exponent offi ces relocated to Gratz
College in Melrose Park in July.

MM Partners is primarily an adaptive reuse
company, taking older buildings and repurposing
them for new uses. The building at 2100 Arch St. is
well-maintained and is adjacent to other residential
buildings and newer offi ce developments, making it
a good candidate for a residential space, according
to David Waxman, the founder and managing partner
at MM Partners.

MM Partners owns about 1,000 units in the
city, about 120 per building, in the Brewerytown,
Francisville and University City neighborhoods.

Balaban previously employed his philosophy of
reducing the nonprofi t’s property portfolio during
his time as president of the Jewish Federation
of Broward County in South Florida. The Jewish
Federation owned six Federation Housing build-
ings, which housed low-income individuals, including
many refugees from the former Soviet Union.

As the years passed, many of the Jewish refugees
died or moved out of Federation Housing. At one point,
of the 155 apartment units, only four were occupied by
Jewish tenants. The Jewish Federation sold the build-
ings to a nonprofi t that specialized in the Section 202
Supportive Housing for the Elderly Program.

“The tenant didn’t see any real change. Actually,
there were upgrades that were made as part of the
arrangement with the sale,” Balaban said. “From
a tenant standpoint, it moved from one owner to
another owner. But from a Federation revenue stand-
point: $54 million in unrestricted new assets.” ■
srogelberg@midatlanticmedia.com JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
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