local
Jewish Philadelphia Celebrates
Eagles’ Super Bowl Run
Jarrad Saff ren | Staff Writer
Photo by Lizzy Friedman-Zayon
Courtesy of the Beere family
O n Jan. 31, Pennsylvania’s Jewish
governor, Josh Shapiro, took to
Twitter to congratulate the Philadelphia
Eagles on becoming NFC champions. In
a short video, Shapiro, from the gover-
nor’s residence in Harrisburg, said,
“Birds nation … this is huge and I’ve got
a little something for you to celebrate the
win and get ready for the Super Bowl.”
The governor pulled out a device
from under his desk and pushed on it.

Then the video cut to the west side of
the Pennsylvania State Capitol building
underneath the dome as it illuminated in
green. An E-A-G-L-E-S chant played in
the background.

Shapiro, who grew up in Montgomery
County and raised his family there, gets
it. The Eagles are going to Super Bowl
LVII at State Farm Stadium in Glendale,
Arizona, on Feb. 12. If they beat the
Kansas City Chiefs, they will win their
second championship in six seasons.

And that journey to the big game,
even before the matchup kicks off , is
something for Philadelphia and Jewish
Philadelphia to celebrate.

“Go Birds!” said the governor in the
email from his offi ce about the pro-Ea-
gles gesture.

It’s a common greeting and farewell
in the Philadelphia area these days. And
Jewish locals are taking part as much as
anyone else.

Brian Beere, 62, a Center City resident
and Congregation Rodeph Shalom
member, is going to Glendale with his
two sons, Evan, 27, and Geoff , 24, for the
game. The Beeres have season tickets
to the Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field.

They go to six home contests a year.

But they did not attend Super Bowl LII
in 2018 in Minneapolis, the Eagles’ fi rst
Super Bowl victory.

After the Birds beat the Minnesota
Vikings in the NFC Championship Game
that year, Brian Beere rushed to make
plans and fi nd tickets. But he could not
get everything together in time. So this
The Beere boys attend a Phillies World Series game in the fall. Now, in
the winter, they are going to the Super Bowl to see the Eagles play the
Kansas City Chiefs.

Perelman Jewish Day School students and Head of School Mitch Daar
enjoy Phillies spirit day back in the fall. They are doing one for the
Eagles, too, before Super Bowl LVII.

season, as quarterback Jalen Hurts and
company were going undefeated in
September, Beere booked a hotel in the
Glendale area. Then in October, with the
team still unbeaten, he secured his airfare,
too. The Beeres don’t even have tickets to
the game yet. But they are going to pay up
to $8,000 a ticket. It’s a bucket list item for
the boys who have been watching sports
together since the sons were young.

Brian Beere is a third-generation
Philadelphian. And even though Evan
Beere and Geoff Beere live in New York
City and Miami, respectively, they are
still Eagles fans.

“It means everything to go with family
members you care about,” Evan Beere
said. “I wouldn’t want it any other way.”
The Beeres are friends with the
Hassmans, another area Jewish family
going to the big game. But unlike the
Beeres, David Hassman, 58, and his
son Corey Hassman, 27, traveled to
Minneapolis in 2018, too. When New
England Patriots quarterback Tom
Brady’s last pass to the end zone hit
the ground incomplete, securing the
Eagles’ 41-33 victory, the father and son
hugged. On their way out of U.S. Bank
Stadium, they FaceTimed their father
and grandfather Joe Hassman, who got
the family the season tickets to the Birds
that they still use today. Corey Hassman
said there were “tears of joy” on his
grandfather’s face.

While David Hassman, a city resident
and Congregation Beth El in Voorhees,
New Jersey, member, called that game
“the greatest sporting event I’ve ever
attended,” he wants to see it again
in 2023. His wife Jodi Hassman and
daughter Abby Hassman are coming
this time, too, so it’s worth spending the
$2,000 additional dollars per ticket that
this trip will cost.

“It’s something that brings us
together,” said Corey Hassman, an Old
City resident.

Of course, you do not have to go
to the game to enjoy the experience.

Local synagogues and day schools
are hosting spirit days for students to
wear Eagles jerseys and shirts. Leslie
Kornsgold, the associate principal at the
Abrams Hebrew Academy in Yardley,
said those days, which the school also
had during the Phillies’ World Series run
in the fall, connect younger and older
students around their fandoms.

The Perelman Jewish Day School
in Montgomery County is teaching
students how to sing “Fly Eagles Fly!”
in Hebrew, according to Head of School
Mitch Daar. For an institution that starts
Hebrew immersion classes in preschool,
it’s a way to combine education with
local spirit.

“It’s part of the community atmosphere
we strive for here at school,” Daar said.

Community. That’s the key word here,
according to local rabbis. But not just
community in this moment. Community
l’dor v’dor.

“It’s the importance of sharing like
stories and sharing a love of something,”
said Rabbi Glenn Ettman of Congregation
Or Ami in Lafayette Hill. ■
jsaff ren@midatlanticmedia.com
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