Weekly Kibbitz
Joc Pederson to Play for Team Israel in the 2023 World Baseball Classic
he San Francisco Giants All-Star outfi elder Joc
Pederson will offi cially rejoin Team Israel for the
2023 World Baseball Classic.

Team Israel’s new manager, former major league
All-Star Ian Kinsler, confi rmed the news.

At a press conference in Israel, Kinsler added
that Pederson will help with player recruitment.

“We have been in contact with all of the avail-
able players, and Joc is going to talk to them as
well,” Kinsler said, according to The Jerusalem
Post. Any player who is eligible for Israeli citizenship
is allowed to participate. In past years, the team
has been composed mostly of American Jewish
ballplayers and a handful of Israelis.

That means players such as Atlanta Braves
ace Max Fried, Baltimore Orioles Israeli-American
pitcher Dean Kremer (who played for Israel in the
2017 WBC) and other Jewish MLB players are eligi-
ble. New York Yankees draftee Eric Reyzelman has
also expressed interest in playing for Team Israel.

Pederson, who has a Jewish mother, played for
the Israeli squad during the qualifi ers for the 2013
WBC. The team lost a winner-take-all game in extra
innings and failed to enter the main tournament.

A decade later, Pederson will return, no longer
the youngest player on the team, but rather one
of the sport’s most established Jewish players.

Now with the San Francisco Giants, Pederson has
Jim McIsaac/Getty Images via JTA
T Joc Pederson is an All-Star in 2022.

clubbed 17 home runs and tallied 43 runs batted in
over the fi rst half of this season, earning the two-
time World Series champion a starting spot for the
National League in Tuesday’s All-Star game.

Team Israel enjoyed a Cinderella run in the
2017 WBC, defeating several highly-ranked teams
and putting the country’s baseball program on
the map. The squad came up empty in the 2020
Olympics, but it is automatically qualifi ed for the
2023 WBC.

Israel will be part of Pool D, which plays in
Miami from March 11-15 and includes Puerto
Rico, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic and a
to-be-determined team that advances from this
fall’s qualifi ers.

— Jacob Gurvis
76ers Star Joel Embiid Goes Viral for Dancing the Hora at a
Jewish Friend’s Wedding
BA star Joel Embiid is an enormous man — around 7 feet
tall and 280 pounds, to give an idea. But that didn’t stop him
from joining in a hora and getting lifted in a chair at a Jewish friend’s
recent wedding.

Embiid went viral as videos of the Philadelphia 76ers center
joining in the Jewish nuptial fun — with a huge smile, to boot —
circulated around social media.

The wedding took place in Napa, California, for Michael Ratner
— a fi lmmaker who made a documentary about Embiid’s life, from
his native Cameroon to the University of Kansas — and Lauren
Rothberg, the head of brand for Rhode, Hailey Bieber’s new skin
care line.

Both Ratner and Rothberg shared videos of Embiid in the
action on their Instagram accounts, the New York Post reported.

In one, he is seen joining in the hora circle; in others, he is shown
holding a woman on a chair at the center of the circle. (Both parts
of the folk dance are common tradition at Jewish weddings.)
Embiid, a fi ve-time All-Star by the age of 28 known for his
sense of humor, is also close with Sixers owner, Josh Harris, who
is Jewish.

— Gabe Friedman
4 JULY 28, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
Joel Embiid during the fourth quarter against the Toronto Raptors during a game at the
Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia on April 18
Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images via JTA
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