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Is this heaven or is it New Jersey? 9 innings of the Jewish-American pastime

JL;DR SUMMARY Alter Yisrael Shimon Feuerman reflects on a leisurely afternoon at a Montclair, NJ baseball field, where he, an Orthodox Jew, participates in an impromptu game with some young locals. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

Jewish DiasporaOrthodox JudaismTraditionCultural IntegrationNostalgiaYouthAmerican Jewish IdentityBaseballCommunal LifeSports And Society

Places mentioned

Montclair, New Jersey, United States
"Instead, my wife Ruchama and I drifted toward Brookdale Park, a leafy paradise in Montclair, NJ, just a few miles from the concrete and cobblestone of our gritty home base of Jewish Passaic."
Passaic, New Jersey, United States
"Instead, my wife Ruchama and I drifted toward Brookdale Park, a leafy paradise in Montclair, NJ, just a few miles from the concrete and cobblestone of our gritty home base of Jewish Passaic."
Iowa, United States
"Somewhere, perhaps in Iowa or New Jersey, a field of Jewish dreams."
Bronx, New York, United States
"My father told me that in the Bronx of the 1930s, Talmud Torah, afternoon Hebrew school, offered his cohorts one humble blandishment: a free baseball game at Yankee Stadium in exchange for a year of attendance."
New York, United States
"I grew up as a backbencher in the bais medrash in Yeshiva Chaim Berlin."
Woodridge, New York, United States
"As the sun set over the mountains of Woodridge, we said our prayers."

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Retrieved 2025-05-12 05:30:47 UTC
Curated 2025-05-12 08:31:15 UTC