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October 19, 2018 | 10 Chevshvan 5779
NOTEWORTHY LOCAL Addressing the needs of Israel’s haredi women Organization tackles such issues as employment gap, gender respect. Page 2
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Ryan Lavarnway looks out Anti-Israel protesters from behind home plate boycott play highlighting both sides of conflict
LOCAL
By Toby Tabachnick | Senior Staff Writer
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Straight from the oven
“It was really a great opportunity for me,” Lavarnway said of his late season performance. “The last few years I’m not the highly sought after prospect that I once was, but Pittsburgh gave me the free agent opportunity.” Early on, the organization was clear: “They would like to see what I had and how I could help the younger guys develop, and that was kind of going to be my role,” said Lavarnway. “And if I played well then that could change, but coming in they didn’t anticipate a ton of playing time, and I appreciate their honesty with that.” At the end of the season, the Pirates “were really excited. They said, ‘Thank you for filling the role we asked you to fill,’ and they noticed that my play exceeded the expectations [that] they had when I came in.” Lavarnway and his fans hope there is much more baseball left for the Yale-educated slugger who in 2007 won the NCAA batting title with a .467 batting average and a .873
f the two dozen anti-Israel activists outside the August Wilson Center on Oct. 11 actually had attended the show they were protesting, “In the Tunnel” by Israel’s Gesher Theatre, they would have seen a political satire about the IsraeliPalestinian conflict that was evenhanded in its portrayal of characters, allocating blame as well as humanity to each side in equal measure. But it was not the “content” of the show they were protesting. “The theater is a part of ‘Brand Israel’ sponsored by the Israeli Foreign Ministry in an attempt to distract America from what Israel is doing to the Palestinians,” said Ken Boas, a local anti-Israel activist who is the U.S. chair of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions and a former instructor at the University of Pittsburgh. “Israel is sending cultural groups all over the West to brand Israel as humane.” Boas admitted that he had not seen the show, which played in Pittsburgh from Oct. 11 to 13 as part of Gesher’s North American tour and included stops in Toronto and New York City. He also acknowledged the “liberal” bent of Gesher, but said the fact that the theater company was liberal made its tour of the United States even worse. “This is a liberal performance, but these kinds of groups that come to the U.S. are putting on a false front,” Boas said. “We are not against the artists or the content of this performance, but the fact that the theater
Please see Baseball, page 20
Please see Protest page 20
Ryan Lavarnway’s time with Team Israel in the 2017 World Baseball Classic and late season play for the 2018 Pirates has inspired legions of fans.
Photo courtesy of Pittsburgh Pirates
‘The Challah Whisperer’ coming to teach, inspire. Page 3 LOCAL From Denver to ... Erie? One of Pittsburgh’s newest rabbis meets congregants where they are. Page 4
By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer
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n baseball, crouching behind home plate gives the catcher a unique view of what is at play. Ryan Lavarnway, a member of the 2018 Pittsburgh Pirates who represented Israel in the 2017 World Baseball Classic, has an even clearer perspective. A decade after being drafted by the Boston Red Sox, the Jewish catcher who made a September splash with the Pirates recognizes being a role model is more than mentoring young prospects; it is about representing a community, a country and sometimes even a people. On Sept. 4, Lavarnway, 31, who had spent the bulk of the season with the Indianapolis Indians, Pittsburgh’s Triple-A affiliate, was called up to play. Over the course of six games with the Pirates, he recorded six at-bats, four hits, one run and an RBI. The highlight of Lavarnway’s big league play may have been his second major league at-bat of the season, when, as a pinch-hitter, he drove in the winning run with a walk-off single in the 11th inning, leading to a 2-1 Pirates victory over the Kansas City Royals.
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