Yeshiva University – Jewish Basketball Powerhouse

The Fellowship  |  January 18, 2022

Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, of blessed memory, loved so many things about this life. One of them was the sport of basketball, which he played as a young man at Yeshiva University (seen above in 1968). The Rabbi surely would have been proud of his alma mater, as The Wall Street Journal’s Ari Berman writes about the Yeshiva team and their 50-game winning streak:

The Jewish people can take pride in collective accomplishments across a range of human endeavors. I never imagined that basketball would be one of them, but it’s not the only thing that’s taken me by surprise since I became president of Yeshiva University four years ago.

As 2021 came to an end, so did our Division III basketball team’s remarkable 50-game winning streak. The Yeshiva University Maccabees had not lost a game since Nov. 9, 2019, when they fell to Illinois Wesleyan on Dec. 30. The accomplishment still was notable enough for the National Basketball Association to tweet congratulations, and I’ve spent some time reflecting on what it all means…