more shomer shabbos athletes

Back in the day, religious Jews and pro sports just weren't synonymous. Today things might be different. It is getting less rare to see Orthodox Jews trying to make that move, and even if just to be good enough for consideration.

We have got a couple of Orthodox kids recently in the MLB draft, Ryan Turell in the NBA draft and now playing in the minor leagues, occasionally making a cool spin move in a game that makes it to a Youtube clip, and we have had some others like the young lady from Teaneck who is a master at Table Tennis, Beatie Deutsch the marathon runner, and others.

Now another two orthodox kids are in the rise in the sports world.

Sam Salz is the first Orthodox shomer shabbos young man to play college football. According to COLLive, Salz chose 39 as his uniform jersey number to be a reminder to him about adhering to the 39 melachos of Shabbos. Salz plays running back for Texas A&M, after playing High School football in Merion Pennsylvania. He says he has to sit out half the games because of Shabbos and for games that start after Shabbos he walks to the stadium.

Moriah Rimon, daughter of the famous Rav Tzvi Rimon (a leading Dati Leumi rav), is an international champion (bronze medal) in Taekwondo. She has been training and competing since 2nd grade and is currently performing her national service in Sherut Leumi  working with kids at risk in Jerusalem. 

Rimon says one of the greatest challenges for her in her sport is Shabbos. She does not compete on Shabbos and has to forgo many tournaments and competitions because of it. 

Good luck to them all. It is going to be interesting to see them and others who will surely come along in time, navigate the challenges...

------------------------------------------------------
Reach thousands of readers with your ad by advertising on Life in Israel

------------------------------------------------------