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SPORTS

Cristian Pache’s Jewish Roots

The Braves already have one Jewish player in pitcher Max Field, who started the season opener. Some fans have noticed that another player on Nathan Posner the team may be Jewish, as Cristian Pache wears a gold Star of David around his neck.

While Pache was not willing to discuss his private life, according to the Braves, the team spokesman was willing to confirm for the AJT that he wears it for his mother, who is Jewish.

According to an interview with the Orlando Sentinel, done before joining the MLB, Pache said he was the second of three children of a factory worker and homemaker.

Despite his choice of jewelry, Pache is a practicing Christian, according to his Instagram. The AJT was not able to confirm much else about his religious background, but he and his family are from the Dominican Republic, where there is a long Jewish history going back to the 13th century.

The AJT spoke with Dr. Yehonatan Elazar-DeMota, originally from Miami, who leads Beth Midrash Eleazar, a Sephardi education center in the Caribbean. He’s an expert on the history of Jews in the Caribbean as well as the leader of two beth midrash schools in the Dominican Republic. Pache was born in Santo DominBraves player Cristian Pache is a practicing Christian but wears a Jewish star. go, where a majority of the Dominican Republic’s Jewish population have historically lived. The city is part of the greater Jewish history in the Dominican Republic. “Sephardic Jews arrived during the Inquisition, during the colonial period, and established themselves in the capitol and the port,” Elazar-DeMota said.

Records in the late 19th century show a Rabbi Raphael in Santo Domingo leading a Sephardic congregation in the region. Most of these families that were part of this community are buried in a now-neutral ceremony, where Jews are buried on the left where there are no crosses, but some have Jewish markings, Elazar-DeMota said.

After Rabbi Raphael passed away, leaving the Jewish community without a leader, the community was led by Rabbi Henry Zvi Ucko. He was a refugee from the Nazis, part of the tens of thousands of visas offered with accompanying plots of land by Dominican Dictator Rafael Trujillo to those fleeing the Holocaust. Though Elazar-DeMota said only about 600 took the offer.

Ucko was Ashkenazi, but he helped lead the Sephardi community and organized a congregation in Santo Domingo.

While Pache may not practice the faith, the connection to the Jewish history of Santo Domingo, and the larger Dominican Republic, now have a place on the Atlanta Braves.

Weightlifting Brothers Get Gold

By Nathan Posner

Brothers Mitchell and Jeremy Marks got gold at the weightlifting state championships last month. Olympic weightlifting focuses on two different lifts: the “clean and jerk” and the “snatch,” both of which have competitors lift the weights completely over their heads. Mitchell, a freshman at Kennesaw State University and former student at The Epstein School, won in his weight class with a 97-kilogram (214 pound) snatch and 125-kilogram (275 pound) clean and jerk, the 222-kilogram (489 pound) total has qualified him for nationals. Jeremy, a high school student at Saint Francis School, won in his weight class of 96 kilograms (212 pounds) with a clean and jerk of 75 kilograms (165 pounds) and a snatch of 52 kilograms (115 pounds). Mitchell told the AJT that he enjoys the competition. “It’s a different Mark Mitchell competes at the way of working out than I was used Georgia state championships for to.” After Mitchell began competitive Olympic weightlifting in April. weightlifting, Jeremy followed suit. “I wanted a way to get strong, and Mitchell started before me, and told me, ‘Oh, you’ve got to try this out,’ and I really loved it.” The two are coached by James Dantoni, with Mitchell working out three days a week with him and two days on his own.

Dantoni told the AJT, “School always comes first, and we schedule around their testing.” But he also described the rigorous training they go through. “It is a very hard competition, like any Olympic sport; the training and attention to detail is grueling.” ì

Brothers Mark Mitchell, left, and Jeremy Mitchell, right, stand with their coach James Dantoni, center.