Andrew Guckes | Staff Writer
For Jewish children, sports are as important a part of life as they are for every other subgroup of kids. The problem is that not every league accommodates the needs of the Jewish community. After all, while many leagues are centered around Saturday practices or games, many Jewish children and their families are observing the Sabbath on that day.
At the Kaiserman JCC, a new soccer league is looking to change that. The Kehillah Sunday Soccer League brings all the same action to the pitch as its peer organizations while also accommodating Jewish schedules.
“We only play on Sundays. We don’t play on [Jewish] holidays,” said Matt Martin, the JCC’s youth and family program director. “We want everyone from the community to be able to do this. We wanted to do something that was really inclusive of the Jewish community [and] welcoming to everyone.”
The Kehillah League is just that. With practices and games held exclusively on Sundays for kids aged pre-K through sixth grade, the league attracts not just Jewish clients, but families who are busy on the other six days and nights of the week.
While the league is open to all, the JCC is doing this at a time when being Jewish in America is tough, and Jews have to look out for each other.
“Now and always, it’s been important for Jewish people to have something that accommodates [us] and understands where we’re coming from. Other leagues are fantastic, and we have great youth sports programs in Philadelphia, but sometimes a [Jewish] family might want to do it but can only make half the games, and it’s not as fulfilling an experience for them,” Martin said.
At the JCC, everyone is always welcome, but Jewish values, practices and schedules are always considered. That may seem like a given, but it can make a world of difference for families who are having trouble finding that elsewhere.
“We want to be that place … that says, ‘Hey, we hear you, we see you, we’re a part of you and we’re going to work together to make sure that everyone gets the fullest experience,’” he said.
The Kehillah League just opened registration, and they are expecting sign ups to come in the following months until the league starts in September. Martin said the JCC would like to have 100-150 kids total, which would come out to five or six teams for each of the divisions, which are separated into mostly two-year age groups. The league runs for seven Sundays from Sept. 14 to Nov. 2, with no games the weekend of Sept. 21 due to Rosh Hashanah. The league fee is $140, and scholarships are available. All the events will be held at the Mandell Campus in Melrose Park, located on Old York Road.
While the Kehillah League is just for soccer this fall, there is potential for wider expansion if the interest is there — basketball in the winter, teeball, softball or baseball in the spring and more are all possibilities.
“We’re definitely open to serving the community where it’s needed. If we get some great people that say, ‘Hey, this was awesome. Are you doing anything in the winter? Are you doing anything in the spring,’ that would be awesome to partner with the community and help build kind of a full schedule of programs that serve the community that needs to play on Sundays and might feel not as welcomed in other leagues,” Martin said.
The league last ran in 2022, and kids have been clamoring for it to come back since then. Martin said that he has heard from families whose kids ask about Sunday soccer each year.
“People are excited,” he said.
