Phillies the only MLB team to wish Jewish fans happy Rosh Hashanah

On Monday, the Philadelphia Phillies won the series opener against the Brewers in Milwaukee by hitting six home runs and getting a scoreless start from Zack Wheeler.

After the game, they wished Jewish baseball fans a happy Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year that began at sundown that evening. It is one of the holiest days on the Jewish calendar.

Why is this newsworthy? Because they’re the only team that did so.

The Phillies were the only MLB team to wish Jewish fans a happy Rosh Hashanah

I went and looked at every one of the 30 MLB team’s Twitter pages on Monday, as well as MLB’s official Twitter page. The Phillies were the only team to say “Shanah Tovah” (good year).

Other sports teams around the world – such as the San Francisco 49ers and  Manchester City – sent wishes to their Jewish fans, as well as the President of the United States, our first-ever Second Gentleman (who happens to be Jewish himself), and Sesame Street, whose Hannah Montana parody was unparalleled. It’s almost impossible to say that the social team, whose job is to be online, missed every one of these well-wishes.

There are other baseball cities with larger Jewish populations than Philadelphia; New York is home to nearly two million Jewish people, the largest population outside of Israel. There are other MLB teams with Jewish owners and executives, like new Mets owner Steve Cohen and Giants CEO Larry Baer. Yet only the Phillies made the effort to say something.

In fact, they’ve been doing this for years:

As a Jewish woman and a diehard baseball fan, it is extremely meaningful to see our holidays honored the way the holidays of other religions are. Every MLB team wishes fans a Merry Christmas, but not every team says Happy Chanukah to their fans. The same goes for Easter, but not Passover. The Phillies remember Passover, too.

This is the kind of gesture that requires very little effort but means a lot. Because representation matters, and for the hundreds of thousands of Jewish sports fans, it’s nice to feel seen and supported, the same way they support their favorite teams.