May 29, 2026

From The Jewish World Series to the Israel National Team

SAR High School won the Columbus Baseball Invitational (CBI) for the third consecutive year last week, establishing a dynasty in Jewish day school baseball for the Bronx, NY program. Twenty-three schools from across the country made the trip, though for some of the standouts, the event was more than a tournament — it’s a stepping stone toward representing the Jewish people on a larger stage.

It’s happened before. Just ask right-hander Akiva Epstein, a Cincinnati kid who went from the CBI to pitching for Team Israel.

His love for baseball started with games of catch with his dad, where he also developed a devotion to Cincinnati’s major-league team, the Reds. He knew early that hitting wasn’t his strongest tool, so he turned to pitching — though that didn’t stop him from idolizing 2010 National League MVP Joey Votto and three-time All-Star Brandon Phillips.

On the mound, he modeled himself after two Reds starters: Luis Castillo and Sonny Gray. Not because he threw like either of them, but because he picked attributes from each and built on them.

“I don’t throw 97 (mph), but I’m similar to these guys in the way that they move down the mound,” he said. “Even those pitchers probably couldn’t be more different in the way they throw, and their arm slots and stuff, but once I started thinking about modeling after somebody, that’s when I turned a lot more towards the pitchers.”

That development caught the attention of Columbus Torah Academy (CTA) baseball coach Steve Guinan. During a visit to the school in eighth grade, Guinan spotted Epstein throwing and pulled him aside.

“He was like, ‘are you free?'” Epstein recalled. “I’m just like, ‘I don’t even go to the school. What’s going on?'”

He left that conversation with an invitation to represent the school in the CBI, a tournament he’d never heard of until that day.

The event has a long history, but CTA had found little success in it — never winning the tournament despite being its host.

“We were kind of like the Bad News Bears — given that it was our tournament, and we couldn’t win a game,” Epstein said.

He helped change that, leading CTA to two wins during his sophomore year in 2019. He doesn’t remember many specifics from either game, but the feeling at the end has stayed with him.

“The feeling when we got the last out was pretty special,” Epstein said.

Another memory that stuck was a matchup against Jacob Steinmetz — who later pitched for Team Israel in the 2023 World Baseball Classic and is now in the Arizona Diamondbacks organization — in a loss to Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway (Lawrence, NY).

The 2020 and 2021 editions — Epstein’s junior and senior years — were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, cutting his time in the tournament short. But the CBI had already left its mark on both his baseball life and his Jewish identity.

After high school, Epstein took on an assistant coaching role with Team Israel’s U-18 national team — his first time representing the country on the international stage. During that stretch, he decided he was ready to emigrate to Israel and claim citizenship.

He didn’t expect that decision to bring him back to pitching. He figured his playing days were finished, in part because of a partially torn UCL that still bothers him. But the chance to pitch opened an unexpected door in 2024: a spot on the national team for the U-23 Baseball European Championship Qualifier.

“I kind of realized, ‘hey, there’s a chance I’d fly to this tournament,'” he said. “But I didn’t want to get my hopes up.”

A tryout at a gym in Germany went well enough, but he still needed his passport to be eligible for the team. Fortunately, it arrived just in time — and Epstein was on the roster.

“A bit of a whirlwind,” Epstein said, “but everything just fell into place exactly how it was supposed to.”

Israel dominated the tournament, going a perfect 5-0. Epstein himself was untouchable, not allowing a run or a hit across eight innings pitched while striking out 11 batters. A handful of walks were the only baserunners he gave up.

His performance in the qualifiers secured his roster spot for the main tournament the following year and earned him a place on the 2025 Men’s European Baseball Championship roster. He was also in consideration for the most recent World Baseball Classic, but personal commitments prevented him from joining.

CBI tournament director Lisa Kaufman has watched Epstein and Steinmetz emerge from the Columbus competition to represent Israel on the international stage — and she hopes they won’t be the last.

“We were just kind of humbled that we had these kids here, and some of them have matriculated onward, and that’s really been fun to watch,” she said. “Hopefully we will see more and more of that in the future.”

Epstein has his sights set on the future, which for Israel Baseball means qualifying for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Half the spots are already claimed by the United States, the Dominican Republic, and Venezuela, leaving the remaining three open.

Israel appeared in the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, but no country earned an automatic berth based on that year’s participation.

For now, Epstein is focused on the next game, the next tournament, and the next step toward representing Israel once again. He’d even settle for another U-23 run.

“It’d be a dream to go back,” he said. “It was just the most fun of my life I’ve ever had playing baseball — just wearing Israel across your chest.”

And while Israel has been his home since 2021, the kid from Ohio hasn’t gone anywhere. Odd hours don’t stop him from catching Reds games on TV.

“Whenever they’re on late at night here (with the seven-hour time zone difference), I turn on a game and see what’s going on,” he said.

It’s the same love for the game that started with a catch in a Cincinnati backyard, peaked for a moment at a Jewish day school tournament in Columbus, and eventually carried him across the world — and to a mound with Israel across his chest.

_{By Harrison Smajovits, Israel Baseball News Staff}