As billions watched from home, more than 80,000 fans packed into MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., on Sunday for the FIFA World Cup final between Argentina and Spain.
With no general parking at the stadium and tickets scarce and expensive, thousands of fans—some holding tickets, some just wanting to be near the action—made their way instead to American Dream, the proudly Jewish-owned retail and entertainment complex next door to the stadium. The mall became their staging ground: a place to eat, wait out the hours before kickoff, and, once the match began, watch it on screens, packed shoulder to shoulder with thousands of strangers.
It’s also where Rabbi Ephraim Balter set up his mitzvah stand.
Balter, who together with his wife, Shprintza, directs outreach activities at Chabad-Lubavitch of the Meadowlands, has run a Tefillin Tailgate outside MetLife Stadium for years, setting up wherever fans gather before kickoff.
“We’re outside the stadium on every NFL Sunday, helping thousands of Jewish people wrap tefillin, have a kosher bite to eat and have a spiritual moment before enjoying a day out watching their favorite teams,” Balter told Chabad.org. “But the World Cup was a whole different experience.”
With the areas outside the stadium restricted during the tournament, Balter brought his mitzvah stand inside American Dream instead, setting up in a mall that became a hub for fans. He hardly had to ask anyone if they were Jewish. Mostly, people flocked to him.
For the final, Balter was joined by his children, as well as by Rabbi Moshe and Chaya Mushka Wolfsohn, who traveled from nearby Monsey, N.Y., to connect with the Jewish Spanish-speaking fans filling the mall.
The Wolfsohns’ involvement came after they saw Chabad rabbis in Atlanta hand out Spanish-language materials to Jewish Argentina fans during an earlier round of the tournament. The Argentinian rabbi decided that when the Lionel Messi-led team inevitably reached the final in New York, he would connect with Balter to do the same. He created a Spanish flyer offering tefillin, kosher food and a rabbi to talk to, and sent it to Chabad rabbis in Argentina to pass along to their congregants in New York for the game.
“I got so many messages. While we couldn’t help the ones looking for tickets,” he said with a laugh, “we were able to connect with them for all their Jewish needs.”
He had never seen anything like the scene inside the mall.
“It was unbelievable,” he said. “Thousands upon thousands of people coming together to watch the game, many of them Israelis and South American Jews proudly wearing Argentina shirts.”
Fans flocked to the stand, including representatives from the Israeli embassy in Washington. But one encounter resonated particularly with Wolfsohn. An Israeli man told the young rabbi he had lived in Israel for 30 years and had never put on tefillin. He had never even held a pair.
“For some Divine reason, the right time for him to do the mitzvah was during the World Cup final, in American Dream Mall,” Wolfsohn said. “As soon as he saw the tefillin, he wanted to wrap them. He was emotional as he recited the Shema for the first time, and very appreciative to have had the opportunity to perform the mitzvah.”
“It definitely helped to be Argentinian,” he adds. “It opened people up and helped find some connection.”
Non-Jews also stopped at the table, curious enough to ask about tefillin for the first time and learned about the Seven Noahide Laws for all humanity.
While Argentina lost the final, Wolfsohn is focused on the spiritual win: the dozens of tefillin wraps and Jewish connections made.
“Sure, the result didn’t go our way,” he said. “But we got so much more out of the day than a simple football win.”
Sports as an opportunity to promote mitzvot-live it!