Press conferences in the NCAA college basketball tournament are laser focused on the task at hand. Questions surround officiating, injury updates, and a game plan for the week ahead leading to the Sweet Sixteen.
While coaches rarely use a platform to address the most important causes of their heart and soul, there are moments of historic proportion that we recognize we are watching much more than a game.
This weekend, Coach Bruce Pearl of Auburn University, the number one seed in the country, took the opportunity to begin his press conference by putting basketball aside and boldly declaring that there is an American, Edan Alexander, still held in captivity by Hamas in Gaza.
Bruce Pearl is not simply a basketball coach. He is an American Jew whose personal story deeply impacts the words he uses in the press room. Eight months ago, I had the honor of interviewing Coach Pearl on the “Rabbi On The Sidelines” podcast, where he explained his love for this great country of America and his love for Israel.
It was the United States of America that saved Coach Pearl’s family.
Born in 1960, just 15 years after the Holocaust, Pearl’s grandfather escaped Eastern European pogroms with a few siblings and came to America at the age of 11.
When Coach Pearl was 7 years old, he saw his grandfather, a plumber, watching the evening news and crying during the Six Day War. He could not take his eyes off the TV, worrying that Israel would not exist on the map the next morning, threatened with annihilation by surrounding countries. He explained that if there was a state of Israel in 1932, his family could have gone there and perhaps would have survived the horrors of the antisemitism they faced.
At that moment, his grandfather made him promise that he too would love Israel and understand the importance of its existence and how deeply Israel’s success is linked to how we are able to live the American dream. At 32 years old, his grandfather became an American citizen, and continued to be proud to be an American.
In a moment of destiny, Coach Pearl has lived out this American Dream on the basketball court, and it is this same court that has enabled him to share his love of Israel with an audience that may not be able to locate the small piece of land on a map.
In 1982, Coach Pearl was about to go to Israel after his graduation from Boston College, when Coach Tom Davis called to offer him an assistant coaching position at Stanford. He declined the visit, but that call commenced his journey from school to school, rising the ranks of college coaches, eventually reaching the Final Four in 2019.
And it was basketball that eventually brought Coach Pearl to Israel for the first time 27 years later, in 2009, as head coach of the USA Maccabiah team, which included future University of Florida coach Todd Golden, a fellow number one seed coach in this year’s NCAA tournament.
There are some coaches who keep their personal and professional lives in separate lanes. What happens off the court stays off the court. This is not the case with Coach Pearl. Since Oct. 7, 2023, his words and actions demonstrate the strength of how the basketball court can be an avenue to raise awareness in the world.
Last season, the Auburn basketball staff wore American and Israeli flag pins at every game. On the commentary desk of March Madness during the 2024 Final Four, that pin was ever present for the entire nation to see. In the early days after Oct. 7, Coach Pearl would put on a piece of scotch tape with a different number each day, reminding the world how many days the 250 hostages were being held.
In his own words, “We have learned throughout history that silence is complicity and when you see something wrong, you have to stand up and say something.”
“We have learned throughout history that silence is complicity and when you see something wrong, you have to stand up and say something.” – Coach Bruce Pearl
In August of 2022, Coach Pearl did the unthinkable. He took his team, consisting of mostly Christian students, to Israel. He gave them the opportunity to baptize in the Jordan River, to touch the stones of the Western Wall, to float in the Dead Sea, and to witness the diversity of a land that showcases the commonalities of faith.
That winter, Auburn played the University of Southern California in a late December matchup. Before that game, Coach Pearl came to Sinai Temple. With everyone dressed in their finest Sabbath clothes, Coach Pearl arrived late from practice wearing Auburn warmups. He began, “I was asked to speak because I’m a basketball coach. But I agreed to speak because I’m Mordechai Shmuel. I love being Jewish. I love my country. I’m a Jewish basketball coach in Auburn, Alabama. This is the greatest country in the world!”
Sixty-four college basketball teams competed this week with the goal of living out their athletic dreams, to cut down the nets in San Antonio for the Final Four.
Forty-eight teams may have gone home disappointed that their season ended with a loss. The NCAA tournament always ends with a montage of memories accompanied by the song “One Shining Moment.”
This year, when the nets are cut down, and a champion is crowned, we must recognize the shining moment we have just experienced from a courageous American and coach. Bring Edan Home Now.
Rabbi Erez Sherman is Senior Rabbi of Sinai Temple.
