The Tribe at the Winter Olympics: 2018 Edition

By Nate Bloom

The Winter Olympic Games continue until Feb. 25 on NBC (Channel 5).  The Israelis sent a 10-member team. I know of four American Jews, one Canadian Jew, and one Brit competing. Here is the run-down on the Jewish Olympic athletes from the Diaspora. 

ARIELLE GOLD, 21, a snowboarder, is a native of Steamboat Springs, Colo. On Monday, she won an Olympic bronze medal for the United States in the women’s half-pipe snowboarding competition at the 2018 Winter Olympics games in Pyeongchang, South Korea. She was on the 2014 Olympic team, but a dislocated shoulder injury stopped her from competing. Her brother, TAYLOR GOLD, 24, also competed in the half-pipe, and was on the 2014 U.S. Olympic team.

JARED GOLDBERG, 26, a skier, was born in Boston and raised in Utah. He celebrated his bar mitzvah at a ski lodge. He was on the 2014 Olympic team, finishing 11th in the men’s combined and 19th in the men’s giant slalom. He’s been strong on the ski circuit during the last 18 months and is poised to be a high finisher, even if a medal is unlikely. 

 EMERY LEHMAN, 21, a speed skater, was born in Chicago, and raised in Oak Park, a Chicago suburb. He was a top high school ice hockey player and got into speed skating to improve his hockey game. A series of junior speed skating championships lead to an Olympic team spot in 2014. He was the American high finisher at the 2014 Games (16th in the 5000 meters). 

EVAN WEINSTOCK, 26, a member of the four-man bobsled team, was born and raised in Las Vegas. He was an outstanding high school football player and got into bobsledding through his participation in the decathlon. At Brown University, Weinstock set the school record in the decathlon and was a four-time Ivy League champion.  Weinstock’s father is Jewish; his mother, who recently died, was not.  Jewish Sports Review magazine contacted Weinstock when he was at Brown. He told them he was raised in no faith, but had no problem with being identified as a Jewish athlete in the Review.  

JASON BROWN, 23, a figure skater, was born in Los Angeles and grew-up in a Chicago suburb. He had a bar mitzvah. He was on the 2014 Olympic team and won a team bronze medal. He performed well enough in 2017-2018 to be named a team alternate. 

Special Note: Mikaela Shiffrin, 22, an American alpine ski racer, is the reigning Overall World Cup champion and the reigning Olympic and world champion in slalom. Her last name was an inheritance from her paternal grandfather, who was Jewish. He was her only Jewish grandparent. A few years ago, Jewish Sports Review spoke to her brother, also a skier. He said that he and his sister were raised in no faith and don’t identify as Jewish. 

DYLAN MOSCOVITCH, 33, is a Canadian figure skater. He was born and raised in Toronto. He had a bar mitzvah and took a Birthright Trip to Israel. He is a certified instructor of Krav Maga, a self-defense system used by the Israeli Defense Forces. In 2014, he and his then partner, Kirsten Towers-Moore, won the Olympic silver medal in the mixed pairs figure skating event. That partnership ended in 2014 and he soon teamed up with Lubov Ilyushechkina, a top Russian skater. 

ADAM ROSEN, 33, is a British-American luge athlete. He was born and raised in New Rochelle, N.Y., the son of an American father and a British mother and has dual citizenship. He lives in New York. He competed for the UK in 2006 and 2010 in the one-man luge event, finishing 16th both times. Injuries prevented him from competing in 2014. He’s named for his maternal British grandfather, a World War II Royal Navy combat veteran. His paternal grandfather was a rabbi and a U.S. Air Force chaplain.