Jewish stars
Pop-up exhibit in West Orange shows pride in sports — and lots more
The days might be getting shorter, the mood around the world might be getting grimmer — but what better time than now to spread a little light?
And how better to do it than through — collectible sports cards?
With Jewish stars on them? As in the six-pointed triangle, and as in Jewish athletes? As a way to highlight Jewish identity and Jewish pride?
Now we’re talking!
It started at Yom HaAtzmaut in Livingston, when Zev Ziegler put together what he called the “Wall of Mensch.” It was a “huge sneaker on the wall,” he said; it was a replica of the human-foot-size shoe that Deni Avdija had worn on Yom HaZikaron in 2022, “on a nationally televised game,” Mr. Ziegler said.
Deni Avdija is an Israeli; in fact he’s the first Israeli ever to be drafted by the NBA. He first played for the Washington Wizards and now is a Portland Trailblazer; he was an NBA All-Star for the 2025-26 season, and the first Israeli to have reached that level.
He’s also a proud Israeli.
In 2022, he wrote the word “Yizkor” — remember — and drew a Jewish star on his sneakers. He’s also written “Am Israel Chai” on his shoes, and they — and he — have become iconic in parts of the American Jewish community. “He’s sort of becoming our modern-day Sandy Koufax,” Mr. Ziegler said.
So this spring, for Yom HaAtzmaut in Livingston, “we created these little sports cards, and we had a little empty space over them,” Mr. Ziegler said. That was on the “Wall of Mensch.” “Above it was that sneaker. And we challenged the kids, and their parents too. We said, if you had your moment in sports, what would you write on your sneaker?
“More than 300 kids and parents wrote something, so we put them all on the wall.
“That was the start of something, and we knew that it was something special. So for the last four months, we’ve been working with some of the most interesting collectors of sports memorabilia, and we think that we’ve uncovered something that is even more unique.
“We’ve found that in what’s about 100 years of a hobby” — collecting and trading baseball and basketball and football and other sports cards — “Jewish identity was sprinkled into some of them, way beyond the name of the player.” But the way it worked was hamevin yavin. If you know, you know. And if you don’t, at least by implication, oh well.
“So imagine that you were collecting a Sandy Koufax card in the 1970s. If you knew Sandy Koufax was Jewish, then that was that. He wore a L.A. Dodgers uniform. But with Deni Avdija, something unique happened. The card manufacturers, Topps and Panini — two very large companies — showed his ‘collegiate dress.’ Deni Avdija’s collegiate dress was Maccabi Tel Aviv. Maccabi has a star of David on its logo. So these identity elements were infused in the card.
“Everywhere you went in 2020, the star of David was appearing, in the Israeli flag. So imagine for a second. When have you ever heard of the star of David ever breaking through into the culture beyond Jewish circles?
“No celebrity who is not Jewish has ever worn the star of David,” Mr. Ziegler said. “No athlete who isn’t Jewish is wearing it. But now you see it randomly asserted in packs of cards, at a time when hate was blossoming.”
Because of Deni Avdija, you’d be lucky to get that card.
That fact is particularly relevant now, Mr. Zeigler said, because “the sports card hobby, as we speak today, is a multi-billion-dollar industry.” The investor Kevin O’Leary, who made his debut in the Josh Safdie-directed, Timothee Chalomet-starring film “Marty Supreme,” “wore a $12 million necklace with a sports card signed by Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan,” he added. “So yes, the card hobby’s gone crazy.”
Okay. So we’ve established that the sports card is a major big deal in pop culture. What about the Jewish part of it?
“Our friends to our left and to our right say that they’re asking themselves if they should wear the star of David necklaces out today,” Mr. Ziegler said. “Is it safe? And at the same time, there’s this odd paradox, because it’s appearing in non-Jewish households all over America,” thanks to Deni Avdija.
So how to does this connect to Yom HaAztmaut in Livingston?
“About 900 families showed up for that,” Mr. Ziegler said. It made him start thinking about doing something else, something bigger.
“So we’ve created this exhibit, with five sections,” he said. “Collecting, design, identity, relationships, and voice. Each section is designed to inspire and engage the next generation.”
The exhibit, called Not Any Deni, will be at the Gaelen Gallery at the JCC MetroWest in West Orange from November 2 to November 6; it’s presented by three local groups, Livingston Advocates, Club Z, and Littlelight. (See below.)
The pop-up exhibit, called Not Any Deni, will be at the JCC for five days; the first night includes a chance to trade cards.
There will be cards on display as well. One, Mr. Ziegler said, a one-of-a-kind, shows an Israeli flag, and it has 10 diamonds. “None of these cards are for sale,” he added. “Every card here is designed to be in a museum. And they’re all designed to help inspire Jews.
Mr. Ziegler has his own backstory. He and his wife, Dr. Heather Greenberg, were divorced for seven years, he said. “And then, after October 7, we got remarried. We got over the idea of each one of us being right” — that is, holding on to their own senses of grievance, over issues they’d probably forgotten — “and instead we just chose to be happy.
“I think that in part we felt like what had created October 7 was that we’d been so divided as a nation. So we decided to come back together.”
Before the Zieglers divorced, they’d had one daughter; since they remarried, they’ve had another daughter. “It’s really beautiful,” Mr. Zeigler said.
The Yom HaAztmaut project, and now the Not Any Deni popup, were a result of the massacre on Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, last Chanukah. “At the menorah lighting, I asked my rabbi, Mendy Lubin of Southeast Morris County Chabad, why God does things like this. And he said, ‘You’re asking the wrong question.’ So I said, ‘What’s the right question?’ and he said, ‘What can I do?’
“I thought about it, and I thought that the answer was beautiful. So here we are, creating these initiatives, teaming up with like-minded organizations” — Mr. Ziegler’s Livingston Advocates, Club Z, and Littlelight.
Mr. Ziegler is a citizen of both the United States and Israel; his parents were Israeli, and “my grandparents on both sides were partisans,” he said. “One of their siblings received a medal for the number of Jews he was able to save during the Holocaust. In the scheme of things, we’re doing nowhere near what they were able to achieve two generations ago, but we’re doing the best that we can.
“And also, of course, we’re not in nearly as bad a situation,” he added.
Mr. Ziegler is a brand marketer, so he’s well suited for the projects he’s doing in Livingston. “I have worked with some of the larger brands in the consumer product space, such as Kind Healthy Snacks, and I’m having fun doing corporate marketing for a couple of very interesting biotech firms now,” he said.
Inna Yelisevich of Livingston has a day job that she performs with care and attention — she’s a realtor — but her passion is for her volunteer role, as the organizer of local chapters of the youth group called Club Z. The group’s role is to help young Jews not only feel connected to their Jewish roots and their Jewish souls, but to get great joy out of it, and out of their connections with other young Jews.
There’s a flourishing Club Z in Livingston, and in Brooklyn and Westchester; Ms. Yelisevich is working to open chapters in other places, including in Bergen County. It’s likely that one soon will start in Teaneck.
She’s also partnering with Mr. Ziegler on Not Any Deni. She’s excited about it, she said; it’s a great way to engage kids and make them feel proud — both of being Jewish, and of being athletes. Because so many young people play sports, particularly soccer, basketball, and lacrosse, it could even let them start to think about a future that would continue to involve those sports.
They’re also encouraged to bring cards to trade with other kids, she continued. “That can help develop relationships. It’s like being in a museum — they’re looking at the cards in the exhibit — and they’re also able to trade their own cards”
The first 100 families to register also will get a pack of sports trading cards, she added.
She’s also enthusiastic about the Wall of Mensches; there will be one at the JCC, she said. There is always room for mensches, whether or not they’re trading cards, gazing at the cards on exhibit, or staring with awe at the stars on Deni Avdija’s shoes.
What: A pop-up exhibit called Not Any Deni
When: November 2–6, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Where: At the Gaelen Gallery at the JCC MetroWest in West Orange
How much: Free
What: Sports card trade night
When: November 2, 6 to 8 p.m.
Where: At the Gaelen Gallery at JCC MetroWest
How much: Free, but you have to register, at
notanydeni.carrd.co
The first 100 families to register for Trade Night will receive a free pack of 2026 Topps basketball cards.