The University of Michigan baseball program is adding a milestone to its roster this spring, welcoming catcher Elie Kligman, whom the team hailed as the first Orthodox Jew to play Division I baseball.
“Elie Kligman is making history,” Michigan Baseball wrote in announcing the 22-year-old graduate student’s arrival in Ann Arbor.
Kligman, originally from Las Vegas, joined the Wolverines this spring after transferring from Sacramento State, where he completed his undergraduate degree. A switch-hitting catcher, he entered the NCAA transfer portal with one year of eligibility remaining and quickly drew interest from Michigan’s coaching staff.
“I was recruited to the University of Michigan this summer out of the transfer portal,” Kligman told JNS. “The coaches reached out to me, offered me, and I committed soon after.”
Kligman said he first became the first Orthodox Jew to play Division I baseball during his freshman year in 2022, a distinction that gained wider attention after Michigan highlighted it publicly. “I put that in the fun fact section of our intro posts,” he said. “The post got some views, and it was awesome to see the love from lots of people — and the haters.”
Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, congratulated Kligman for “breaking barriers,” saying his presence on the field could open doors for more Jewish athletes.
Kligman’s father, Marc Kligman, is a sports agent who represents Elie and his brother Ari, as well as Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Nathan Lukes and longtime Philadelphia Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz.
“My dad being an agent and my brother playing as well was the perfect environment,” Kligman said. “I always had a partner to go to the field with, and my dad coached me through high school.”
One of his favorite experiences came playing alongside his brother with the Portland Pickles, a collegiate summer league team. “That was the first time my brother and I teamed up in college,” he said. “It was definitely a fun and special connection.”
Kligman’s rise has also meant navigating the demands of Division I athletics while maintaining Orthodox Jewish observance, particularly around Shabbos. He said Friday games are manageable as long as play ends before sundown.
“While the sun is still up, I play,” he said. “Once Shabbat begins, I leave and go to shul. Or, when I’m on the road, back to the hotel.”
He added that teammates and staff have been supportive, helping arrange kosher food and religious accommodations on the road, often with assistance from local Chabad rabbis.
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
13 Responses
A Jewish boy does not belong in “professional” sports.
how many takanot chazal were enacted to keep us separate from goyim.
here r’ Elie will be interacting and eating and drinking constantly, not with goyish doctors and professionals but with goyishe sportsmen. we know their topics of conversation and their interests. it is practiacally impossible to keep the Torah when you are enveloped in such an atmosphere and therefore is prohibited.
a person is entirely effected by those he surrounds himself with
Echos of “Pepsi Meyers”
UJM, I am glad you gave your opinion. What do you suggest?
Should marry and join a Kollel? and have his spouse work.
or do whatever he enjoys. Do you want his phone number to see if he cares about your opinion?
@ujm. Thank you for your comment. Please keep them to yourself in the future. BH this young man embraces his Orthodox Jewish upbringing. Imagine C’V if he just said the heck with it, sports is more important. What gives you the right to be his mussar sefer? Maybe give him and others like him a ישר כח in the future.
It’s gotta be very exciting for him but overall kinda weird mixing shabbos and Yom Tov with professional sports. Don’t get me wrong I like playing softball with the boys but I can’t say that I’m impressed. But it’s still fun to out there with professional players.
For some reason frum Jews lose their minds when a frum person plays in a sports team, there are plenty of much less kosher professions that frum Jews do, that for some reason we all turn a blind eye to.
The article says he is “orthodox” which is a term that can span a fairly wide range of hashkafos. Kol hakovod to him at whatever level he decides to be shomer torah u’mitzvos.
outoftownjew,
Just curious. Why are some allowed to express their opinions but others must keep them to themselves?
@mobico,
Everyone is allowed to express their opinions but idiotic opinions that degrade a boy who is trying his best to stay Shomer Torah U’mitzvos while playing a sport and is most probably not “all day learning” material should never be put down or given mussar that he/she is doing the wrong thing. They should be commended for keeping the Torah while “working”. Would these comments be said about anyone who is not learning the entire day? I think not! Sports is no different than any other job and if a person can “work” and keep Shabbos, Yom Tov and Mitzvos in general we ought to celebrate them not degrade them!
ootj,
I hear you, and your opinion. I also hear the other side. There usually two sides to every debate. I was taking issue with your instructions to another poster to “keep his comments to himself”. I believe that there are more positive ways of promoting polite dialogue.
Back in the 1990s, Mendy Yachad played cricket and hockey for South Africa. He played on Shabbos, relying on the opinions that playing ball in a reshus hayachid is permitted, but he walked to the field and avoided all actual chilul shabbos.
@mobico
ujm says:
January 18, 2026 9:20 am at 9:20 am
A Jewish boy does not belong in “professional” sports.
Imagine if this boy was your son/daughter and they went to YWN to check the article that was written about them and this is the FIRST comment they see. After doing his/her best to keep the Mitzvos while doing something they love and is not in any way against the Torah. wouldn’t they feel degraded and unloved by their fellow Jews?
Could the commenter have been a bit kinder in their words so as not to cause someone to be upset? Absolutely!
While everyone is entitled to their opinion, a blanket statement like that is uncalled for and just puts someone “down” without thinking of the consequences of their words. I therefore called them out on it.