No Mets? No problem. NYers get their Jewish Celebration Day in Brooklyn.

David Tribuch is a lifelong Mets fan who used to attend the team’s annual Jewish Heritage Night with his family growing up. 

But the Mets haven’t held one in three years — a fact that has generated discourse and angered a number of their Jewish fans. So on Sunday, Tribuch made the trip down to Coney Island for a different day of Jewish-themed baseball.

“I’m a big Mets fan, but they haven’t done one recently, so I figured this was a good shot to support the team,” he said, referring to the Brooklyn Cyclones, a minor league affiliate of the Mets that hosted its Jewish Celebration Day on Sunday.

The game against the Frederick Keys, which ended as a 4-1 loss for the Cyclones, attracted about 1,000 more attendees than a typical game the same time last year — suggesting that others, like Tribuch, might have come out just for the Jewish celebration. (Cyclones games typically see about 2,000 spectators.)

A group of 15 Holocaust survivors threw out the first pitch, Israeli-American Jewish rapper Kosha Dillz performed some of his signature Jewish rap between innings, and children ran the bases to “Hava Nagila.” Kiosks set up for the day included an egg cream station hosted by Brooklyn Seltzer Boys and one selling tickets for an upcoming Israel Elite Hockey League game being played on Long Island.

“Everybody’s very excited to be here, and I’m very glad to host them,” said Jeff Klein, the director of ticket sales for the Cyclones. “And just having the Holocaust survivors was really moving, because that’s historic. You know, we won’t be able to do this in five, 10 years.”

When asked whether he believed that the buzz about the Mets had contributed to the added excitement for Sunday’s game, Klein replied, “Yes,” adding that the team had no plans to stop hosting the annual Jewish heritage event moving forward.

“I mean, we have the largest Jewish community outside of Israel,” Klein said. “Brooklyn is the size of Chicago, the population and density, so we have a sizable Jewish community, and they come, and we want to support them.”

One of the Holocaust survivors who stepped up to the pitcher’s mound, Trudy Tajerstein, who fled Vienna as a teenager, said that it was “very nice” to have been invited to the game.

“It’s not an ordinary celebration,” Tajerstein said. “I was surprised that they did so many Jewish things, I never thought that baseball was so important, but yes, it is the American pastime, isn’t it?”

Fans who purchased Jewish Celebration Day tickets were entitled to one of a number of hats resembling the Israeli flag, as well as a free kosher hot dog.

Daniel Kaye said it “means a lot” to him that the game included a number of Israel-related details, such as the playing of the Israeli national anthem and the design of the special event hats, which were widely worn.

“I think it’s important that we show support for Israel, so I couldn’t be happier,” Kaye said.

Kaye is a Minnesota Twins fan originally from Minneapolis. He said he had been surprised to learn that the Mets were not having a Jewish Heritage Night this year.

“I think that’s silly that they, for whatever reason, decided to opt out of doing it,” he said. “What reasons do you have to not do it? New York is like the most Jewish state in the country. So, like, why would you not have that?”

Indeed, the absence of a special Jewish night on the Mets calendar has been a recent cause for concern and confusion among some Jewish fans. After a Substack post called attention to the lack of such a night on the calendar, some alleged without evidence that the Mets had done away with the special event in response to an increasingly anti-Zionist and antisemitic atmosphere. 

In fact, the Mets have not held such an event since 2023, predating both the war in Gaza, which turned the inclusion of Jewish groups into an increasingly sensitive issue, and protests from an Italian-American group over the lack of an Italian heritage night. In 2024, the team announced that it would replace heritage nights with a “Celebration of Queens Culture,” though it has since added back some of the special events.

The Mets have not commented publicly on the Jewish Heritage Night kerfuffle, which spurred petitions and angry social media posts from Jews calling for such an event to be added to the year’s schedule.

Many attendees at the Cyclones’ Jewish game said they were aware of the discourse. Jeffrey Rosenberg said he had been “very disappointed” to learn of the lack of a Jewish Heritage Night this year, adding that he believed the Mets had “buckled down to pressure from outside forces.”

Waiting in the sprawling line for his kosher hotdog, Jacob Gottstein said that he had been drawn to the game because “I love the Cyclones and I love the Jewish people.” He dismissed the Mets’ heritage night controversy as overblown. 

“I’ve seen all the buzz on the internet, people need to calm down…it’s just a lot of hubbub for nothing,” Gottstein said. “I’m not buying into it that they got rid of it because of Mamdani, or because of a greater risk this year that wasn’t there in previous years. They stopped doing it several years ago for completely unrelated reasons.”

Kosha Dillz, whose real name is Rami Even-Esh, said the controversy surrounding the Mets’ calendar amounted to little more than “hearsay.” 

“They didn’t have Jewish Heritage Night for a couple years now, so it wasn’t like, oh my God, this is the year they didn’t do it, and honestly, all Jews are Mets fans,” Even-Esh said. “But the point being is, you know, go where we’re celebrated and don’t worry about negative news. This is, like, positive news day.”

Not every Jew crowding into the Cyclones game knew it was a special occasion when they arrived. Despite his spirited, dyed-blue beard and blue ribboned fedora indicating otherwise, Robert Friedhoffer had no idea Sunday’s Brooklyn Cyclones game was Jewish Celebration Day.

Friedhoffer, a Jewish physics professor and magician, came out to Coney Island to support a friend who was working the game as the clown. It was his first baseball game. 

“No idea. Just happened to be. And I was very surprised and glad to see it,” he said. Then, referring to the stadium’s namesake, a hospital system named for a 12th-century rabbi and physician, he added, “I didn’t even know this was called Maimonides Park.”