In 2024, the image of Jake Retzlaff—the only Jewish quarterback ever to play for Brigham Young University’s football team—adorned special editions of Manischewitz matzah boxes. That brand deal, to showcase a promising Jewish pro-football prospect, was the inspiration for a company co-founded by former Montrealer Jeremy Moses.

His sports-marketing company is called Tribe NIL. (NIL stands for Name, Image and Likeness, a new monetization route for college athletes to make money off their work.) The company aims to boost the careers of hundreds of talented Jewish college athletes, including more than a half-dozen Canadians playing for U.S. college football, baseball, hockey, basketball and swim teams, among others.

Moses was raised in Montreal. He’s the middle son of retired Montreal Rabbi Lionel Moses and Yiddish scholar and editor Joyce Rappaport. His brother, Zev Moses, is the founder and executive director of the Museum of Jewish Montreal.

Jeremy Moses moved to Brooklyn where he’s worked in the sports and entertainment field. He and business partner, the comedian Eitan Levine, founded Tribe NIL last spring. This year, they’re doubling down on the Manischewitz campaign, looking for one male and one female Jewish athlete to reward with $10,000 in prize money each, a “L’Cheisman Trophy” and international fame as this year’s faces of Manischewitz matzah.

On today’s episode of The CJN’s flagship podcast North Star, Jeremy Moses joins host Ellin Bessner to share more about his campaign—plus they get into the myriad Jewish sporting news of the week, including Jewish Olympians and Robert Kraft’s controversial Super Bowl antisemitism ad.

Related links

Learn more about co-founder Jeremy Moses’s company, Tribe NIL and see some of the 250 Jewish NCAA college athletes they represent (including some Canadians).
Follow Manischewitz’s contest with TribeNIL for Jewish male and female college athlete of the year, with winners to be announced in March.
Listen to The CJN’s Not in Heaven podcast discuss whether parents want their kids to be professional athletes.

Credits

Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner )
Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director)
Music: Bret Higgins

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Meet the Canadian who's putting Jewish athletes on Manischewitz matzah boxes