Courtesy of Akiva Epstein
By Jeffrey Catalano
Assistant Editor
Akiva Epstein, who grew up playing JCC baseball, will be playing for the Israel National Men’s Team in the European Baseball Championships this upcoming September in the Netherlands. This is a 16-team tournament that includes many European nations (Netherlands, UK, France, Italy, Sweden, Germany, etc.) and Israel. The top two teams get a pass to play in the Olympics. On the upcoming championship game, Epstein said, “We’re all really excited to represent Israel baseball the best way we can.”
Epstein was born in 2003, and moved with his family to Cincinnati when he was two years old. He went to Hebrew Day School, preschool through fifth grade, and Rockwern Academy, fifth through eighth grade. From a young age, Epstein was drawn to America’s pastime. “I started at the youngest age I could,” Epstein said, getting into baseball at the tender age of three. He played T-ball, coaches pitch and little league. “It was something all the Jewish kids around me did,” he said of his early interest in baseball.
He played little league with the JCC Blue Jays from the age of five to fourteen. He proudly claimed that JCC was a massive part of his baseball development, and that the Kenwood baseball fields held many great memories for him.
He moved with his family to Columbus after graduating middle school to attend Columbus Torah Academy (CTA). While there, he played for the CTA Lions and was coached by Steven Guinan. He also participated in the Columbus Baseball Invitational and played on a select baseball team called Ohio Independence. On this team, he was coached by Rick Shapiro.
From little league on, Epstein’s played the position of pitcher or shortstop. Regarding his high school baseball career, Epstein said, “Travel ball’s where I made a name for myself.”
After graduating high school, Epstein took a gap year. After that, he enrolled in Reichman University in Herzliya, Israel to double major in Economics and Business. He will graduate from Reichman this summer, where he’s said he’s had a great experience overall.
While attending Israel’s private university, he started playing in a men’s baseball league in Tel Aviv. A number of his fellow ballplayers spotted his talent and asked him to play on Israel’s Under-23 (U-23) National Team. However, he wasn’t an Israeli citizen at the time and wasn’t ready to make Aliyah (become an Israeli citizen).
Another opportunity arose when Israel baseball asked him to be the assistant coach for Israel’s Under-18 National Team. He happily agreed and has been their assistant coach for the last three years. “I’m coaching the next generation of Israel baseball players,” he said, “and we have a lot of young, promising ballplayers.”
Courtesy of Akiva Epstein
Epstein made Aliyah right before last summer’s qualifying tournament for the European Baseball Championships. He was one of twenty members of Israel’s U-23 National Baseball team that played in last summer’s tournament.
Israel went 5-0, including beating Switzerland 3-0 in the final. Epstein pitched eight innings as a reliever across five games. He didn’t allow a single run or hit. On Israel’s incredible win, he said, “There’s no feeling like winning a tournament with ‘Israel’ written across your chest.”
Epstein will be playing the in 8-team U23 European Baseball Championship in three weeks (August 5-7) in the Czech Republic. He was also invited back to the Israel Men’s National Team. Based on sixth place finish, Israel was given automatic berth in the 2025 European Baseball Championship, which will be played in the Netherlands, September 20-22, 2025
Asked about any advice he might give to the young kids playing JCC baseball today, he said, “Have fun. Be a good teammate. And focus on what you’re playing, not the results.”
