MIAMI - World Baseball Classic players and coaches from Team Israel and the Dominican Republic will join forces on Tuesday, March 14, for a cause that is bigger than baseball. They will meet with children from the local Jewish and Latino communities to discuss ways to combat antisemitism and racism.
The event, which will take place hours before Team Israel and the Dominican Republic square off in a pivotal WBC game at loanDepot park in Miami, will be the latest event in an ongoing relationship between the Israel Association of Baseball and players and ambassadors from the Dominican Republic.
In November, a delegation featuring Dominican players Nelson Cruz and Cesar Hernandez visited Israel and spent a day running a clinic for young players. That trip was organized by the Philos Project, a nonprofit community of Christian leaders who advocate for pluralism in the Near East, in conjunction with the Dominican Ambassador to Israel, Ernesto Torres Pereyra.
On the occasion of the teams meeting at the WBC, they will host children at nearby Jose Marti Park to spread the message against antisemitism and racism. The event will also feature a question-and-answer session in which the children can grill the baseball stars. And conclude with a white rose ceremony and an exchange of flowers and flags.
The white rose ceremony is a nod to the heroic student group known as "The White Rose" which led a non-violent intellectual resistance to the Nazi movement in Munich, German, in 1942 and 1943.
The proceedings will begin at 11 a.m.