A

champion was
crowned last
month in the Inter-
Congregational Men’
s Club
Summer Softball League’
s fall
season.
The Jeters, who tied for
second place during the
regular season, beat the sur-

prising Kosher Ribs 12-8 in
the playoff title game Oct. 18
at Keith Sports Park in West
Bloomfield.
As with everything else this
year, the COVID-19 pandemic
was lurking in the background
each Sunday during the fall
season.

But the six teams each
played all 10 regular-season
games and the one-day, five-
game, single-elimination play-
offs went off without a hitch.
“There was a sense of nor-
malcy when we were out there
playing this summer and fall.
We got to spend some time
outdoors and take our minds
off what’
s going on in the
world,” said Jeters manager
Victor Uzansky.
Pandemic-required rules
like no tags that were in place
during the league’
s summer
season were also enforced

during the fall season.
“Everyone got used to the
new rules,” Uzansky said. “We
were excited about getting a
chance to play.”
SHAEF was a perfect 10-0
during the fall regular season
and earned the No. 1 seed for
the playoffs. The Jeters (6-4),
Marble Rye (6-4), Kosher Ribs
(4-5-1), The Sandlot (2-8)
and Bad News Jews (1-8-1)
rounded out the regular-season
standings.
Kosher Ribs beat The
Sandlot 8-2 and Marble Rye
beat Bad News Jews 13-3 in

J

udah Schulman and Toby
Milstein got married Oct.
18 in a small outdoor cere-
mony in New York.
For the 28-year-old NYC
residents, the nuptials were the
latest chapter of a 12-year love
story that began on a volleyball
court at the JCC of Metropolitan
Detroit in West Bloomfield.
The two first met after a
volleyball match at the 2008
JCC Maccabi Games hosted by
Detroit. Each said it was love at
first sight.
Schulman, from Teaneck,
N.J., was a 16-year-old basket-
ball player for the Riverdale Y
team. Milstein, from Scarsdale,
N.Y., was a member of the Mid-
Westchester volleyball team.
One of Schulman’
s basketball
teammates was dating a member
of the Mid-Westchester volley-
ball team. That’
s how Schulman
ended up at Milstein’
s volleyball
match on Aug. 20, 2008, the day
before her 16th birthday.
“I saw Toby playing and cheer-
ing with such passion and enthu-
siasm and thought, ‘
Wow, this
girl is so cute. I have to introduce
myself to her,
’
” Schulman said.
“So, I walked up to her after the
match and did just that.
”

What was Milstein’
s first
impression of Schulman?
“He was incredibly handsome,
”
she said. “I could hardly believe
this tall, blond-haired cute guy
was real. It didn’
t take me long
to realize the irony of having just
met my own ‘
Judah Maccabee’

at the Maccabi Games. That
may have been a little wink from
above.
”
Schulman said the two were
“basically inseparable” at the
Maccabi Games after they met.
They watched each other’
s com-
petitions, texted each other and
met at evening activities.
Their relationship continued
after they returned home, just
before the start of their junior
year in high school.
There was texting, phone calls,
Skype dates and group get-to-
gethers in New York City. That
was the best they could do in
an era before smart phones and
FaceTime calls.
“We were lucky to live decently
close to one another [45 minutes
apart], so we could meet up with
friends in the city,
” Milstein said.
The couple was together for
three years, then scaled back to
being close friends for six years
as college, careers and Schulman’
s

Couple who fi
rst met at the 2008
JCC Maccabi Games in Detroit ties
the knot 12 years later.

STEVE STEIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Maccabi
Marriage

Judah Schulman proposes to

Toby Milstein on a beach on

Long Island.

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BY STEVE STEIN

Jeters Rise Up During the
Inter-Congregational League’s
Fall Softball Season

34 | NOVEMBER 19 • 2020