(Courtesy of Foundation to Combat Antisemitism)
Meyer Shapiro didn’t have a Jewish wrestler role model when he was five years old and starting out in the sport. But he’s going to be that role model for the next generation of Jewish athletes.
The world champion wrestler originally from Woodbine — now a rising junior at Cornell University — is among the six Jewish student athletes selected to partner with the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism as the inaugural cohort of the nonprofit organization’s new Blue Square Athlete Ambassador Program.
According to FCAS’ website, the aim of the program is to “bring Jewish stories to a non-Jewish audience” by highlighting accomplished college athletes who are proudly Jewish.
FCAS is one of the first nonprofit organizations to sponsor Jewish students in the Name, Image and Likeness space, which allows college athletes to profit through endorsements and other commercial activities, according to the website.
“I think it’s really honorable that I got chosen,” Shapiro told Baltimore Jewish Times.
“That’s awesome that they recognize me as someone that they can have a following for and have kids look up to [as] a Jewish athlete.”
He added that he was especially proud to gain attention as a wrestler, given that the sport is relatively “niche and small.” The other five ambassadors attend colleges on both coasts and represent baseball, basketball and track and field.
Adam Katz, the president of FCAS, said he and his team selected Shapiro for his “authenticity and perseverance.”
“He talks proudly about his Jewish faith and represent[s] the Jewish community on the mat and his pride in who he is as a Jewish American,” Katz told Baltimore Jewish Times. “He’s someone who has overcome adversity athletically.”
At the beginning of his sophomore season, Shapiro battled pneumonia and was hospitalized after undergoing seizures, according to an Instagram post by Stand Up to Jewish Hate.
Katz said the collegiate wrestler “immediately” got back into training after he recovered, going on to place fifth in the NCAA Wrestling Championships.
(Photo by Julien Demuga)
He achieved All-American status at the NCAA championships as a freshman in college and won the under-20 world championship shortly before the season’s start.
“Someone like Meyer, who has worked extremely hard and pushed himself to achieve what he has achieved and will continue to do so, [is] a great role model for the 15-year-old or the 12-year-old in the [Greater Baltimore] area that’s just starting in their athletic career,” Katz said.
The need to showcase Jewish stories is important to FCAS’ mission, given that a “significant portion of Americans” either don’t know or don’t have a close relationship with a Jewish person, Katz said. He added that Americans who have a Jewish friend may not know that that friend is Jewish, which leads to an “information vacuum” that can enable antisemitic tropes to persist.
“By putting stories and faces and names on these phenomenal Jewish role models, it’s helping bring these stories to people that wouldn’t otherwise have exposure,” Katz said.
For Shapiro, who said he looks forward to raising awareness of Jewish athletes, the sponsorship is about inspiring young sports enthusiasts.
“The youth can really be whoever [they] want,” he said. “You don’t need to be 6-foot-5; you don’t need to be the strongest. There’s so many avenues of athletics.”
(Photo by Allyson Schwab)
Shapiro added that as a kid growing up on a farm in Woodbine, he wasn’t the strongest, fastest or most athletic. He began training in judo and jiujitsu before discovering wrestling.
He spoke to his athletic journey. “Overall, it really inspired me because it’s like, ‘Wow, I can be a really strong, good human being through this path of life, and that was the wrestling world.’”
Shapiro completed his freshman and sophomore years at Bullis School in Potomac before the pandemic interrupted his high school career. As a freshman at Bullis, he went 55-4 with four tournament titles in wrestling, including as a Maryland state champion.
“My time at Bullis was a really good experience,” Shapiro reflected. “One thing that made me feel really good about myself was the Jewish community at Bullis is very big. … Being a kid who was driving an hour-plus to go to school and not having the most friends, it definitely gave me a little bit of comfortability.”
But his Jewish identity also proved challenging at times. After Shapiro posted a blue square, a symbol of solidarity against Jewish hate, his Instagram account was mysteriously deleted: “It was kind of suspicious. I’ve never [had my account] disabled.”
Shapiro has opened his phone to “tons of negative direct messages” about his Jewish faith.
In 2023, after winning the junior world title in Amman, Jordan, he received 10 to 15 hateful messages.
“There’s so much of it,” he said. “Especially today, with antisemitism and stigma being Jewish, it almost feels good to be Jewish now that I can tell people to kind of back off, [and say] ‘That’s disrespectful’ or ‘I don’t like the way you’re speaking about me.’”
The best strategy, Shapiro said, is to “kill them with kindness.”
“I’m not going to let you tell me who I am; I know who I am,” he added.
For now, Shapiro has his eyes on an Olympic team and future world teams. He’ll continue to train for his remaining two years at Cornell.
“I’ve been wrestling for almost 16 years now and I don’t plan to stop,” he said. “For me to be able to compete at a high level and also represent my faith and a whole demographic of people, I think is really, really awesome.”
