‘Israel Swings for Gold,’ a tale of Israeli Olympic baseball, is available to stream

American Jews have long had a great love for baseball, but it has taken Israelis a few decades to catch up and start a national team. That team was the focus of the acclaimed documentary, Heading Home: The Tale of Team Israel, and now of a sequel, Israel Swings for Gold, which follows the players as they compete in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, is available to stream on Apple TV, Amazon Prime, Google Play, YouTube Movies, and ChaiFlicks. It also later streams on Fandango at Home, The Roku Channel, Pluto TV, and Tubi.

Israel Swings for Gold, directed by Seth Kramer, Daniel A. Miller, and Jeremy Newberger, was shown at the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival and at the Carole Zabar Center for Film at the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan; and then went on to a theatrical premiere at the New Plaza Cinema in New York in early August, where it was held over for a second week. 

It tells the inspiring story of a team that went into the Olympics as the ultimate underdogs. No one expected the team to qualify for the games at all, with only six nations allowed to compete, but Israel made it.

At the Olympic Games, the mostly American-born squad managed to beat the Mexican team for a fifth-place finish. 

More than just sports

But the movie is about much more than sports, as it details the heart and soul that the Israelis brought to the Olympic Village, where they faced snubs from some of the other athletes and death threats from the outside while grappling with the legacy of the Munich Olympic massacre of 11 Israeli athletes in 1972.

This moving story is perfectly timed for Zionist baseball lovers, who will enjoy seeing highlights of each Olympic game as well as the players’ personal dramas, and their struggle against threats and pressure, as they pull off an amazing feat.