Near Wrigley, kosher deli pitches good deeds

CHICAGO (JTA) – Baseball gloves and caricatures of famous ballplayers adorn the walls of Milt’s Extra Innings – no surprise for a deli that’s a short drive from Wrigley Field, the fabled home of the Chicago Cubs.

But look closely and the picture becomes a little more unexpected: The memorabilia on the walls celebrate Jewish greats and not-so-greats like Sandy Koufax, Philadelphia Athletics first baseman Lou Limmer, and the catcher and sometimes spy Moe Berg. And there among the collection of bobbleheads, right next to former catcher Brad Ausmus, is Moses – that Moses – gripping a set of tablets.

The latest addition to the redevelopment of the neighborhoods around Wrigley is a kosher deli that is a celebration of Jews and America’s pastime – as well as a place where Jewish adults with intellectual disabilities can find meaningful work experience.

Restaurateur and real estate investor Jeff Aeder recently opened Milt’s Extra Innings next door to his kosher Milt’s Barbecue for the Perplexed, which for five years has donated all profits to Jewish causes. Milt’s Extra Innings will follow suit, donating all profits to Keshet, a Jewish agency serving children and adults with intellectual challenges in the Chicago area.

Most of the deli workers at Extra Innings are associated with Keshet and its GADOL program – Giving Adults Daily Opportunities for Living. They have an intellectual disability but are high functioning.

The owner of a 5,000-piece collection of Jewish baseball memorabilia, Aeder is showcasing a small fraction of artifacts that celebrate 170 Jews who have played in the major leagues. A mural timeline on a wall tracks the history of Jews in the sport from 1860 until today. Among the framed collectibles near the deli counter are a jersey worn by Koufax from 1963, his best year, Detroit slugger Hank Greenberg’s game-used bat and a mitt used by Berg.

“Baseball is a great metaphor for the Jewish experience in America,” Aeder said of his niche Jewish Baseball Museum, where his entire collection lives, for the moment, online. The website includes a quote from author Jonathan Eig saying that in baseball, like Judaism, members of a “tribe … pass along a collective sense of identity — where we come from and who we are.”

“We’re telling the story of Jews in America through baseball,” Aeder said.