High Above Chicago, NASCAR Watch Party Revs Up at Chabad

The NASCAR racing cars roared through Chicago city streets on Sunday reaching speeds of well over 100 miles an hour. Watching from a 20th-floor apartment overlooking the city while sharing kosher food and words of Torah were members of the city’s South Loop Jewish community who had gathered in the home of Mushky and Rabbi Mordechai Gershon, co-directors of Chabad-Lubavitch Jewish Center of South Loop.

Among those attending was Eileen Libby, who said that initially, she and many of her neighbors had been opposed to having the race in the city, as many streets were closed to residents over the weekend. Watching the race, though, she found herself caught up in the excitement. Plus, she said, “I’m always in favor of Jewish get-togethers, to have the Jewishness in common, along with kosher food and a l’chaim. I’m in favor of that,” she said. Plus, there were the great views of most of the race course from high above the city.

Sunday was the first time that NASCAR (The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing), an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company best known for its stock-car races, held a national race on city streets in the United States, so the Gershons’ opened their home for an event they called “NASCAR Watch Party and the Kabbalah of Cars.” The program also included tefillin for the men and a Zoom discussion with two Jewish reporters who cover NASCAR.

Seth Eggert, a staff writer for Kickin’ the Tires website, and Lewis Franck, a motorsports contributor for Reuters, talked about Jewish involvement in NASCAR, acknowledging that historically, some fans have held antisemitic views. Yet today, they said, the president of a major racing group is Jewish, and there are a number of Jewish NASCAR drivers, including Israeli Alon Day, who participated in the competition’s Euro series.

Rabbi Mordechai Gershon with a Jewish community member

As the race was underway, the rabbi shared a thought about the connection between cars and people. “A car is but a vehicle for transport, controlled by its driver. Our bodies are vehicles for action and momentum,” he said, asking, “Who sits in our driver’s seat?”

For Bonnie McGrath, who lives in the neighborhood and whose 96-year-old mother is a “huge” NASCAR fan, it was a chance to experience the racing for herself.

“My mother was enormously involved in NASCAR when she was younger; she knew all the drivers, but I never knew any other Jewish people who were into that,” she said, adding that she was pleasantly surprised to learn about other Jews who loved NASCAR as much as her mother.

But, she said, it wasn’t just the race that drew her to the watch party.

“Anything the rabbi invites us to we go to,” McGrath said. “I love that he is bringing the Jews of the neighborhood together. Some of us aren’t religious, but as I’ve grown older, I’m very defensive of my Jewish heritage. Other ethnic groups are so proud of their heritage and tout it everywhere, and I thought I’m going to do that as well.”

For some, it was great opportunity to get together with fellow Jewish community members.

The race was a big event in Chicago.