Indo-Jew Bowl Continues its Thanksgiving of Diversity

With each passing year, it’s a little bit harder for Stephen Feder to lace up the football cleats on Thanksgiving Day. The legs take longer to loosen up and the hands don’t adjust to the cold as quickly.

But without fail on the fourth Thursday of each November, Feder is out playing on a football field. He’s part of a group of former Niles North and Niles West graduates who have created their own Thanksgiving Day custom: the “Indo-Jew Bowl.”

The annual football game, which is played at a park or school around Skokie, matches Indians versus Jews in a turkey-day football game that has come to be a tribute to their life-long friendship and cultural diversity.

“This is the one time of year that we can all get together,” Feder, 31, said. “It’s more difficult for us to get together, but once a year without fail, we find time for this game. And it’s usually a lot of fun.”

Feder was part of the original crew that organized the first Indo-Jew Bowl. It started 12 years ago when the core group of players graduated high school. The game has continued even as many of the participants have moved away from Skokie.

Matthew Robins, the official organizer of the event, estimates that 25 percent of the players flew back to Skokie for Indo-Jew Bowl XII.

“Everybody always anticipates it and it’s part of their calendar now,” Robins said. “As we get older, we get some news guys... I doubt [the game] will stop.”

Before each annual skirmish, Robins creates new T-shirts each year, which he sells to each player. Robins raises money and will most likely donate the funds to the Niles Township Food Pantry this year.  

As the game has progressed, both teams have added more participants. Many of the original participants have started families and invited friends and other family members to join in on the action. Even if they choose not to participate in the football game, a loyal group of spectators line the sideline to cheer on their respective ethnic group.

Savrut Pandya played in the Indo-Jew Bowl for the first time on Thursday. His brother, Atmik, invited him to play after Savrut came back from the University of Illinois for Thanksgiving break. He’s looking to be part of the next generation that will carry the torch for the Indo-Jew Bowl.

“It’s pretty cool, a cool tradition to be a part of,” Savrut said. “To see two different faiths come together and have fun, for so long.”

After last year’s game ended in a 20-20 tie, two years-worth of bragging rights were up for grabs on Thursday. The Jews took an early 6-0 lead on a deep pass that deflected off a defender and into the hands of a Jewish wide receiver and the “Chosen People” never looked back, winning Indo-Jew Bowl XII 19-6.

But once the game is done and everyone’s competitive fire has been exhausted, they go back to being just one group of people, the way they’ve always known it.  

“We’ve been friends our whole lives, since we were really young,” Feder said. “It’s a celebration of diversity, that’s the whole point of this. We want to celebrate the really vast friendships that we’ve created over the years.”

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