Send Page to a Friend From the dugout to the JCRC   By Molly Ritvo The Jewish Advocate April 18, 2008   The Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston has named Ari Alexenberg, a former pitcher for the Israel Baseball League, as the new director at its Israel Action Center. “I came to the JCRC because I wanted to shift my daily efforts towards doing something that carries deeper personal meaning,” Alexenberg told the Advocate. “Supporting Israel is something I feel passionately about.”   Alexenberg, 45, currently makes his home in Portsmouth, N.H with his wife, Julie, and their two children, Elan and Talia. He was born in New York City and moved to Israel at age 7.   He said he “always loved baseball immensely growing up.” Yet, the new face of the JCRC’s Israel Action Center team was not able to play because of his observant practices; games were routinely held on Shabbat and as a Yeshiva student, he would often come home too late for afternoon practices.   Alexenberg played his first organized game at the age of 24 and continued to play for fun and coach throughout his adult life. And in 2007, he finally found a way to play baseball while practicing his observance lifestyle.   Before pitching, Alexenberg published a website that he merged “arts, news, and commentary” called the Weekly Echo. Before that he was the president and co-founder of a Web analytics consulting firm which he sold in 2004.   Alexenberg said that he feels honored to have found a professional position within the Jewish community supporting Israel.   “I envision the Israel Action Center focusing a great deal of its work on dealing with Iran’s nuclear ambitions, interfaith relationships, promoting activism and campus support,” he said. “It is a miraculous time for the Jewish people with respect to Israel. For 2,000 years, the Jewish people have yearned for the time when their homeland would be reborn; [today] we are gifted with that reality.”