E-Mail This Article to a Friend RED (SEA) SOX Yankees geh plotz! BY DAVID S. BERNSTEIN

We haven’t noticed any vendors selling bagels and lox yet, but there’s a definite Jewish aura around Fenway Park these days. With several Sox first-stringers on the disabled list, two Jewish back-ups have had a chance to play: third baseman Kevin Youkilis and right fielder Gabe Kapler. And on May 23, the Sox starting line-up included back-to-back Jews, a franchise first.

In their entire history, the Sox have had only eight other Jewish players, according to Martin Abramowitz, who runs the Web site jewishmajorleaguers.org. (He is also president of policy and agency relations for Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston.) Only once before has the team had two in the same season, and that was almost 80 years ago, when outfielder Si Rosenthal and relief pitcher Happy Foreman briefly donned the uniform in 1926. After them came shortstop Buddy Myer (1927-’28), catcher Moe Berg (’35-’39), shortstop Al Richter (’51-’53), catcher Joe Ginsberg (’61), catcher Jeff Newman (’83-’84) and pitcher Brian Bark (’95). Wade Boggs, who used to draw the Hebrew word chai ("life") in the batter’s box before every at bat, is not Jewish.

Kapler and Youkilis have been back-to-back on the line-up card four times so far, going a combined eight for 25 at the plate in those games, a solid .320 average — and the Sox are 3-1. With Nomar Garciaparra, Trot Nixon, and Bill Mueller returning to health, however, Fenway’s days of the Jewish one-two punch may be over.

Conspiracy theorists may note that Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein is a fellow shul-goer. (Epstein, traveling with the team in Colorado, could not be reached before the Phoenix went to press.) He signed Kapler last June, and this year brought Youkilis up for his major-league debut on May 15. Youkilis was drafted before Epstein’s arrival in the fall of 2002, but Epstein kept him despite numerous trade rumors.

Oddly, there’s precedent for major-league Jew-stockpiling, says Abramowitz. In the late 1930s and early 1940s, with major-league talent thinned by the World War II draft and fan interest waning, the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants both tried to boost attendance by recruiting Jewish players. "I think when they played each other, between them they probably had close to a minyan [the 10-man minimum required for a communal Jewish service]," Abramowitz says.

If Epstein is looking to acquire more Jewish major leaguers, he can consider Brad Ausmus, Matt Ford, John Grabow, Shawn Green, Al Levine, Mike Lieberthal, Jason Marquis, Scott Schoeneweis, or Justin Wayne.

But don’t worry, Red Sox Nation: Yom Kippur comes early this year — nobody will have to miss a World Series game.