“The team is holding many ethnic heritage celebrations in 2026 and Jews are excluded from that list,” Deutsch said in an interview “The dropping of the Jewish heritage event and the exclusion of Jewish fans from the team’s identity-based celebrations is a fairly recent development, and a major ongoing story.”

Various Jewish voices have since amplified Deutsch’s claim, including pro-Israel writer and influencer Melissa Chapman and Jeffrey Lax, a law professor at the City University of New York and the founder of Safe Campus, a Zionist college campus group. Some falsely claimed that the Mets have announced that it is “too risky” to have a special Jewish night.

“Rumors are that the Mets don’t want to deal with policing antisemitic protests,” wrote Michael Brendan Dougherty, a senior writer at the conservative National Review. “The night would attract pro-Palestinian and antisemitic activists bringing signs or unfurling banners.”

Some Jewish Mets fans say they are not concerned.

“The Mets have been nothing but kind and welcoming to their Jewish fans,” Levine, who set a world record when he threw the first pitch at Citi Field in August 2023, said in a video on Instagram in which he wore a Hebrew-language Mets hat. “There are a ton of teams in the MLB that don’t have a Jewish heritage day, and it has nothing to do with Israel.”

But does it? A representative for the New York Mets did not respond to a request for comment.

The franchise has hosted a variety of heritage nights since the 1990s. Before 2023, the Mets often but did not always host a Jewish heritage night, which was occasionally swapped with Celebrate Israel Night, last held in 2022.

In 2024, the team announced it was doing away with many of its individual heritage nights, instead replacing them multi-day cultural themed programming called “A Celebration of Queens Culture” that was designed to be more broadly inclusive.

“Based on feedback from the community, the Mets are evolving their approach to recognize even more cultures this season,” the Mets said in a statement at the time. “In the borough of Queens, more than 100 cultures are represented and while it’d be impossible to highlight all of them on individual nights, ‘A Celebration of Queens Culture’ will allow the organization to share a taste of everything over a multi-day experience for fans and communities.”

The announcement followed complaints from the Italian-American Baseball Foundation about the Mets’ failure to schedule an Italian heritage night during the 2023 season.

But that controversy was far overshadowed by the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and the subsequent war in Gaza, when a surge in antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment turned the inclusion and exclusion of Jewish groups into a sensitive issue. They also made holding Jewish events in public an increasingly fraught proposition, with organizers frequently altering their plans to avoid protests. At the time the Mets announced their new policy ahead of the first season since the war’s start, an increasing number of Jewish events began shielding their exact locations from publicity, a practice that major Jewish organizations in the city later adopted.

The same year, the Los Angeles Dodgers drew criticism — and even a local protest by Jewish fans — for not scheduling a Jewish Community Day, a longstanding tradition for the team. There is no Jewish Community Day on the Dodgers’ schedule this year, either.

At least a dozen MLB teams do have Jewish nights on their public calendars this year, according to a list compiled annually by Zack Raab, a Jewish baseball evangelist who works for the league. Some come with Jewish-themed giveaways, such as a baseball-bat menorah at the San Diego Padres and a Jewish star-emblazoned jersey at the Detroit Tigers.

Since announcing its policy change, the Mets have added back some themed nights. This season’s schedule of upcoming themed games include nights honoring Italian heritage, first responders, Japanese heritage, Dominican heritage and LGBTQ community.

“Jewish Mets fans are a core part of the fan base, and the fact that they have been excluded from a long roster of ethnic celebration nights is, frankly, offensive,” Deutsch said. “The fact that this exclusion happened before 2026 and went uncovered by mainstream media makes this situation even more troubling.”

The Mets have indicated support for its substantial Jewish fan base in other ways. Last year, the Mets honored Holocaust survivor Lidia Mayer. Kosher food has exploded in availability at Citi Field, which even had kosher-for-Passover options available during the holiday earlier this month. And the Mets’ local Minor League affiliate, the Brooklyn Cyclones, will host a Jewish heritage night on May 3.

Some Jewish fans say they don’t need more. “Jewish fans don’t need a heritage night to come to the park,” one wrote in response to Chapman’s post criticizing the Mets. “We do it ever[y] game.”

But others say they’re looking for a new team to back — and not because the Mets are experiencing a historically bad start to their season. In response to the controversy on Thursday, conservative radio personality Sid Rosenberg posted a video criticizing the Mets’ Jewish owner, Steve Cohen. Rosenberg has been sparring recently with the team, accusing mascot Mr. Met of antisemitism because he embraced Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a critic of Israel.

Rosenberg said he would instead attend Jewish Heritage Night at Yankee Stadium, citing a date in August.

If such a night is planned, the Yankees haven’t said so publicly. There has been no public announcement of a Jewish Heritage Night at Yankee Stadium for the 2026 season.