Carolina Panthers offensive tackle Jake Curhan didn’t play organized football sooner, partially because of the memorable summers he experienced at Camp YJ in Amherst, New Hampshire.
Curhan, a 28-year-old sixth year NFL player, has a North Shore connection. His father, Greg, is from Marblehead and graduated from Dartmouth College.
The 6-foot-6, 316-pound lineman grew up in Marin County, California and played college football at University of California, Berkeley. It wasn’t until he aged out of summer camp that he took up football, as a high school sophomore.
He still maintains strong connections to Camp YJ, located just north of the Massachusetts state line.
“During my first or second year in the NFL with the Seahawks, 10 to 15 friends from Camp Young Judaea came out to a home game in Seattle,” Curhan said. “A lot of them live in New York City. Whenever we play the Jets or Giants, I always have a group that will come see me. It’s super fun to keep up with my friends.”
He traveled to Israel with a group from Camp YJ in the summer of 2014. His love for CYJ was one of the reasons he didn’t play football until high school. Once he aged out of camp, he gave it a chance.
Curhan is starting the season on the Panthers’ practice squad, with hopes of making the active roster. He was on the active roster last season as the Panthers won the NFC South and nearly upset the Los Angeles Rams in the playoffs.
The Panthers are in rare company with not only Curhan but Jewish running back AJ Dillon, who graduated from Lawrence Academy in Groton and Boston College. Dillon respectfully declined an interview.
“When AJ signed here, our shared Judaism is one of the first things we talked about,” Curhan said. “I told him that this is the first time since college that I’ve played with another Jewish player. It was a fun little connection to make. It’s a badge of honor for a lot of Jewish people to look and see fellow Jews playing in the NFL.”
Curhan said there’s much diversity in NFL locker rooms, which provides environments conducive to listening, learning and growth.
“A lot of times, I’m the first Jewish person some of my teammates have ever met,” Curhan said. “There’s questions and misconceptions. Everyone is from all over the place, but we’re all teammates, and at the end of the day, everyone gets along.”
Curhan, who earned a business degree from UC Berkeley, remembers one Passover in college when he introduced some of his teammates to the holiday.
“During Passover, my parents, in classic Jewish fashion, would tell me to invite whomever to celebrate with us,” Curhan said. “There was at least five of my college teammates that got to experience their first seder coming over to my parents’ house. It was great to be able to share our culture with my teammates.”
Curhan earned All-Pac academic honors at Berkeley. He signed with the Seahawks as an undrafted free agent in 2021 and spent his first three seasons in the Pacific Northwest. He then played with the Chicago Bears in 2024, followed by the Arizona Cardinals and Panthers last fall. Θ
