A photo collage of her Jewish Roller Derby team hangs in Charlotte “Bear Jew” Jacobson's office at work.
“It just says like, ‘Goal: Roller Derby World Cup with Jewish Roller Derby,'” she said. “I’ve had it in my office hanging on the wall since a year ago.”
BEYOND THE SCOREBOARD
An occasional sports feature highlighting the unique stories of local athletes.
In just a few days, the Scranton resident will achieve the goal. Jacobson, 32, leaves for the Roller Derby World Cup in Innsbruck, Austria, on Monday as part of Jewish Roller Derby’s world cup roster.
“I still don’t think it’s hit me yet, it probably won’t until the tournament starts,” she said. “It’s just crazy.”
The Roller Derby World Cup tournament will mark a high point for Jacobson, who has skated with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Roller Derby in Moosic since 2017. She’s one of six roller derby skaters from Pennsylvania headed to the World Cup.
Jewish Roller Derby is a borderless team, meaning anyone Jewish can try out. Jacobson tried out in 2022 and made the team right away, but wasn’t sure she would actually skate at the World Cup until a few weeks ago.
She made the roster as a reserve, or alternate skater. She was going to travel to Austria with the team without a guarantee she would play in games, known as bouts.
In April, Jacobson found out through a notification on the team’s Discord server that she was promoted to the main roster, guaranteeing she would skate in at least one bout.
“I just, like, closed it (and) squealed a little, like, cried a little to myself,” she said. “I found out technically sooner than I was supposed to, but just generally, very, very grateful and joyful.”
She will skate in Jewish Roller Derby’s first bout on Thursday against Belgium’s national team.
“Someone asked me recently, ‘What’s your goal?’ I’m like, I don’t know, skating,” she said. “That's what I'm most excited for, just being on that track, no matter how much time I get on that track.”
Modern Roller Derby more ‘competitive, athletic’
The more than 40 World Cup teams play under the rules of the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA), an international roller derby governing body.
As Jacobson explains it, modern roller derby differs greatly from the more scripted, banked-track version many people remember from the 1970s.
“It's on a flat track, it's actually a lot more competitive,” she said. “It's very athletic.”
A roller derby bout lasts an hour, with each 30-minute period broken up into two-minute intervals called jams. During a jam, each team puts five skaters on the track — four blockers and a jammer.
“They (the jammer) wear a star on their helmet, and they are the point scorer or ‘the ball.’ They're the one that make the points,” Jacobson explained. “They get one point for every person on the opposite team that they pass.”
Blockers link their arms to block jammers from passing and scoring points.
“It's more complicated than that, but that's what you need to know to watch it to start,” Jacobson said.
It’s a full-contact sport — skaters wear full-body safety gear — but dangerous hits to the head, tripping other skaters or using elbows or forearms to hit results in a penalty.
Some aspects of what Jacobson calls “WWE-style” roller derby remain inspired by alternative and drag culture, and most skaters adopt pun-filled track personas known as “derby names.” Jacobson’s “Bear Jew” name comes from Quentin Tarantino’s film, “Inglourious Basterds.”
Roller Derby a ‘level playing field’
Jacobson never used to consider herself an athlete.
She tried lots of sports as a child, stuck with swimming for a while, then got into theater and choir throughout high school.
Not until she laced up a pair of rental roller skates at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Roller Derby’s 2017 recruitment did she find the sport that stuck.
“Derby was the first place that I felt … really strong and athletic,” she said. “I’ve never called myself an athlete before roller derby.”
Junior Roller Derby leagues exist, but are not as widespread as adult leagues, so most skaters find the sport well into adulthood. Jacobson worked as a reporter for The Citizens’ Voice in Wilkes-Barre when she first met the team.
“When I first understood the sport and interviewed the team before I tried out … there were people of all sizes and shapes, and they all seemed to have their own strengths in different ways,” she said.
She says inclusivity and the support of the roller derby community gave her the determination to learn the sport and improve — especially as a brand new skater.
“My parents, when I told them I was going to try out for roller derby, they were like, ‘do you even know how to skate?’” she said. “And I was like, actually, no, but I’m going to do it anyway.”
Now, Jacobson coaches and skates with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Roller Derby’s A-Team, the Roller Radicals. In eight years, she’s seen many different people find roller derby and excel.
“Derby is such a cool space of (all) body types, all genders … everyone can participate in this sport and there’s advantages for every person, but there’s also disadvantages for every person,” she said. “So it doesn’t matter, skating with men or with trans people. It’s all a really level playing field for everyone because there’s different qualities to strength or size.”
Higher-level skills and a deeper connection to Jewish heritage
Jacobson remembers watching Jewish Roller Derby play an exhibition against Team Indigenous Rising, another borderless team, in 2018.
“That was the first time I’d heard of the team. That was their first game,” she said. “In no way did I ever think that I would be at the level to play with them.”
A few years later, a friend from the men’s roller derby league in Cleveland encouraged Jacobson to submit a video to Jewish Roller Derby’s virtual try-outs.
She says skating at a higher level than what she finds at home in Scranton helped her improve — and bring new skills back to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Roller Derby.
“It has brought a whole new level of competition and skill into my life,” she said. “I have learned so much. I’ve developed a better understanding of the sport and strategies.”
Other than skill, the Jewish Roller Derby team is united by their common heritage. Jacobson considers herself “very culturally Jewish,” but hasn’t had many Jewish friends in adulthood.
“Jewish Roller Derby has just brought me this level of connection with other Jewish people that I didn’t think I needed until I had it,” she said. “We were just able to share these common experiences.”
Jacobson said the common culture has helped teammates support each other.
“Just having people to talk to about … everything in the world that’s going on,” she said. “We’re not all on the same page about everything, but it’s really awesome to be able to have discourse about the state of things and just support each other through everything.”
Borderless, collective roller derby teams offer more opportunities
Jewish Roller Derby is one of many borderless teams competing in the World Cup. It’s also only one of several teams that will have skaters from Pennsylvania on their World Cup rosters.
While Jacobson skates with Jewish Roller Derby, Stephanie “Bessie” Amengual of Bux-Mont Roller Derby in Hatfield and Diosanny “P.R. Nightmare” Rivera-Placido of Dutchland Derby Rollers in Lancaster will lace up for Team Puerto Rico.
Nahyomi “Ms. Take” Painter-Escudero of Harrisburg Area Roller Derby will skate with borderless team Fuego Latino, and Jackie “Aluyan” Thomas of Hanover’s Black Rose Rollers will skate with Team Philippines.
Jacobson says borderless teams offer more opportunities to skaters who want to work toward higher level competition. Before Jewish Roller Derby existed, she never would have imagined skating in the World Cup.
“Team USA is the top team in the world … they have hundreds and hundreds of people try out and only 20 people make the team,” she said. “The fact that I could even fathom playing on a World Cup team is insane to me. It’s just not even something I ever thought about.”
The Roller Derby World Cup starts on Tuesday, and streaming passes are available for anyone to catch the action. Jacobson hopes the World Cup and other events highlight the sport.
“Roller derby doesn’t get enough eyes on it. There’s this cool community that’s huge and international and there’s like 400 member leagues in just WFTDA,” she said. “It’s this niche, alt community but it’s also so big that once you peek in, you’re like ‘wow, this is huge.”
Editor's note: WVIA News reporter Sarah Scinto also skates with Jacobson's home league, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Roller Derby.
