A piece of art used when the Israel Association of Baseball announced that Ryan Lavarnway had been appointed as the captain of the Israeli national baseball team for the 2023 European Baseball Championship in the Czech Republic. The team’s 2021 run in the Summer Olympics in Tokyo is the subject of the film "Israel Swings for the Gold" which will be screened this Thursday at the Southwest Florida Jewish Film Festival in Fort Myers. USED WITH PERMISSION/IAB

Former Red Sox catcher Ryan Lavarnway, who played on their 2013 World Series winning team, will be appearing at the Southwest Florida Jewish Film Festival this Thursday to talk about his time on another team he played on — the 2021 Israel Olympic baseball team.

Lavarnway will be meeting with attendees to discuss the team and his career ahead of a showing of the film “Israel Swings for Gold” which chronicles the team’s surprise showing at the Olympics in Tokyo that year.

The festival is being held at the Regal Belltower theater in Fort Myers. Lavarnway will be taking part in a meet-and-greet and question and answer session beginning at 5:30 p.m. The film will start at 7:15 p.m.

Lavarnway played on the Israeli team with a few former Major League Baseball players including four-time All-Star Ian Kinsler and Danny Valencia. Though short on the number of stars playing for the loaded teams of the U.S., Dominican Republic and Venezuela, the team made some noise. Their appearance alone was a success for a country where baseball was long ignored, with soccer and basketball as the main sports. The Olympics changed its rules for baseball teams to allow players who had ancestral ties to countries to play for them — which allowed Americans like Lavarnway and Kinsler to play for Israel.

“This team meant a lot to us and the team meant a lot to people,” Lavarnway said.

Lavarnway first played on Israel’s 2016 team that was competing in qualifiers for the 2017 World Baseball Classic. Back then, there was only one professional field in the whole country to play on.

“It changed my life,” Lavarnway said about the experience. Though his mother is Jewish, his father isn’t and Lavarnway was not raised in a religious household. Lavarnway called the experience “incredibly meaningful.”

“I grew up with no religion. I didn’t go to synagogue or church. A lot of the guys had similar relationships” with Judaism, Lavarnway said. Playing for Team Israel “helped me connect with my Jewish identity,” Lavarnway said.

Lavarnway, who went on to star at Yale and set Ivy League records as a hitter, said he thinks his younger days playing baseball kept him away from his religious background.

Since playing for Team Israel, Lavarnway has committed to Judaism. “It’s really the community more than anything. This is a community I want to be a part of and go out of my way to be a part of,” he said. “It’s not enough to just celebrate the holidays. Now, I am immersed in the culture.”

Growing up, Lavarnway celebrated both Christmas and Hanukkah. He published a children’s book titled “Baseball and Belonging.”

Since Lavarnway’s first days playing for the Israel team, the popularity of the sport has expanded. There are now three fields built to a professional standard. In 2023, he captained the team that finished sixth in the European Championships. The Olympics won’t be hosting a baseball medal tournament this year in France.

Retired from Major League Baseball, Lavarnway worked as an analyst for the Colorado Rockies. He will be making an appearance at Fenway Park in May for Jewish Heritage Day.

“My heart is always with the Red Sox,” he said.