“you have to show that the Jews are different from everyone else”
Indeed. Sandy Koufax, who wasn’t even religious, told the world that there are things more important than success, when he refused to pitch in the World Series because the game was on Yom Kippur. Hank Greenberg, who had more of a religious background, had done pretty much the same thing three decades earlier. Name me a single non-Jewish athlete who has ever skipped a game for religious reasons.