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Of all the potential accolades for athletes at Jersey City's St. Peter's College, a Jesuit institution, perhaps the most unexpected came from a Jewish publication. But a quick study of the school's men's soccer roster reveals that it includes five Israeli players.

Junior forward Udi Naim (from Kefar Yona, Israel), sophomore forward Dmitri Pelts (Kfar-Saba), and junior defender Assaf Sheleg (Kibbutz Maabarot) were all named to this year's Men's Soccer All-America First Team by Jewish Sports Review, a bi-monthly magazine highlighting Jewish athletes in the United States and Canada.

Senior defender Yacob Rahav (Ramat Hasharon) received Honorable Mention for the same team.

Naim and Sheleg both joined St. Peter's in 2006 when one of their Israeli coaches referred them to former Peacocks coach Chris Smith. With those two in place, defender Liad Amir also chose to enroll at the school, while Pelts and Rahav, who originally played their college soccer elsewhere in New Jersey (at Fairleigh Dickinson University and Mercer County College, respectively), transferred to St. Peter's to round out the team's unique Israeli contingent.

Though the group has grown accustomed to standing out at a Christian school, they don't mind being placed on an all-Jewish team, either.

"We don't underestimate any honor we are given," Sheleg said. "It's nice; we always talk about how Jewish people stay together and have each other's backs. There is no all-Christian or all-Muslim team, but there happens to be an all-Jewish team."

Naim led the Peacocks with 10 goals this past season and Sheleg has been selected twice as a first-team defender in the Division I school's Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, but what really separates these players are their cultural contributions. Naim said that everyone on the team is hooked on hummus, while forward Kevin Olson is "basically speaking Hebrew now."

"The team learned that at our apartment, you can get food and shelter," Rahav said.

Rahav explained that since not too many Jews play soccer in America, it only makes sense that most of them who are honored will be from Israel, since the sport is so popular there. Israeli culture is also inherently more competitive than America's, Sheleg added, causing the group to take the outcomes of practice games a tad more seriously than the rest of their teammates.

"That's how we grew up, with values of competitiveness and winning, and being ambitious," Sheleg said. "There were always little games and little tensions."

Rahav, a 25-year-old economics major, is graduating at the end of this semester and is not sure what kind of job he will seek, though he said he will remain in America rather than return to Israel. Sheleg, 24, wants to go into diplomacy and international relations. Naim and Amir are both 25 and major in business, while the 23-year-old Pelts majors in biochemistry.

Besides for their athletic and academic pursuits, this quintet also serves as de facto Israeli ambassadors on a Christian campus, a role that might be more important than ever with the current state of the Arab-Israeli conflict. At a pro-Palestinian rally at St. Peter's in February, the group made sure to attend so they could show students the other side.

"We represent Israel in every corner of the school," Sheleg said. "In every class we are being asked about the situation and about our families."

"We just need to show people that what you see on TV is not the case," he added.

As far as soccer goes, the team had a 9-8-2 record on the season, a significant drop-off following a 15-6-1 campaign the previous year. Despite the awards the Peacocks' Israeli contingent received, the season's disappointing finish only makes them hungrier for greater success next year.

"We set the bar really high and did not exceed our expectations," Sheleg said. "It's not about honors. It's always flattering, but we only remember the fact that we disappointed ourselves. We need to regroup and come back stronger."