Max Birbraer

Birbraer was born in Ust-Kamenogorsk, Kazakhstan, where he lived until the age of 14, and is Jewish.^[1][2][3] His family lived under a non-Jewish sounding surname in those years due to severe local anti-Semitism, and he was not told that he was Jewish until his parents decided to move to Israel.^[4][5][6] Although he had played schoolboy hockey in Russia, he assumed that he would have to give up the ice when he was 14 and his family immigrated to Israel, until he discovered an indoor rink in Tel Aviv where he played in a junior league. He had lived in Israel for only 8 months when his coach, Paul Rosen, persuaded him to try out for a Canadian league with the result that he spent 2 years playing Tier 2 hockey in Ontario, where Rosen was his legal guardian. He then joined the Ontario Provincial Junior A Hockey League.^[5][4]

He was the only Israeli national ever to be drafted by an NHL team when he was drafted 67th overall in the 2000 NHL Entry Draft by the New Jersey Devils.^[5][3] Despite this, he never played in the NHL, instead spending three seasons with their American Hockey League affiliate, the Albany River Rats. In 2006, Birbraer signed with the Cardiff Devils of the Elite Ice Hockey League, and played with the team for 7 years.^[7][8][9] Birbraer signed with the Telford Tigers in 2014.^[8]

Birbraer continued playing for the Swindon Wildcats until 2020, before taking two years out. He returned to play semi-professionally for the Bristol Pitbulls and his final season as a player was in 2024–25 with another of the Cardiff Devils' affiliates - the Cardiff Canucks in the NIHL2.

In June 2025, EIHL side Fife Flyers announced new ownership led by a North American group, with Birbraer confirmed as the Flyers' new President and General Manager.^[10]

• List of select Jewish ice hockey players