Apart from excelling in scholarship and creativity, Jews from time to time have donned their sports gear and shown that they can also do well on the track and in the sporting arena. Here are some greats who boxed, swam, raced and hit their way to fame.
All of the sportsmen and women noted below have been honoured by the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, located at the Wingate Institute of Physical Education and Sport, Netanya, Israel.
Benny Leonard (Benjamin Leiner)
(b. 1896, New York, NY, USA; d. 1947, New York, NY, USA)
One of the greatest lightweight boxers of all time and world title holder from 1917 until he retired, undefeated, in 1925. After losing all his money in the 1929 stock market crash, he made a brief comeback as a welterweight at the age of 35 . He served as a lieutenant commander in the US Maritime Service in World War ll and in 1943 returned to boxing as a referee. He was made a member of the Boxing Hall of Fame and the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.
Benny Leonard, The Ghetto Wizard
Books
Allen Bodner, When Boxing Was a Jewish Sport (Praeger Publishers, 1997)
Nat Fleischer, Leonard the Magnificent: Life Story of the Man Who Made Himself King of the Lightweights (Kessinger Publishing, 2007)
Harold (Maurice) Abrahams
(b. 1889, Bedford, England, UK; d. 1978, London, England, UK)
Athlete who won gold in the 100-metre dash at the 1924 Paris Olympics. Born into an athletic family, he started racing as a boy and continued as a student at Cambridge, where he became president of the university's Athletics Club. The film Chariots of Fire (1981) portrayed his rivalry with the Scottish sprinter Eric Liddell. In later life he became president of the Amateur Athletics Association as well as a respected writer and broadcaster.
More on Harold Abrahams
Books
Harold Abrahams, Athletics (Naldrett Press, 1951)
Don Canham, Track events: Technique, strategy and training; edited by Harold M. Abrahams, designed and illustrated by Tyler Micoleau (Jenkins, 1953)
Mark (Andrew) Spitz
(b. 1950, Modesto, California, USA)
Swimming phenomenon who won bronze and silver medals and two team gold medals at the 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games. He went on to compete at the 1972 Munich Olympics, where he became the first athlete to win seven gold medals at one Games, including four for individual events. He set 23 swimming world records in his five year career. More on Mark Spitz
Books
Mark Spitz and Alan LeMond, The Mark Spitz Complete Book of Swimming (Crowell, 1976)
Mark Spitz, Seven Golds: Mark Spitz, My Own Story (Doubleday, 1987)
Paula Taylor, Mark Spitz (Creative Education, 1976)
Daniel Mendoza
(b. 1764, London, England, UK; d. 1836, London, England, UK)
Bareknuckle pugilist who became the first Jewish champion fighter. Billed as "Mendoza the Jew", his boxing success and popularity gained him social acceptance and helped to ease the position of the Jewish community in England. He introduced a style using footwork and defence rather than brute force and is considered the father of scientific boxing. He was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fames in 1981.
More on Daniel Mendoza
Books
Daniel Mendoza, The Memoirs of the Life of Daniel Mendoza (Modern Jewish Experience) (Arno Press, 1975)
Harold U Ribalow, Fighter From Whitechapel:The Story of Daniel Mendoza (Jewish Publication Society, 1962)
Hank Greenberg (Henry Benjamin Greenberg)
(b. 1911, New York, NY, USA; d. 1986, Beverly Hills, California, USA)
An all-round athlete at school, he became a major league baseball player and was one of the dominant players in the game in the 1930s and 40s. In 1938 he challenged Babe Ruth's 60 home run record but fell short at 58. He was the first Jewish ballplayer to be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame and in 2006 was included in a set of US postage stamps featuring baseball hitters.
Books
Hank Greenberg and Ira Berkow, Hank Greenberg: The Story of My Life(Benchmark Press, 2001)
Ira Berkow and Mick Ellison, Hank Greenberg: Hall-of-Fame Slugger (Jewish Publication Society of America, 2001)
Yona Zeldis McDonough, Hammerin' Hank: The Life of Hank Greenberg (Walker Books for Young Readers, 2006)
Éva Székely (Gyarmati)
(b. 1927, Budapest, Hungary)
Champion swimmer who competed in three Olympic Games, winning the gold medal in the 200-metre breaststroke in Helsinki in 1952 and silver in Melbourne in 1956. During her career she broke 10 world records and 5 Olympic records. In 2004 she was elected Sportswoman of the Nation in Hungary and in 2006 was awarded the Jean Borotra Trophy by the World Olympians Association.
More on Éva Székely
Books
Kelly A. Gonsalves, Susan LaMondia, First to the Wall, 100 Years of Olympic Swimming (Freestyle Publications Inc., 1999)
Joseph Siegman, Jewish Sports Legends: The International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame (Potomac Books Inc., 2005)
Jody (David) Scheckter
(b. 1950, East London, South Africa)
Son of a garage owner, he started racing go-carts as a boy and moved successfully to stock cars and American Formula 500 before joining the Formula One circuit in 1974. He won many Grand Prix races over the next few years and in 1979 became the first South African to win the world championship. He was twice voted South African Maccabi Sportsman of the year.
Profile of Jody Scheckter
Books
Jody Scheckter, Jody: An autobiography (Foulis, 1976)
Christopher Hilton, Inside the Mind of the Grand Prix Driver: Psychology of the Fastest Men on Earth: Sex, Danger and Everything Else (Haynes Publishing, 2004)
Bob Wechsler, Day by Day in Jewish Sports History (KTAV Publishing House, 2007)
Mark Hughes and Simon Arron, The Complete Book of Formula One (Motorbooks, 2003)
Fanny "Bobbie" Rosenfeld
(b. 1904, Katrinaslov, Russia; d. 1969, Toronto, Canada)
Talented Canadian track and field athlete who set national records in the long jump, shotput, javelin and discus. She also played basketball, hockey, softball, and tennis. In 1925 she equalled the world record in the 100-yard dash, and at the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam she won a gold medal as lead-off leg of the 100-metre relay team that set a world record of 48.4 seconds. In 1950 the Canadian Press named her as Canada’s Female Athlete of the Half-Century.
Bobbie Rosenfeld - CBC Archives
Books
Shannon Anncook, Framing Our Past: Canadian Women's History in the Twentieth Century (McGill-Queen's University Press, 2006)
Joseph Siegman, Jewish Sports Legends: The International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame (Potomac Books Inc., 2005)
Benjamin "Benny" Friedman
(b. 1905, Cleveland, Ohio, USA; d. 1982, New York, NY, USA)
Collegiate and professional footballer, and considered the game's first great passer. Between 1927 and 1931 he quarterbacked the Cleveland, Detroit and New York Giants football teams. He ended his professional career with the Brooklyn Dodgers, retiring in 1934 to take up coaching. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2005.
Battlin´Benny - The Man Who Invented The Passing Game
Books
Myron J. Smith, The College Football Bibliography (Bibliographies and Indexes on Sports History) (Greenwood Press, 1993)
George B. Kirsch, Othello Harris, Claire E. Nolte (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Ethnicity and Sports in the United States (Greenwood Press, 2000)
David L. Porter (ed.), Biographical Dictionary of American Sports: Football (Greenwood Publishing Group Inc., 1987)
Viktor Barna (Győző Braun)
(b. 1911 in Budapest, Hungary; d. 1972, Lima, Peru)
Brilliant table tennis player who was five times World Singles Champion between 1930 and 1935. In all he won 22 world championship gold medals and was a member of the Hungarian National Team that won seven Swaythling Cups. He served in the British army during World War ll and afterwards settled in London. In 1993 he was elected a charter member of the International Table Tennis Hall of Fame, and in his native Hungary he was honoured as “the most successful Hungarian sportsman of the twentieth century".
The Magnificent Magyar
Books
Viktor Barna, Table Tennis Today (Barker, 1962)
Viktor Barna, Your Book of Table Tennis (The Your book series) (Transatlantic Arts, 1971)
Joseph Siegman, Jewish Sports Legends: The International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame (Potomac Books Inc., 2005)
This page was last modified on 22 April 2008