2006-05-15 Jewish Sports Hall of Fame
 |
| Nowell C. Wisch & Diana "DJ" Barliant
|
|
Sports Museum celebrates feats
of Jews both on and off the field
Jewishsightseeing.com,
May 15, 2006
|
2006-05-15 Jewish Sports Hall of Fame |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
The Wandering Jews of
Ocean Beach Sports Museum celebrates feats of Jews both on and off the field Jewishsightseeing.com,
May 15, 2006 |
Story and Photos by Nowell C. Wisch and Diana "DJ" Barliant COMMACK, New York—In the movie Airplane, a passenger asks the stewardess (flight attendant) for some “light reading” and she says, “Try this pamphlet; Jewish Sports Heroes." That has been a prevalent attitude about Jews in sports among much of the mainstream Jewish and non-Jewish population for years. “We’re more interested in brains than brawn,” one mother used to say. “We don’t participate in sports.” After visiting the Suffolk County Jewish Community Center she would never say that again. The JCC here hosts the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, where our sports heroes are venerated both for their exploits on the field and for their courage in the face of societal hatred and pressure. The Suffolk County Jewish Community Center is an uninspired building; hardly the kind of grand edifice one associates with sports Halls of Fame. After checking in with the reception desk and gaining admittance, you wander down the hall searching for a “museum." What you find are exhibits lining the walls of a community room and the hallways near the fitness center.   Would
you believe that the 1947 Knickerbockers basketball team had six (yep,
count ‘em) Jews on the squad? Can you not empathize with a
well-displayed quote from Sandy Koufax that, “The older I get, the better I
used to be.” Or, add an "amen" to the reflection by Hank
Greenberg that “As time went by I came to feel that if I, as a Jew,
hit a home run I was hitting one against Hitler.” “Jewishness” is as important to the museum as is the Sandy Koufax Hank Greenberg accomplishment of sport. Jay Fiedler, a notable former NFL quarterback, said at his Induction Ceremony in 2002: “As I stand here today, I think it’s time for me to embrace myself as being distinguished as a Jewish athlete and what that means to me. I think the values that Judaism has instilled in me have gotten me to this point. What is it we do as a people? We persevere. That’s one thing I have done throughout my NFL career. "The second value that Judaism has taught me is to remember the
past and to remember all the people who walked in front of me, people like Sid
Luckman, Ron Mix, Ed Newman, Bob Stein, the great Jewish NFL players, just to
name a few. The last value, which is probably the greatest of all, is the
support that you get from family.”
|
One
surprise greeted us in the baseball section. On the top row center we found
the “trading card” of Richie Scheinblum, an old friend whom we knew he
played a few years of Major League Baseball but were unaware that his career
was so celebrated. Finding this personal connection was just dessert after a
fine meal.!