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Jews in Sports: A Dismal Year with Few Prospects for the Future

HAROLD U. RIBALOW

(Copyright, 1958, Jewish Telegraphic
Association, Inc.)

Critics of the English-Jewish
press often assert that articles
and news items appearing in
this press do not, as a rule, em-
phasize the non-favorable as-
pects of Jewish life. As sports
is part of Jewish life, the ar-
gument
gument runs, Jewish sports
stars are played up beyond
their abilities and Jewish writ-
ers have a tendency to over-
rate Jewish athletes.
- Of course, regular readers of
this press are aware that this
attitude is inaccurate and that
there is a far greater sense of
balance than the critics say there
is. This writer, whose regular
sports column appears in the
English-Jewish periodical press,
can personally attest that when
the sports beat is "slow" it is
no mystery to steady readers
of the column; it is pointed out:
bewailed, perhaps, but stressed.
And when a year is a "poor"
one, from a sports viewpoint,
it is not built up as a good year.
These remarks are a prelude
to an annual survey which must
make clear that this last year
has had its high moments, but
they have been few indeed. Sel-
dom have Jewish athletes been
less dominating. And, what is
more significant, there seems to
be no improvement to look for-
ward to in the near future.
Professional Sports
Shunned by Jews
• Some reasons for this trend
should be given. The American
Jew, as he reaches the rungs of
the • upper middle class, no
longer goes into sports. Cer-
tainly not into prize fighting, or
baseball or other popular sports.
There are more Jews golfing,
but not professionally, and more
Jews in tennis, but, again not
in the top classes. The athlete
coming from the well-to-do fam-
ily finds himself without the
status that incurred for the
slum-dweller. Once the Jewish
lad from the East Side was a hero
when he became a headline
fighter. The Jewish boy raised
in Westchester or Long Island
does not go into the ring, and
if he did, he would not be the
neighborhood stalwart that Ben-
ny Leonard was in New York or
Barney Ross in Chicago. In ad-
dition, football, which once
yielded many Jewish stars, is
no longer the big sport it was,
for education is now gaining
more stress, and Jewish boys in
college, from better homes, re-
fuse to go out for football, and
the poorer boys, in the state
and city colleges, are in schools
where football isn't played. Thus
it goes.

i

DAYENI

As a result, the past year has
not been a sparkling one. Don
Taussig of the Frisco Giants did
well as a rookie for a while,
and then went to the minors.
Norm Larker of the Dodgers
managed to hang on. Joe Gins-
berg is still in the majors but
apparently will never be any
better than he is now, which
isn't too good. Only Sandy Kou-
fax of the Dodgers, the swift
left-hander, has become a regu-
lar pitcher of real merit for a
team which, for at least half a
season, was in the National
League basement. Where are
the real big stars, like the Hank
Greenbergs, Al Rosens and Sid
Gordons? They are absent. And
in the minor leagues there are
no really promising Jewish ball
players, either.
There Are Few Jews in
Basketball and Tennis
Basketball, once called a Jew-
ish sport because of the pre
ponderance of Jewish stars and
teams, has only Dolph Schayes
as a professional star and Len-
ny Rosenbluth as a corner. In
the college headlines, there will
be a Jewish player once in a
while, but not frequently. The
new stars are huge, seven-foot
Negro boys or farm lads from
the Mid or Far West. Jews don't
seem to grow that tall, at least
not yet, and as a result, bas-
ketball has become a minor, in-
stead of a major, Jewish game.
Tennis, a "social" sport which
never had many Jewish players,
did boast, a few years ago, of
Dick Savitt and Herb Flam,
both of the top grade. Now Sa-
vibt is retired—he plays only in-
termittently if brilliantly — and

British Zionists Ask
`Fair Rate of Exchange'

LONDON, (JTA) — The Gen-
eral Zionist Organization of
Britain called upon the Jewish
Agency's economic department
to "institute a fair rate of ex-
change to be accorded immi-
grants with capital" when they
settle in Israel.
The organization hit the "re-
duced rate" which Finance Min-
ister Levi Eshkol instituted for
such immigrants and warned
that this might discourage the
immigration to Israel of middle
class Jews with capital.
Eshkol last month announced
the ending of a privileged rate
of exchange which gave immi-
grants with capital a bonus over
the official rate. The difference
between what the immigrants
had previously received and the
new, normal rate, the Minister
said, could be obtained in the
form of a loan from the Jewish
•Agency.

Fla.sn, after a breakdown, has
not : often been heard of. The
other Jews in the game, Sam
Match, etc., are okay, but of
the second or third rank.
The only important emerg-
ence of the last year has been
that of a star in chess; at the
same time, for the first time in
memory, there is no outstanding
Jewish boxer in the ring in this
country — although Alphonse
Halimi, the North African-
French Jew, is a champion.
Jewish Chess Masters
Dominate That Sport
The new chess star is, of
course, Bobby Fischer, who, at
15, startled the chess world by
winning championship after
championship from veterans in
tournaments, including Sammy
Reshevsky. Young Bobby seems
to be quite normal and ordi-
nary, except when it comes to
the chessboard. His victories so
intrigued the entire world that
when he became the national
champion this past year, he
became one of the most written-
about sports personalities in the
world. It is entirely likely that
in time he will rank with the
greatest of the masters, although
he has a way to go yet.
Mikhail Botvinnik, another
Jewish chess master — a real
grandmaster — regained his
world title from Vassily Smys-
lov this year, and Bobby cannot
be ranked with him until a few
more years go by and he has an
opportunity to meet, face to
face, • players like Botvinnik or
Smyslov. For that matter, it is
still debatable whether he can
lick Reshevsky in a match, al-
though he has done well against
him in tourney play.
The history of the Jew in
chess is a rich one—as it used

to be in boxing. But while prize
fighting now has no Jews to
speak of, chess still is a "Jew-
ish" game to a large extent.
Fischer joins a distinguished
list of notable chess masters
and to this degree, the sports
year has not been a dead loss.
No Professional
Boxing in Israel
In Israel, sports are growing
apace and this year baseball is
being added to the games the
Israelis play. The citizens of the
ten-year-old democracy are com-
peting more and more all over
the world and even if the Israeli

representatives are not yet of
major stature, it is not impos-
sible that with the passage of
the years, the Jews of Israel will
fill in where the Jews of Amer-
ica are falling behind. It is not
likely to happen soon. Israeli
tennis players, for instance, are
appearing more frequently all
over the world, but they are
not yet really good. And as
there are no boxers in Israel
(professional prize fighting does
not exist in the Jewish State—
to its credit, most will say),
there isn't anything to look for-
ward to here.

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All the world shall come to serve Thee

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And bless Thy glorious name,

And Thy righteousness triumphant

The islands shall acclaim.

And the peoples shall go seeking

Who knew Thee not before

And the ends of the earth shall praise Thee,

And tell Thy greatness o'er.

—From the High Holy Day liturgy

Mr. and Mrs. Abe Kasle
and Family

The Detroit Center Agency

of the

CROWN LIFE INSURANCE CO.

of Toronto, Canada

Its Officers and Agents

Extend their sincerest wishes for a Year of health

and happiness to the entire community.

BY HENRY LEONARD

Detroit Center Agency;
CROWN
LIFE INSURANCE CO.

Toronto, Canada

"Sam, feel I'm getting to be a better Jew. Each
Yam Kippur I eat less and less,"

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1172 NATIONAL BANK BUILDING

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