Jewry's Role in

Human Affairs

SPORTS STARS THEN AND NOW - II
In relation to their numbers and national origins, Jewish sportswomen and
athletes have held their own in record setting and in Olympic competition--
displaying the kind of determination that often helped build careers. Three
a nine-
Americans gained prominence in tennis: Leah Thall Neuberger,
Carole
Wright,
time U.S. Singles champion, commanding the courts with
the National Indoor title holder in 1960 and 62. Yet another was Julie
Angela
Heldman, ranked No. 2 in the U.S. for several years. English-born
paired
with
the
famed
Black
American,
Althea
Gibson,
in
their
Buxton
1956 Wimbledon doubles triumph.
Less well known was Hungarian Lillie Kronberger who held
Figure Skating World Championships from 1908 to '11, while
in a gold
countrywoman Eva Szekely broke world breaststroke records
Veleva
lnik
Me
Faina
's
s.
Russiald
ratin
medal performance at the 1952 Olympic
the
discus.
s
i
n
in
earned seven Number One Woman
the Worg
historic
seventeen
world
table-tennis
titles
Romanian Angelica Rozeanu's
rank her with the game's greats. And women's pro golf had its U.S. star in
Amy Alcott, winner of 29 tournaments. Their stories continue:

AGNES KELETI

14 6
(1921-) b. Budapest, Hungary 'Sandwiched be-
tween early work in the fur industry and her post-
retirement career as a cellist while living briefly in
Australia, Keleti amassed gymnastic prizes
seldom rivalled by female Olympians before or
after. An eventful life almost ended when she--
almost alone in her family--escaped the Holocaust
with contrived documents attesting to her
amty." They enabled her to leave Budapest for safe haven elsewhere.
Keleti was by then Hungary's most promising gymnast ever, and resumed
competition after the war--capturing ten all-around Hungarian
championships from 1947 to '56.
Mining for international treasure, gold flowed amply in the 1948,
'52 and '56 Olympics. Her strengths: freestanding and beam exercises, team
combined and hand apparatus exercises, and the parallel and uneven
parallel bars. Her rewards: five gold, three silver and three bronze medals
during.those Olympiads--the last of which found her, at age 371/2, the oldest
female participant to take home the gold. Grouped with the greatest women
gymnasts of her times, Keleti defected to the West in 1956, settled in
Melbourne and soon after emigrated to Israel. There she coached the
national gymnastic team and now trains young talent aspiring to her own
athletic eminence.
IRENA KIRSZENSTEIN SZEWINSKA
(1946-) b. Leningrad, Russia She dominated
women's athletics during the 1960s and '70s, and
many consider her the foremost female track and
field performer of all time. She was the first
runner ever to win medals in each of four
consecutive Olympiads. In 1965, her adopted
Polish homeland--in which she is hailed a national
heroine despite her Jewishness--named her its
Athlete of the Year, an honor also conferred by the U.S.S.R. and by many
sports organizations through the years. The solo and relay track star,
equally accomplished in the hurdles and long jump, was also the first
woman to run 400 meters in under fifty seconds for a gold medal at the
1976 Montreal games.
, She had married Junusz Szewinska in 1962, a non-Jewish sports
photographer and ex-runner who became her coach ten years later. It was
he and a much-loved son born to her in 1970 who seemed to further inspire
her accomplishments through the stellar decade that followed. A world
record was set when running the 100 meter in 22.21 seconds, followed by
the fastest 400 meter at 49 seconds in 1977. Before age began to take its
toll and she left athletics, Kirszenstein-Szewinska had collected, without
precedent in her events, ten European medals (five gold) and seven
Olympic medals (three gold). At last report, she applied a degree in
economics earned earlier in Warsaw University to a post within the city's
transportation department.

,

-

12/24
1999

22

- Saul Stadtmauer
Visit many more notable Jews at our website: www.dorledor.org
COMMISSION FOR THE DISSEMINATION OF JEWISH HISTORY
Walter & Lea Field, Founders/Sponsors
Irwin S. Field, Chairperson
Harriet F. Siden, Chairperson

at's In A Name •

West Bloomfield synagogue chooses
new name, reflecting its history.

then with Beth Moses in 1975.
Ronn Nadis, the synagogue's first
vice president, remembers the fire
that engulfed much of the building
eginning "a new chapter
in 1983. He says damage resulted in
in our long tradition," Dr.
the need to rebuild the sanctuary,
Harris Mainster
social hall, small chapel, lobby and
announced that, effective
offices.
Jan. 1, 2000,
"Beth Ahm"
Congregation Beth
translates as
Abraham Hillel
"House of the
Moses will become
People," but it is
Congregation Beth
also an acronym
Ahm.
for the three con-
Dr. Mainster,
gregations that
president of the
joined together
West Bloomfield
over the years.
synagogue, said a
"That might be
Nov. 28 vote by the
the best part," Dr.
congregation at a
Mainster said. "In
synagogue-wide,
our new name,
semi-annual meet-
there is a recogni-
ing, brought agree-
tion of our past tra-
ment on the new
dition. But we are
name.
also creating new
"After so many
traditions. For
years," Dr. Mainster
example, we
said, "we finally
recently began
Dr. Harris Mainster
accepted the fact
counting women in
that while we are
the minyan [prayer
many families corn-
quorum]
and
following
other egalitari-
ing from different backgrounds, we
an
practices.
So
the
new
name also
are one congregation with one set of
says
something
about
who
we are now
goals. We wanted to say that clearly
and
who
we
want
to
become
in the
to the Jewish community, now, at
1
-
1
future."
the turn of the century.
The name change was planned
well before the recently announced
spring departure of Rabbi Aaron
Bergman.
"Rabbi Bergman alluded to our
plan during the High Holidays,
weeks before he announced he was
moving on," Dr. Mainster said. "As
it turns out, the formal vote ended
up reinforcing our feeling that we
want — and need — to look for-
ward to the future."
Many of the nearly 150 families
who joined the synagogue in the last
several years, he said, "have no
memories or emotional ties to the
A picture of activities at the
older congregations that made up
Temple Israel/JARC Chanuka
Beth Abraham Hillel Moses."
program on Dec. 17 should have
Established as Beth Abraham in
:noted
that it Was - Erin Pearlthan,
the
now
620-fami-
Detroit in 1892,
18, dancing with Noreen
right,
ly congregation built its present syn-
Goodman
of JARC.
1971.
Shortly
agogue in August
after, it merged with Beth Hillel,

SHELLI DORFMAN
Staff Writer

"

Correction