Arts Entertainment RESTAURANT MID-EASTERN, CHALDEAN & AMERICAN • Lambchops • Lamb Shish Kabob • White Fish Curry • Tabouleh • Hommus • Vegetarian Entrees • Fresh Catch • Chicken Shawarma • Etc. • Fresh Juice Bar • Cocktails and Wine 6123 HAGGERTY RD. OUST N. OF MAPLE) BLOOMFIELD AVENUE SHOPS WEST BLOOMFIELD (248) 668-1800 27060 EVERGREEN (AT 11 MILE & EVERGREEN) LATH RUP LANDING LATH RUP VILLAGE (248) 559-9099 COUPON GOOD AT BOTH LOCATIONS Lunch or Dinner With purchase of a second lunch or dinner entree of equal or greater value I PROJECT from page 61 cionados to create the cards, including the late George Brace, a Chicago-area photographer who took at least one picture of every Major Leaguer who passed through the Windy City to play either the Cubs or the White Sox from the late '20s until the early '90s. While the Hall of Fame provided some photographs, Brace furnished Abramowitz with most of them. To obtain the remaining photos, Abramowitz and his colleagues added to the record of Jews in the Major Leagues with some original research. Hours and hours were spent poring through obituaries and newspaper archives to locate the families of these players in the hopes of getting a picture. During this effort, Abramowitz dis- covered another Jewish baseball play- er initially omitted from the Jewish Sports Review's list -- Sam Fishburn, an infielder who made his debut with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1919. Abramowitz says the opportunity to issue cards for Fishburn and other Jewish Major Leaguers who were never recognized is what motivated him. "I really wanted these guys to have cards, to have a slice of immortality," said Abramowitz, whose teenage son, Jacob, encouraged him to create a set of cards for past and present Jewish Major Leaguers and sketched the design for the card logo. "Baseball cards represent an American sports icon, and I wanted these g-uys to be memorialized in some clear way." Abramowitz has advanced $25,000 of his own money so far into the project. AJHS has stepped up to the plate to repay Abramowitz for his ini- tial investment, and is seeking to raise another $45,000 for the project. 0 For more information on American Jews in America's Game, 1871-2001, send an e-mail to jewishmajorleaguers@rcn.com . The American Jewish Historical Society plans to host an exhibit of the cards and associated mem- orabilia in the spring. Contact the AJHS for details at ajhs@ajhs.org. W.,v7 -manwrarow—e, • Dine In Only • 1Coupon Per Couple' • Not Valid With other Offers • • Expires 1/31/2003 11. mm NEN NMI II= NMI =I •k Catering For All Occasions KOUFAX from page 61 r 9 0 0 I off total food • of any food purchase over S50 — . • no carry out • • not good nith any other offer • 16 r.sa asa- Private Room/Catering/Delivery . 2000 Town Center, Suite 98 10'h Mile on Evergreen Road (248) 358-1911 http://www.musashi-intl.com OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK www.detroitjewishnews.com 12/27 2002 62 Find out before your mother! You were Jewish by osmosis." During his career, Koufax encoun- "I think Koufax set a standard," said tered a lot of anti-Semitism. Leavy, "both in terms of the beauty In one incident, Koufax and the and purity of his pitching motion and Dodgers were stuck in a bus in Miami the way he comported himself. This is with no air conditioning. a man who gives a lot of time and As Carl Erskine, a fellow Dodger thought to doing good things." Encountering Anti-Semitism pitcher, told the story to Leavy, the Take Bob Hendley. The perfect But Leavy goes beyond the famous players "were moaning and mumbling, game added to Koufax's fame; Yom Kippur story to explore Koufax's and Billy Herman was one of our Hendley disappeared into a footnote. Jewishness. coaches, who was a Hall of Famer. And His only regret, he told Leavy, was - after a while, he yells out, that he hadn't had the . real loud, 'You can give foresight to keep a this damn town back to memento of the Koufax the Jews.' game. "And Sandy's sitting With a little help from right across the aisle, you Leavy, a package arrived in know? And all of us are, Hendley's mail shortly `Oh Billy.' So after a few after she had interviewed minutes of silence, Sandy, the ex-Cub. It held an in a real soft voice, says, actual 1965-era baseball `Now, Billy, you know with a signed inscription -- we've already got it.'" "What a game" -- and a Like slugger Hank friendly note from Sandy Greenberg in the 1930s Koufax. and 1940s and Shawn Then there's what Green, a contemporary Koufax means to Jews. The Jewish star for the pitcher famously declined Dodgers, Koufax, by hon- to pitch Game 1 of the oring his tradition and 1965 World Series because acknowledging his tradi- Sandy Koufax signs autographs at 2002 spring training in Vero it fell on Yom Kippur, the tion, while not really dis- Beach, Fla., as a fan holds out a 1964 magazine. holiest day on the Jewish cussing it, he certainly calendar. That unassuming enhanced and made it easi- move still resonates, not least with Koufax, who was raised by his step- er for other people to identify them- Leavy herself. father, mostly grew up in a Brooklyn selves proudly as Jews. In 1983, she was covering the U.S. milieu where "you were Jewish because "And at the same time, he broadened Open tennis championships on Yom you were from Brooklyn," said Gloria the cultural image of what a Jew is," Kippur. A Korean airliner had been Marshak Weissberg, a classmate of Leavy said of Koufax. shot down by the Soviet Union. Her Koufax's at Lafayette High Schbol. His staunch resolve in the face of editors wanted her to cover it. And "The schools closed on the holidays anti-Semitism is typical of the portray- she thought of Sandy Koufax. because the teachers were all Jewish. al of Koufax that comes through in the o • exp i/31/93 • NE 4€02/ REX Eft Ma "I finished what I was writing, pressed 'send' and thought, `Koufax didn't pitch on Yom Kippur,"' Leavy recalled. "And I haven't worked on Yom Kippur since."