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Jackie
Robinson
and the Jews

The celebrated baseball player
was a vocal opponent to antisemitism.

IRWIN COHEN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Jews in the D

22 | AUGUST 27 • 2020 

F

amed baseball player Jackie 
Robinson was serving 
in the army as a second 
lieutenant, stationed at Fort 
Riley, Kansas, and Fort Hood, 
Texas. While he was there, prej-
udiced white officers wouldn’
t 
give him a chance to try out for 
the baseball team. After being 
turned in to military police by a 
bus driver for refusing to sit in 
the rear seating area for Blacks 
while on the base, Robinson 
faced a court martial for disobe-
dience but eloquently won his 
case. 
After receiving an honorable 
discharge, and with the doors 
closed to Blacks in many fields, 
including professional baseball, 
Robinson joined the Kansas City 
Monarchs of the Negro League 
in 1945.
At that time, all major league 
players were white. Fair-minded 
men at the time had tried to 
promote the integration of 
Black people in baseball without 
success. Boston’
s Jewish city 

councilman Isidore Muchnick 
threatened to pass legislation to 
ban Sunday baseball in Boston 
unless the Red Sox granted 
a tryout to 
three Negro 
Leaguers. A 
tryout was 
arranged for 
three players 
from different 
Negro League teams —Jackie 
Robinson, Sam Jethroe and 
Marvin Williams.
Robinson was the most 
impressive of the trio, prompting 
Red Sox manager Joe Cronin to 
tell Muchnick that he hoped the 
team would sign him. But Red 
Sox owner Tom Yawkey never 
showed interest. Unknown 
to them, though, Brooklyn 
Dodgers boss Branch Rickey 
had been following Robinson’
s 
activities on and off the field 
much earlier. Rickey wanted to 
break the color barrier but need-
ed the right man, not necessarily 
the best player. He believed that 

man was Jackie Robinson.
Rickey stunned baseball and 
America by signing Jackie to a 
professional baseball contract in 
the off-season of 
1945. Robinson 
would start 
in the minor 
leagues and earn 
his way to the big 
leagues. Rickey 
urged Robinson to marry his 
love, Rachel Isum, who during 
the war had worked as a rivet-
er in an aircraft factory while 
graduating as a registered nurse. 
Robinson took his advice.
In 1946, the Robinsons made 
their home in Montreal as Jackie 
starred for the top minor league 
affiliate of the Dodgers. In 1947, 
Robinson made it to the big 
league.
As a Dodger, Robinson 
received hundreds of threatening 
letters in the mail warning him 
not to take the field in several 
cities. Jackie Robinson’
s major 
league career lasted 10 seasons 

and ended in 1956. His .311 
career batting average, daring 
on the basepaths and defensive 
ability would guarantee him 
enshrinement in the Baseball 
Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, 
New York. 
Robinson often said how 
lucky he was to play for the 
Brooklyn Dodgers because 
of the borough’
s large Jewish 
population (more than a third 
of Brooklyn’
s citizens in the 
Robinson era were Jewish). 
“They were very welcoming 
to me and I made many friends 
that lasted through the years,
” 
Robinson said in a published 
letter.

LIFE AFTER BASEBALL
At age 37 and with health issues, 

AntiSemitism

the

Project

Brooklyn Dodger 
Jackie Robinson 
in 1954

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