38 | MARCH 2 • 2023 

S

ports card collecting is enjoying 
a big resurgence. Some cards are 
worth thousands of dollars.
Some cards are valuable for other 
reasons. Like the cards for Farber Hebrew 
Day School basketball players.
They were passed out at the David 
Tanzman Memorial Tournament at every 
Farber game during breaks in play.
Most went to young Farber students, 
who were thrilled to get the cards. They 
were even more thrilled after one Farber 
game when the cards were signed by the 
players outside the gym with Sharpies on 
tables set up for the occasion.
“Even the other teams liked them,
” 
Naomi Gardin said. “One said they were 
next level.”
Gardin, Farber’s middle school and high 
school administrative assistant, came up 
with the idea for the cards for last year’s 
tournament.
“I did it as a surprise for the players last 
year,” Gardin said. “I had them designed 
and printed in-house on one side. I cut out 
1,000-plus cards.”
This year was more of an organized 
effort and less work. The cards were 
designed by Amy Hager, Farber’s manager 
of institutional advancement. They were 

printed on two sides.
The printing was done by Knello 
Printing of Royal Oak.
About 100 cards were printed for each of 
the 13 players.
Not all the cards were distributed during 
the tournament. There were about 15-30 
cards remaining for each player. Gardin 
offered to give them to the players, but 
they wanted them to go to the younger 
students.
“That was the point of doing the 
cards,
” Gardin said. “I wanted the young 
kids to look up to the high school kids 
and envision themselves in the future. It 
created a positive energy.
”
Gardin has two players on the Farber 
team. Benji is a senior. Abie is a sophomore 
and an avid card collector. Needless to say, 
Abie was thrilled with the cards.
“I started collecting cards when I was a 
little kid,
” Abie said. “I collect cards from 
all the major sports.
”
The prizes in his card collection are a 
Zion Williamson rookie autographed card, 
and a Josh Allen Prizm rookie autographed 
PS9 card (that’s the card grade, which is 
very good).
“It was a dream to have my own card,
” 
Abie said. “I signed them with my initials 

and my jersey number. It was fun. A lot 
of the kids said thank you. I gave a few of 
them a high five.
”
The Tanzman tournament featured six 
teams from small Jewish day school high 
schools. Hebrew Academy of Montreal 
beat Farber in the championship game.
Other teams in the four-day tournament 
were the Atlanta Jewish Academy, 
Columbus (Ohio) Torah Academy, Denver 
Academy of Torah and Hillel Academy of 
Pittsburgh.
The tournament is named for one of the 
founders of the school. The school opened 
as Akiva Hebrew Day School in 1964. 

Send sports news to stevestein502004@yahoo.com.

Card Stars

SPORTS

Farber basketball players’ sports cards 
are a hit at the Tanzman tournament.

STEVE STEIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

PHOTOS BY RACHEL LOPATIN

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: Here’s one of the 
cards made for Farber basketball players. 
This one is for Yisrael Attali. Gideon Lopatin 
autographs his card for Farber student Caleb 
Singer. Jonas Singer autographs his card for 
Farber student Zev Gertner.

