Anti-Semitism in American Sports

Rabbi Melanie Aron

Saturday, October 11, 2003

Before the High Holidays, I do a lot of reading. Partly it's research, looking for ideas and stories, and partly it's procrastination. I'll read almost anything, rather than actually sitting down to write.

That's how I came to read Frederic Cople Jaher's article "Anti-Semiticism in American Sports" (Shofar Fall 2001 Vol 20 No. 1) pp 61- 73.

Given Jared's interests (and the Cantor's enthusiasm for the Chicago Cubs) I thought this might make an interesting subject for a few remarks this morning.

Ideally the world of athletic competition is the proverbial level playing field, where every athlete is judged fairly and excels according to his or her ability. Sports has been for some a way to make it in American society. But we also know, especially from the experiences of African Americans, that there has been exclusion and prejudice, with continuing reverberations up to and including the recent incident with Rush Limbaugh.

When I was a child the joke was -- oh, you are writing a book about Outstanding Jews in Sports? That will be a slim volume! But actually Jaher points out that Jews have been involved in a variety of sports, in numbers that exceed the percentage of Jews in the general population, since the period that followed the civil war. There is a long history of Jewish involvement in college and professional sports, particularly in boxing, baseball and basketball, not only as players but also as managers, coaches and owners.

Though prejudice against Jews in sports existed, particularly from the 1880's through the 1940's, present discrimination and exclusion were less in sports than in elite schools, country clubs, employment or certain neighborhoods. Sports being less respectable than corporate officialdom made it more open to immigrants and their children. As football is sometimes touted today as the route from poverty to respectability, from the slum to success, for African Americans, boxing played that role for Jewish immigrants at the turn of the century. In general, the higher the status of the sport, as in golf, tennis and yachting the more exclusion. In general, also, there was almost no prejudice against Jews in America's early days, but prejudice increased in the 1880's and continued through World War II. Thus in 1866 the American Jockey Club was founded by a Jew, but by the end of the century, no Jews were allowed to belong. Similarly the New York Athletic Club had Jewish members in the 1870's, but by the 1930's even an Olympic contender, a relay runner who was Jewish, was not allowed to come in with a friend and train. As late as the 1970's a Jewish squash player dropped out of the competition, when he discovered that Chicago's 5 squash clubs, with their combined membership of 7,000 individuals included only 1 Jew. It was easier for Jews to participate in more popular sports, but there particularly in boxing and baseball, they were more likely to encounter taunts and anti-Jewish remarks. Some of you may remember Hank Greenberg's career and the hazing he experienced.

Still prejudice in the sports world tended to be less severe than in American society as a whole. In the 1920's when Ivy League schools introduced Jewish quotas, there were still Jewish captains of the football teams at Harvard, Brown, the University of Chicago and the University of Michigan. A major survey of Americans in 1949 found that while 14% of Americans at that time preferred not to work next to a Jew and 22% preferred not to have a Jew as a neighbor, 93% felt it wouldn't matter if 6 of 11 starters on a college football team were Jewish.

Jews played a significant role in the integration of African Americans into college and professional sports. The author of this article holds that it is not a coincidence that the first African American to play professional baseball played for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Yahr describes the anti-Semitic hate mail that Howard Cossell (born Howard Cohen) received for his defense of Mohammed Ali and his willingness to call him by that name rather than Cassius Clay. Jews also played a role in Joe Louis being able to break the color line as heavy weight champion in 1937.

Finally, I found the story of the Berlin Olympics of 1936 fascinating. Though surveys of the time showed that 43% of all Americans, and not just Jews, thought America should refuse to participate in the games, and a movement against the Olympics was led by 5 governors, 5 senators, and a variety of civic leaders; those in favor of having the games in Nazi Germany, accused American Jews of using "bribery, corruption, political trickery and other contemptible tactics" in their efforts to mobilize public opinion against participating. Avery Brundage, then president of the American Olympic Committee, praised Hitler's government, and questioned the patriotism of American Jews who he accused of being communists and radicals. He spoke at Bund rallies and still in 1939 was accusing the Jews of poisoning American attitudes against Germany. A club which he owned in Santa Barbara excluded Jews and Blacks throughout the late 1960's.

The history of Anti-Semitism in American sports also includes more positive episodes. The stories of players who did not play on Yom Kippur are legend and these players become models for younger generations. Less well know is the story of the one early baseball player named Cohen who continued to use his name - while 7 other Jewish players born with the last name Cohen chose names that were less revealing of their religion of ethnicity.

Jared, as you go off to sporting competitions around the state and around the region, I hope you go forth with pride in your heritage and with a basis upon which to build your adult Jewish identity. Now that the pressure of the last minute preparations for your Bar Mitzvah are concluded, we look forward to your return to our Tuesday night program. Maybe with the Cantor's help, we'll convince Rabbi Rosenberg to offer a class on Jews in Sports.