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Learn Something Jewish: Jews and Sports
May 15, 2008Comments (1) | Add | E-mail this to a friend
Dmitriy Salita is just the latest in the long history of Jews who have struggled to balance their athletic ability with their Jewish identity.
There is no doubt that our forebears were a fit match for any of their peers in the ancient world. Consider the fact that the prophet Jeremiah referred to footraces (Jeremiah 12:5) and Isaiah mentioned swimming (see Isaiah 25:11). In fact, unlike other faith traditions, Judaism does not teach a separation of body and mind, or the mortification of the flesh, but rather a sanctification of the body.
The conflict between Jews and athletics began, appropriately enough, when the progenitors of the Olympics, the ancient Greeks, arrived in the Land of Israel in the mid-third century BCE. In the year 170 BCE a member of the Jewish ruling family even went so far as to build a Greek-style gymnasium near the ancient Temple in Jerusalem. Sports competitions were just one of the Hellenistic practices that Jews embraced and then rejected with the advent of the Maccabees. It’s been a constant conflict between the beit midrash (house of study) and the ball field ever since.
In 1934, Hank Greenberg famously refused to play a major league baseball game because it fell on Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar. More than 30 years later, Sandy Koufax skipped a World Series game to spend the same holiday in synagogue.
But, these decisions are not without penalty. The pitcher who filled in for Koufax in 1965 gave up six runs in three innings and told his manager, "I bet right now you wish I was Jewish..."
And earlier this year in Colorado, the state's High School Activities Association refused to reschedule regional and state basketball finals so that a Jewish team could play, despite pressure from local lawmakers. The Herzl/Rocky Mountain Hebrew Academy Tigers, close to securing a regional title, were unable to compete.
Because the conflict between athletics and Jewish identity runs deep, Jews who find a balance -- and excel -- are treated like heroes. Though University of Tennessee Volunteers Head Coach Bruce Pearl has never declined to coach a game that falls on Shabbat, he did consider Knoxville's Jewish community before accepting the job. Pearl had concerns about where his children would become b’nai mitzvah in a Bible Belt community.
At the United Jewish Communities General Assembly in 2007, Pearl provoked thunderous applause when he spoke about the prejudices he overcame as a Jewish athlete, particularly when he began his speech with the booming proclamation, "I am Jewish and I am proud!"
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