Beyond Stereotypes

Description

In the decades after the Civil War, sports slowly gained a prominent position within American culture. This development provided Jews with opportunities to participate in one of the few American cultures not closed off to them. Jewish athleticism challenged anti-Semitic depictions of Jews supposed physical inferiority while helping to construct a modern American Jewish identity. An Americanization narrative emerged that connected Jewish athleticism with full acceptance and integration into American society. This acceptance was not without struggle, but Jews succeeded and participated in the American sporting culture as athletes, coaches, owners, and fans.

The diversity of topics in this volume reflect that the field of the history of American Jews and sports is growing and has moved beyond the need to overcome the idea that Jews are simply People of the Book. The contributions to this volume paint a broad picture of Jewish participation in sports, with essays written by respected historians who have examined specific sports, individuals, leagues, cities, and the impact of sport on Judaism. Despite the continued belief that Jewish religious or cultural identity remains somehow distinct from the American idea of the athlete, the volume demonstrates that American Jews have had a tremendous contribution to American sports and conversely, that sports have helped construct American Jewish culture and identity.

FOREWORD

EDITORIAL INTRODUCTION, by Ari F. Sclar, Guest Editor

A Stack of Jewish Baseball Cards: Some Thoughts on Jews and the Roles They Have Played in the Major Leagues, by Joseph Dorinson

Racial Attitudes towards Jews in the “Negro Leagues”: The Case of Effa Manley, by Rebecca Alpert

American Jewish Women on the Court: Seeking an Identity in Tennis in the Early Decades of the Twentieth Century, by Linda J. Borish

Answering to a Different Authority in Sports: The Trials of Coach Jonathan Halpert and the Limits of Yeshiva University’s Athletic Success in Basketball, by Jeffrey S. Gurock

“The Disadvantage Far Outweighs the Benefits”: How the Rise and Fall of “the Jewish Game” at the 92nd Street YMHA Exemplified Jewish Conceptions of Athleticism, by Ari F. Sclar

From Suburbanites to Sabras and Back: How Jewish Americans Established Lacross in Israel, by Neil Kramer

ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS 143

ABOUT THE USC CASDEN INSTITUTE 147

Sujets

• Jewish Studies
• Social Science

Informations

• Publié par: Purdue University Press
• Date de parution: 15 avril 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781612493565
• Langue: English

Extrait

Beyond Stereotypes: American Jews and Sports
The Jewish Role in American Life
An Annual Review of the Casden Institute for the Study of the Jewish Role in American Life
Beyond Stereotypes: American Jews and Sports
The Jewish Role in American Life
An Annual Review of the Casden Institute for the Study of the Jewish Role in American Life
Volume 12
Bruce Zuckerman, Editor Ari F. Sclar, Guest Editor Lisa Ansell, Associate Editor
Published by the Purdue University Press for the USC Casden Institute for the Study of the Jewish Role in American Life
© 2014
University of Southern California
Casden Institute for the
Study of the Jewish Role in American Life.
All rights reserved.
Production Editor, Marilyn Lundberg
Cover photo :
Yochanan Katz.
Courtesy of Larry Palumbo, Coyote Magic Images.
Cloth ISBN 978-1-55753-699-0
ePDF ISBN 978-1-61249-355-8
ePUB ISBN 978-1-61249-356-5
ISSN 1934-7529
Published by Purdue University Press
West Lafayette, Indiana
www.thepress.purdue.edu
[e-mail]
Printed in the United States of America.
For subscription information,
call 1-800-247-6553
Contents
FOREWORD
EDITORIAL INTRODUCTION
Ari F. Sclar, Guest Editor
Joseph Dorinson
A Stack of Jewish Baseball Cards: Some Thoughts on Jews and the Roles They Have Played in the Major Leagues
Rebecca Alpert
Racial Attitudes towards Jews in the “Negro Leagues”: The Case of Effa Manley
Linda J. Borish
American Jewish Women on the Court: Seeking an Identity in Tennis in the Early Decades of the Twentieth Century
Jeffrey S. Gurock
Answering to a Different Authority in Sports: The Trials of Coach Jonathan Halpert and the Limits of Yeshiva University’s Athletic Success in Basketball
Ari F. Sclar
“The Disadvantage Far Outweighs the Benefits”: How the Rise and Fall of “the Jewish Game” at the 92nd Street YMHA Exemplified Jewish Conceptions of Athleticism
Neil Kramer
From Suburbanites to Sabras and Back: How Jewish Americans Established Lacross in Israel
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS
ABOUT THE USC CASDEN INSTITUTE
Foreword
“Wee Willie” Keeler, who played major league baseball a little over a century ago, is now mostly remembered for the sage advice he gave to his fellow batters—“Keep your eye clear, and hit’em where they ain’t” ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_Keeler ). I have long thought that such advice not only leads to success in baseball, but also obtains to managing the editing of the Casden Annual Review. Counting this edition, I have now guided to publication seven Annual Reviews ; and, when initially deciding each time what we wanted to do, I have found Wee Willie’s advice to come in handy. That is, I have made sure to keep my eyes out for a particularly creative guest editor, around whom a intriguing set of authors and essays might coalesce, and I have also tried to hit on a topic that might at first seem familiar but which we could take another way—like a right-handed batter who slaps a groundball into the unguarded hole between first and second base for a hit.
Thus, when we decided to do Volume 6 on the Holocaust (with guest-editor Zev Garber), we self-consciously went at it from a different slant: the impact of the Holocaust in America —an aspect of Holocaust studies that not so many scholars or readers had ever considered. When we examined Jewish cultural history in the United States in Volume 7 (with guest editor Bill Deverell) we did not look east, as is usually done, but rather turned our attention to the southwest where Jews had quite a different experience. When we considered Jews and popular American music in Volume 8 (with guest-editor Josh Kun), we went out of our way to highlight aspects of this topic that had not been much thought about before—as the title of that volume, The Song Is Not the Same, indicated. When we looked at the Jewish role in facilitating community diversity in Volume 9 (with guest-editor George Sanchez), we focused on the profiles of southern California figures who were not widely known on the national stage, but who, nonetheless, had made a profound impression on the reshaping of cultural and racial identities and aspirations in the Los Angeles area and beyond. We worked with guest-editor Ruth Weisberg on Volume 10, which considered whether there is (or should be) a modern genre labeled “Jewish Art.” And in Volume 11, guest-editor Dan Schnur brought together a series of demographic studies that gave us a profile of Jewish voters that considered how and why they do not act in a typical fashion—why this voting bloc is different from all other voting blocs.
As the title of this our latest volume emphasizes, our aim continues to be (as it has always been) to get Beyond Stereotypes —to get our reading public to look closely at aspects of a seemingly familiar topic, which, when more closely examined, reveals itself to have intriguing aspects that few have previously considered. The Jewish role in sports more than fills the bill. Note, in this respect, the figure on the cover—a lacrosse player with the beard of an observant Jew and an Israeli team-chevron on his uniform. Our aim (of course) in choosing this cover picture is to be intentionally provocative—to induce you to ask, what do Jews have to do with lacrosse or why use an Israeli player as the cover figure, when the Casden Institute is supposed to keep its focus on the Jewish role in American life? To find out, you’ll just have to read more.
Our guest editor this time around, Ari Sclar, has long been known as the historian who has led the way in considering the study of sports in America, on and off the field, from a distinctly Jewish perspective. I want to take this occasion to thank Prof. Sclar for being such a fine collaborator and for putting together such a fine collection of essays written by such an excellent group of specialists in this less well-considered area of study.
I hope that Alan Casden, an avid sports fan and collector of sports memorabilia, without whose support the Casden Institute would not exist, will find this volume particularly enjoyable. My appreciations also go out to other stalwart supporters of the Casden Institute, year in and year out: Ruth Ziegler, Sam and Mark Tarica, Dean of Dornsife College Steve Kay, Provost Elizabeth Garrett and (batting clean-up) C. L. Max Nikias, President of the University of Southern California.

This will be my last at-bat as managing editor of the Casden Annual Review. I will be stepping down as Myron and Marion Director of the Casden Institute for the Study of the Jewish Role in American Life as of the start of the next academic year. Next time around my successor as Director, USC Professor of History Steven J. Ross will be guiding the Annual Review, and I have no doubt that he will do a superb job. Just as my tenure as Casden Director was so greatly facilitated by my predecessor, founding Director Barry Glassner, now President of Lewis and Clark College, I hope that I have left Steve a good foundation upon which he can build and shape his own vision of the Casden Institute and its ongoing investigation of the Jewish role in American life.
I leave the last word for the two people who have been so essential to the success of my directorship of the Casden Institute. Marilyn J. Lundberg has been production editor of the Annual Review from my first volume and is also my closest academic supporter in so many ways. We have received consistent praise from our authors for the accurate presentations of their work. All credit for this goes to her. Lisa Ansell, Associate Director of the Casden Institute, has done everything anyone could ask to make the Casden Institute run as smoothly as it has while I have been its Director. Both Marilyn and Lisa have been the best collaborators I could ever hope to have. So it is to them both that I dedicate this volume.
Bruce Zuckerman, Myron and Marian Casden Director
Editorial Introduction
by Ari F. Sclar, Guest Editor
This volume focuses on a close examination of the relationship that American Jews have with sports. Granted, the stereotypical assumption is that Jews and sports are an oxymoronic pairing. Indeed, this relationship, and in fact, the very idea of a Jewish athlete, is one that remains distant from the broader consciousness of American Jewish life—even among many American Jews. As in the movie Airplane!, jokes about the absence of Jewish athleticism, often made by Jews themselves, are what most frequently comes to mind when the topic of Jews in sports is brought up. The stereotype of (generally male) Jewish physical inferiority has reinforced the belief that Jews focus on intellectual pursuits at the expense of physical activities. That is to say, a belief persists that they all tend to take after the biblical Jacob, favored by God, a momma’s boy and one who kept to the tents, rather than his far more brawny and presumably more athletic brother Esau.
This assumption has its origins in the years after the Civil War, when white Anglo-Saxon Protestants became concerned that American men were not as rugged and masculine as their colonial and “frontier” forerunners. As Jewish immigration increased in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, American Jews, anxious to emulate such nationalistic ideals, tried to overcome this stereotype by promoting Jewish participation in a masculine, American sporting culture that was generally open and amenable to their involvement. This was not done without some contr