A thoroughly researched but dull treatise showing the significant
impact of sports on the great American-Jewish pastime of
assimilation. As Levine (A.G. Spalding and the Rise of Baseball,
1985) demonstrates how second-generation Jewish immigrants
dominated the playing, coaching, and administration of basketball
in its formative decades, it becomes clear that in this sport,
unlike in baseball, boxing, college football, or Olympic sports,
Jews (with teams like the Cleveland Rosenblums) gave far more than
they got. What all these sports did for Eastern European immigrants
of a foreign and anti-recreational culture, Levine explains, was to
give them a passport to the level playing field where even
"undersized and weak-muscled" Hebrews might prove themselves the
equal of wholesome Christian lads. But the bearded Talmud scholars
who disdained the sporting frivolity of grandsons with names like
Red Auerbach (basketball icon), Barney Ross (boxing champ), and Sid
Luckman (football star) were aghast at the possibility that these
boys "would someday be eating pig" - and they couldn't imagine
things getting so bad that, by 1970, the son of baseball slugger
Hank Greenberg would list himself as a Congregationalist. Levine
offers an impressive record of little-known Jewish sports figures,
but his hard digging is trivialized by his seemingly watered-down
sense of Jewish issues and identity. Occasional interviews with
athletes who were caught in cultural conflicts with their families
make up the book's most engaging segments. Interesting, but too
long and too dry. (Kirkus Reviews)
A general study of Jewish participation in American sports, which
focuses specifically on baseball, boxing and basketball. The author
refutes the assumption that Jewish tradition has not been positive
about sporting activities.
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