Rival Rabbi Remembers Red
Rabbi Jonathan Maltzman has been an unabashed Philadelphia 76ers fan for more than four decades, ever since his father, Rabbi Marshall Maltzman, brought home the team’s coach — and one of the greatest Jewish basketball players of all time — Dolph Schayes, for a Passover Seder. At the time, Sixers-Celtics was one of the fiercest rivalries in sports. Philadelphians loved Wilt Chamberlain and loathed Bill Russell, but saved plenty of venom for Celtics coach Red Auerbach. “I hated his cockiness,” Maltzman recently recalled. “And he broke our hearts every year.”
So Maltzman, religious leader of Congregation Kol Shalom in Bethesda, Md., found himself in a bind of sorts when the Auerbach family called and asked him to preside at the coaching legend’s funeral service. “I was trying not to jump up and down, because I was going to see some of the guys who’d plagued me since my childhood,” Maltzman told the Shmooze.
In the end, the rabbi was able to put aside his personal feelings aside and lead Celtic greats, including Kevin McHale and Russell, in the 23rd Psalm and recite the Mourner’s Kaddish. But not without at least one act of devotion to his hometown team: Maltzman conducted the service with a 76ers doll tucked inside the jacket pocket of his funeral suit.
“I felt I owed it to my city and my team,” he said.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!