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Culture Debunking Myth of the Unathletic Jew
I would not say I’ve become jaded, but I thought I had heard enough (and written enough) about Sandy Koufax not pitching on Yom Kippur. I knew the stories about Hank Greenberg and Al Rosen and those other outstanding Jewish ballplayers. And then one day, in the mail recently, I got a 24-page publication called…
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Culture Murderers Row Pays Tribute to Jewish Athletes
Jewish Jocks: An Unorthodox Hall of Fame Edited by Franklin Foer and Marc Tracy Twelve, 304 pages, $26.99 As long as people are reading the Bible, Jews will always be thought of as a stubborn people. You can thank God for that: In Deuteronomy 9:6, God tells Moses that the Israelites are “stiff-necked.” As long…
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Culture Brooklyn Nets Back in the ‘Hood
For some, The Nets’ arrival in Brooklyn is a religious experience. After a 55-year exile, “the folks on the stoop” (as Brooklynites are designated in an NBA promotional video) have been granted a sports franchise. With the Nets now on Atlantic Avenue, borough president Marty Markowitz has claimed to see “the ghosts of Ebbets Field…
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News A Team of Our Own
When I heard that it was Title IX’s 40th anniversary, my first thought was that it would best be commemorated by some great female athlete who could rhapsodize about her experience breaking the, er, net ceiling. But then I realized that while this landmark legislation, which guaranteed women equal access to athletic and academic opportunities…
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News For Ex-Orthodox, More Than a Game
In a crowded meadow in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, a group of 20-somethings swarmed a soccer ball like a bunch of sixth-graders at recess. A few knew how to dribble, but some could barely kick. One tried to tell the goalie that he wasn’t allowed to pick up the ball. Errant passes peppered nearby groups lounging…
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Opinion When National Anthems Matter
We’ve been thinking here a lot about the Israeli national anthem these days, and experimenting with some alternatives. But it’s also useful to be reminded why an anthem means so much to its citizens on a visceral, emotional level. And reminded we were when sent this feelgood of feelgood stories today. A wheel-chair bound Israeli…
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News For the Glove of the Game
Whether for catching balls, protecting hands or knocking your opponent’s block off, gloves have played many roles in American sports and culture — and Jews have been a big part of practically all of them. Jewish ingenuity outfitted Hall of Famer Hank (The Hebrew Hammer) Greenberg with a revolutionary baseball mitt, made the boxing glove…
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News Howard Cosell Recalled: Icon and Irrritant
Howard Cosell: The Man, the Myth, and the Transformation of American Sports By Mark Ribowsky W.W. Norton & Company, 496 pages, $29.95 ‘I’ve gotta use words when I talk to you,” Apeneck Sweeney says to his girlfriend, Doris, in T.S. Eliot’s “Sweeney Agonistes.” Sweeney had it right. Words transform reality by making it both more…
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News When observant Jews gathered to challenge Israel orthodoxy, verbal sparring and walkouts ensued
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Culture Could my love of oysters actually be kosher?
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Fast Forward Suspect in Michigan synagogue attack dead after ramming car into temple, police say
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Opinion The one crucial domain in which Iran outwitted Israel
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Fast Forward After attacks, Jewish security watchdogs warn of ‘most elevated and complex threat environment’ in recent history
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Fast Forward Muslim advisor to Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission resigns to protest ‘Zionist political agenda’
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Fast Forward Oklahoma attorney general accuses officials of rigging vote on proposed Jewish charter school
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Fast Forward 4 teens arrested in Rotterdam synagogue arson
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