sla book review: judaism's encounter with american sports

judaism's encounter with american sports

Reviewed by Eric Solomon, San Francisco State University

FEBRUARY 21, 2006 archive

A scholarly study (31 pages of endnotes) clearly described by its title, Gurock's book provides a fascinating view of the socio-religious tensions within the sports-minded assimilation/ faith-based community. The author writes out of his own tensions: he is a veteran Jewish History Professor at Yeshiva University, with thirteen books published, and an athlete-basketball and marathons-who has been Yeshiva's assistant basketball coach for a quarter-century. Using another doubleness, he cites Hank Greenberg's 1934 absence from the Detroit Tigers on Yom Kippur, which was questioned by fans, vs. the 1965 acceptance of Sandy Koufax's observance. The book takes a long, detailed look at this split between youth's love of sports and orthodox religious establishment's fear of sports as part of Jewish-Americans' twofold drives for athletic and cultural assimilation with Torah study and Jewish identity: accommodation or resistance.

With many historical subtexts about mind/body rabbinical arguments, Gurock provides a richly detailed account of familial, generational, and mainly religious educational institutions as they try to cope with the complex strategies of young people who want to play team sports faced with parents who seek scholars and schools that demand religious scholarship. All this in an American sports-obsessed culture but one that also reflects a loyalty to ethnic, religious roots: thus, the book documents a series of double binds. Sports programs entice participation in schools, in gyms, in scheduled games with religious studies imploded. Religious programs struggle against a loss of faith, i.e. winning, lack of belief (how does one play in a league that has games on the Sabbath? Why should a gifted athlete attend an institution without a sports program? How can second-generation Jews accommodate to their children playing in suburban leagues?)

Yeshivas, Shuls, YMHA's provide records of doctrinal struggles that are painful, petty, and taken seriously. The chapters are sad and sometimes comic, at their titles indicate: "The Challenge and Opportunity of a New World of American Sports"; "The Training of 'All-American' Yeshiva Boys"; "Shul vs. Pool." (my favorite), among others. The career of a basketball star, Tamar Goodman, much hailed and recruited, has pride of place in the book. He was good enough to be recruited by Maryland but goes to Towson State which accommodates his orthodox needs. But he turns out even when he goes to Israel to be a bench player. The Torah, yes; the hook shot, no.

Ultimately, the Jewish encounter with American sports is a dark one. The usual suspects are rounded up in Gurock's monograph. First, of course, is money. Gyms cost money. Schools need students to pay tuition. Coaches cost money. Coaches hardly teach spiritual values. Second, of course, is sex. There are girl cheerleaders. With short dresses. Girls play in shorts. And what about the fans? Do genders mix not only in the stands but also later in the evening? And always the overwhelming question for the future of Jewish children who play American sports with and against non-Jewish Americans. Intermarriage looms. The book is about athletes, not about fans who can be sports-obsessed parents. Nor is anti-Semitism an issue; one can wear a yarmulke to a major league Mets game, but not a Seattle cap. For this reader, the book is mainly about good kids and confused parents; about healthy bodies and disputative religious forces. As another Jewish-American writer, Mark Harris, has a pitcher and a coach say, "It is sad, it makes you want to cry." "It is sad, it makes you want to laugh."

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