Reflection: Jews and Baseball

Reflection: Jews and Baseball

By Bob Cooper

I recently gave a talk at Holy Blossom about the history of the connection between Jews and Baseball. It was an enthusiastic audience, and many attendees arrived wearing their jerseys and ball caps. I’ve been researching this connection for about ten years, and a few years ago created my YouTube channel ‘@inthebiginning’, devoted entirely to Jewish baseball. I continue to discover that Jews not only created several significant elements of the game we know today, but also held key roles as players, umpires, executives, union bosses, statisticians and announcers.

Baseball provided Jews with the avenue to become part of the American fabric from the mid-1800s through successive waves of immigration. Indeed, many early 20th-century rabbis told their congregations that if you wanted to become ‘American’, you needed to understand baseball.

We also took a trip down memory lane, recapping the greats like Sandy Koufax, who was responsible for the seminal moment of Jewish American history when he chose Yom Kippur over pitching in the opening game of the World Series in 1965, as well as Hank Greenberg and other Jewish stars. And for a Canadian touch, I included the history of Torontonian Goody Rosen.

The conversation began an hour before my presentation, and continued after I was done (and still continues through email).

Thank you again to all who attended and made it such a wonderful evening.