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Famous Jewish Sports Legends
Jonah Keri lists The 18 best Jewish ballplayers of all time.
Sandy Koufax ranks #1 as he decided to put his religious beliefs ahead of his pitching career and refused to play on Yom Kippur in 1965.
By the way: the number “18” in Hebrew numerology, stands for the word “Chai,” meaning “life”, so this is not a top 10 list.
I never thought I would be debunking the joke from the movie Airplane! about "Famous Jewish Sports Legends," but how's this: Did you know that a Jewish kid from New York scored the first basket in the NBA? And that that kid's name was Ossie Schectman, from Brooklyn! (Where else!) For Jewish immigrants, especially youth, sports played an important role in helping them assimilate. By the 1920s, almost all urban Jewish neighborhoods had a basketball team. So when Ossie made the first basket for the New York Knickerbockers back in 1946, who knew it was the precursor of today’s NBA? And how did I learn this? From a documentary called: The First Basket. Don't believe me? There is always Netflix. 🙂 Or check out the website: http://www.TheFirstBasket.com
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