NJ Jewish News | Jewish athletes and the ‘Yom Kippur dilemma’

Jewish athletes and the ‘Yom Kippur dilemma’

by Ron Kaplan
NJJN Staff Writer

To play or not to play; that is the question. Shawn Green, baseball’s reigning Jewish superstar, lucked out this year.

Because Yom Kippur occurs after the end of the regular season and before the New York Mets begin their first round of post-season play, Green — now playing in the largest Jewish market in the big leagues — will not have to make that difficult decision.

In 2001, as a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Green skipped the erev Yom Kippur game against the San Francisco Giants even though the teams were vying for the division title.

“It’s something I feel is an important thing to do,” Green told ESPN.com at the time, “partly as a representative of the Jewish community, and as far as my being a role model in sports for Jewish kids, to basically say that baseball, or anything, isn’t bigger than your religion and your roots.”

“I’m not really into making statements. That’s not the purpose,” Green said. “I just feel it’s the right thing to do. I just feel that the position I’m in, it’s important to set a good example.”

One of the most famous Dodgers of all time made a similar commitment to his Judaism a generation ago.

Brooklyn-born Sandy Koufax passed on his assignment as the starting pitcher for the first game of the 1965 World Series to observe Yom Kippur. As the first Jewish star since Hank Greenberg — who spent most of his career with the Detroit Tigers in the 1930s and ’40s — Koufax was a source of pride for Jews and others who believed certain values supersede making a buck.

To a degree, Greenberg — like Koufax a native New Yorker and a member of the baseball Hall of Fame — faced the same bigotry that Jackie Robinson, the first African-American to play in the major leagues, had to endure; taunts of “kike,” “sheeney” and worse rose from the throats of opposing players and baseball “fans” wherever he went. It is no surprise then that Greenberg was one of the first ballplayers to befriend Robinson. In an article written for Look magazine upon his retirement, Robinson recalled an incident from his inaugural season in 1947. Greenberg, then a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates, was playing first base, where Robinson was standing following a single. “He suddenly turned to me and said, ‘A lot of people are pulling for you to make good,’” Robinson wrote. “‘Don’t ever forget it.’ I never did.”

‘Speaking of Greenberg’

In his poem, “Speaking of Greenberg,” Edgar Guest immortalized the impact “Hammerin’ Hank’s” decision to observe Yom Kippur in the midst of a heated pennant race had on baseball fans in general, Tigers fans in particular, and even Greenberg’s landsmen who didn’t know the difference between a baseball and a beach ball.

The Irish didn’t like it when they heard of Greenberg’s fame
For they thought a good first baseman should possess an Irish name;
And the Murphys and Mulrooneys said they never dreamed they’d see
A Jewish boy from Bronxville out where Casey used to be.
In the early days of April not a Dugan tipped his hat
Or prayed to see a “double” when Hank Greenberg came to bat.

In July the Irish wondered where he’d ever learned to play.
“He makes me think of Casey!” Old Man Murphy dared to say;
And with fifty-seven doubles and a score of homers made
The respect they had for Greenberg was being openly displayed.
But on the Jewish New Year when Hank Greenberg came to bat
And made two home runs off Pitcher Rhodes — they cheered like mad for that.

Came Yom Kippur — holy fast day world-wide over to the Jew —
And Hank Greenberg to his teaching and the old tradition true
Spent the day among his people and he didn’t come to play.
Said Murphy to Mulrooney, “We shall lose the game today!
We shall miss him on the infield and shall miss him at the bat,
But he’s true to his religion — and I honor him for that!”