The Jewish Sports Heritage Association chronicles and celebrates Jewish involvement in all sports. From boxing to football to tennis, from basketball to baseball to swimming, from broadcaster's booth to the sportswriters desk; from the playing field to the manager's bench to the owner's office - Jews have made a significant impact on the world of sports.
More importantly, in focusing on sports, an aspect of Jewish accomplishment with which too many are unfamiliar, the Jewish Sports Heritage Association offers a starting point for discussions of stereotype and prejudice. "Jews in Sports" is assumed by Jews and non-Jews alike to be an oxymoron. In demonstrating the fallacy of that assumption, The Jewish Sports Heritage Association causes us to question the many stereotypes about diverse groups which we carry in our minds and hearts.
Sports has provided a means of weaving not only Jews, but other minority and immigrant groups into the American tapestry. Jews moved from the ghetto-impelled boxing ring to the national sports (baseball, basketball, football), to country club-based swimming pools and tennis courts. A similar, if not identical course followed by Italian-Americans, African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans and other minority groups. Thus the story of Jews in Sports is a paradigmatic piece of the mosaic of America.
