Berkow, Ira. Hank Greenberg: Hall of Fame Slugger. Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia: 1991.
EDUC BM 102 Greenberg .B48x

Hank Greenberg had not always been so popular. Greenberg did not consider himself religious, but because he was Jewish, he was the frequent target of anti-Semitic remarks and actions.

He wanted to be known "not only as a great ballplayer, but even more as a great Jewish ballplayer." From inside flap

Blady, Ken. The Jewish Boxers' Hall of Fame: A Who's Who of Jewish Boxers. Shapolsky Publishers, Inc., New York: 1988
REF GV 1131 . B54 1988

The Jewish Boxers' Hall of Fame is packed with fascinating revelations and amusing anecdotes from years of original research.

Would you believe that between 1900 and 1940 there were 27 Jewish world champions and title claimants, some still considered the greatest of their class?

It's true.

There was Benny Leonard, Barney Ross, Jackie Fields, Ted "Kid" Lewis, Abe Attell and Maxie Rosenbloom,to name just a few. From inside flap

Davidoff, Nicholas. The Catcher was a Spy: The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg
D 810. S8 B4963 1994

For all his renown as a big-league catcher, wartime spy, and Renaissance man, Moe Berg emerges from the pages of this book as very much a phantom. He played 13 seasons in the majors but was never more than a third-string catcher. He earned the Medal of Freedom by spying on the German's A-bomb project for the OSS but was later dropped by the CIA as ineffectual. He could use his Princeton-trained intellect to associate with Nobel laureates, diplomats, and linguists (Berg spoke many languages but, as a teammate put it, couldn't hit in any of them), yet he never truly applied that intellect. Thus, readers are left with an intriguing plot and a cast of fascinating supporting characters but a disappearing protagonist. And as with any phantom, it's entirely fair for those readers who finish the book--however great in number they may be--to ask themselves, Was he worth looking for? From Booklist

Grey, Vivian. Moe Berg: The Spy Behind Home Plate. A JPS Young Biography. Jewish Publication Society. Philadelphia: 1996.
EDUC D 810. S8 B4694 1996

Moe Berg, one of the few Jews to play baseball in the major leagues, was a top-secret spy during World War II. With his help, the United States won the race against Germany to build the dreaded atomic bomb.

Joseph Siegman, author of The International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, "Moe Berg's fascinating story certainly proves that there can be more to a ballplayer's life than game statistics, Jewish children, as well as their parents, should be familiar with enigmatic athlete-scholar's unique contribution to his country." From back cover

Hoffman, Joseph. Jews in Sports.
EDUC GV 607. A7 H63x 1996

In the tradition of the humorous Uh! Oh! series, where finding the hidden objects and the Uh! Oh! character in trouble create a world of enjoyment for kids of all ages, Janet Zwebner has designed a whole new set of riotous illustrations featuring every major sports event, including The Olympics.

Joe Hoffman records the historical and practical contributions Jews have made in the field of sports, including seven-time Olympic Gold Winner, Mark Spitz, baseball great Sandy Koufax, Jewish boxing champions Daniel Mendoza and Barney Rosofsky, and others. From Amazon.com

Konigsburg, E. L. About the B'nai Bagels. Atheneum, New York:1969
EDUC PZ 7. K6x Ab

The real name of the Little League team was the B'nai B'rith, but everyone called them the B'nai Bagels. Their manager was Bessie Setzer, but everyone called her Mother Bagel, and the team grew to love her and even Spencer, Brother Bagel, their coach.

Which was fine for everyone but Mark Setzer. For him it made problems. Because with a mother as manager and a brother as coach, he felt he had lost his right to be awful on the field and had gained a lot of sticky situations. Then, in addition to worrying bout his performance on the baseball team, he had to worry about his performance at his Bar Mitzvah and about his friend, Hersch, who had moved to another part of town and found another best friend. From inside cover

Koufax (with Ed Linn). Koufax
EDUC BM 102 Koufax A9

Gordon, James. Pray Ball! The Spiritual Insights of a Jewish Sports Fan
Gefen Publishing, New York: 1999.
GV 706. 42 G67 1999

Leavy, Jane. Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy.

Sandy Koufax defined and distinguished himself by what he did on the baseball field and what he refused to do. He challenged batters and stereotypes. On the evening of September 9,1965, he pitched a perfect game against the Chicago Cubs. Less than a month later, he achieved another kind of perfection by refusing to pitch the opening game of the World Series because it fell on the holiest day of the Jewish calendar. Until then, he was a ballplayer, perhaps the greatest lefthander of all time. Forever after, he would be a symbol, the one thing he never wanted to be. He was the consummate pitcher: elegant, dominant, unsurpassed.

He was also an original, perhaps the last athlete who refused to cash in on his fame. He remains unavailable, unassailable, unsullied. In over 400 interviews conducted with Koufax's friends, teammates, and opponents, Jane Leavy has created an unprecedented portrait of a man described by one former Dodger as the most misunderstood man in baseball.

Jane Leavy is an award-winning former sportswriter and feature writer for the Washington Post and author of the critically acclaimed comic novel Squeeze Play. She lives in Washington, D.C. From Amazon.com

Ribalow, Harold U. The Jew in American Sports.
REF GV 697. A1 S5 1955

Rosen, Charles. The House of Moses All-Stars: A Novel. Seven Stories Press, New York: 1996.
FIC PS 3568 .O76473 H68 19

On January 7, 1927, the Harlem Globetrotters, a barnstorming basketball team, made their debut in Hinckley, Illinois, before an audience of 300. They were the vision of Abe Saperstein, a Jewish man who managed a touring team of African-American round-ballers. Now, 70 years later, the Globetrotters are known around the world and have played an intriguing role in the history of race in America. Charley Rosen's novel The House of Moses All-Stars is an intriguing spin on the Globetrotters' story. Set amid the Depression at home and the rise of Hitler in Germany, Rosen tells a story of Jewish hoopsters dribbling through middle America. For the team, the games are more a means of making a buck in hard times than breaking down barriers. But as they tour the country in a hearse with the Star of David emblazoned on the side, they uncover the realities of bigotry and racism that even American sport cannot suppress. From Amazon.com

Schnur, Steven. The Koufax Dilemma. New York: Morrow Junior Books, 1997.
EDUC PZ 7. S3644 Ko 1997

With his mom serious about a new man, and his father and stepmother getting ready for a new baby, Danny thinks the only steady thing in his life is baseball. Unfortunately, this year's season opener falls on the first night of Passover, and Danny's mother refuses to let him play. What seems a relatively small thing suddenly snowballs into a series of events that really have less to do with baseball or religion than with Danny's worries about where he fits in with the grown-ups in his life. Danny's whining gets a bit tiresome, and his concerns sort themselves out with surprisingly little drama. But Danny's responses ring true: overdramatic and sometimes illogical, they are right on target, and they give readers a clear sense of what it really means to "cut off your nose to spite your face." From Booklist

Sherman, Eli. The Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.
Arch GV 897. A1 S4797 1999

Siegman, Joseph. Jewish Sports Legends: The International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.
Brassey's, Washington DC 1997.
REF GV 897. A1 S4797 1997

This handsome volume illuminates the lives and unforgettable accomplishments of Jews in virtually every major sport played worldwide. Baseball stars Sandy Koufax and Hank Greenberg, basketball's Red Auerbach and Dolph Schayes, and fooball's Sid Luckman and Ron Mix are only a few examples.

The Author: Joe Siegman founded the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1979. From back cover

Silverman, Buddy Robert S. The Jewish Athletes Hall of Fame. Shapolsky Publishers, New York: 1989.
REF GV 697. A1 S52

Features exclusive interviews and profiles (with photos) of the best Jewish American athletes in history, identified and ranked against one another according to their accomplishments in sports.

Many of these athletes have remarkably differing opinions on the subject of whether attainment of fame carries with it the obligation to exert influence in support of Jewish issues. From inside flap

Slater, Robert. The Jewish Child's Book of Sports Heroes.
Jonathan David Publishers, Inc. Middle Village, New York: 1993
REF GV 697. A1 S54 1993

Biographies of Jewish athletes for kids. One to two page spreads on Harold Abrahams to Mark Spitz.

Slater, Robert. Great Jews in Sports. EDUC GV 697 A1 S53 1983
Also a ref copy REF GV 697. A1 S54 1983

Intriguing portraits of the greatest Jewish sports figures on f the past two centuries.

Robert Slater focuses also on hundreds of lesser known Jewish athletes who have made significant contributions to the sports world. From inside flap

Sturm, James. The Golem's Mighty Swing. Drawn & Quarterly: 2001. ISBN 1896597459.

The barnstorming baseball teams of the 1920s are the grist for this graphic novel that follows a Jewish team, the Stars of David, through the Midwest in a broken-down bus, using the gimmick of exotic ethnicity to draw small-towners to their games. At this level, baseball is as much showbiz as sport, so to boost attendance, the team's sole black player, billed as a "member of the lost tribe," poses as a golem, a creature made of clay and brought to life by a rabbinical incantation. The scheme goes terribly awry, however, when the massive crowd it draws, inflamed by anti-Semitism, storms the field. Like its legendary model, this golem damages its creators. Sturm is a master of nuance, whose economical drawings effectively evoke the era, while his thoughtful compositions impressively capture action and atmosphere. He uses the national pastime to examine such equally American traits as racism and media hype. But mostly, this a particularly insightful take on the theme of immigrants caught between their traditions and the ways of a new land. Gordon Flagg

Copyright © American Library Association.

Swirsky, Seth. Baseball letters: A Fan's Correspondence with his Heroes
Kodansha International, New York: 1996.
GV 865. S95x 1996

Baseball Letters did not start out as a book. When the baseball players went on strike in the summer of 1994 Seth Swirsky, missing the game he loved, wrote letters to hundreds of players -- past and present, famous and not so famous -- asking interesting questions pertaining to their lives and careers. To his amazement, almost all wrote back. In this book are those letters, reprinted as they were received by the author. Baseball Letters is a modern classic that provides fans with a human connection to their heroes.

From Amazon.com

Periodicals

Jewish Sports Review

The Jewish Sports Connection: Periodical Promoting Discussion of Sports and Jewish Life

Videos

Kempner, Aviva. The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg. 20th Century Home Entertainment: 1999.
V-1660

As baseball's first Jewish star, Hammerin' Hank Greenberg's career contains all the makings of A true American success story. An extraordinary ball player notorious for his hours of daily practice, Greenberg's career was an inspiration to all and captured the headlines and the admiration of sportswriters and fans alike. This is the story of how he became an American hero. From video cover.

Welland, Colin. Chariots of Fire Warner Brothers Entertainment: 1981.
JHVC

The time is 1924. Britain's finest athletes have begun their quest for glory in the Olympic Games. Their success will win honor for their nation-but for two champion runners, the honor at stake is a personal honor…and their challenge one from within.

Chariots of Fire tells the exciting, inspiring true story of Harold Abrahams, Eric Liddell and the dedicated team of competitors who brought Britain one of her most legendary victories in international sports. From video cover.