|
|
February 16, 2001/Shevet 23, 5761, Vol. 53, No.20
Talks look seriously at Jews and sports
BARRY COHEN
Community Editor
Arizona State University professors Jack Kugelmass and Aaron Baker participate in a presentation.
Photo by Barry Cohen |
What is a Jewish triathlon? Gin rummy, bridge, followed by a nap.
Professor Stephen Whitfield from Brandeis University included this "one-liner" in his lecture on masculinity, self-image and athleticism at the second international conference sponsored by the Jewish Studies Program at Arizona State University.
The forum, "Joining the Club: Jews, Sports and the Rites of Citizenship," took place Feb. 11-12.
"The conference is not really about Jews in sports. It is about Jews in society," said Professor Jack Kugelmass, director of the Jewish Studies Program at ASU.
One goal was to bring together anthropologists, historians and political scientists for an interdisciplinary study of the Jewish experience of sports in society, he added. An international group of 19 academics - from Brandeis University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Tel Aviv University, Hebrew University and Ben Gurion University, among other institutions - presented papers.
In his lecture, Whitfield explained the challenge immigrant parents faced when their children wanted to play sports as much, if not more, than they wanted to study. He recounted a father in New York City who wrote to the "Jewish Daily Forward," asking, "(what is the point of) this crazy game of baseball? I want my boy to grow up a mensch, not a wild American runner."
The response from the "Forward" was, "Let your boys play baseball and play it well. ... Children in America should not grow up foreigners in their own country."
"I cannot think of a better window onto the Jewish experience of modernity than through their participation in the wide world of sports," said Kugelmass. Sports allowed Jews to enter social circles, both at the lower end of society through boxing, and at the higher end through horse racing, he explained.
In the 19th and 20th centuries, participation in sports evolved into a means of understanding and internalizing what it meant to be American or Canadian.
"This conference demonstrates that everything from the most traditional of Jewish sources ... to popular culture has become appropriate data for analysis," said Professor Joel Gereboff, chairman of the department of religious studies.
This event is a valuable step in the development of ASU's Jewish Studies Program, he added, because of the caliber of the participating scholars.
The conference also included a screening of "The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg," followed by discussion with the documentary's writer and producer, Aviva Kempner.
Kugelmass expects a number of lectures delivered during the conference to be published by major university presses worldwide.
The 2000 ASU Jewish Studies international conference was "Key Texts in American Jewish Culture."
|
