I am a huge collector of Jewish Sports memorabilia, particularly correspondences, letters & autographs. Over the last dozen or so years, I have written to many former Jewish athletes, not only from the major sports, but particularly from the minor sports like fencing, track & field, rowing, etc,… where a lot of the older athletes were Jewish. When I wrote to them, I wouldn’t so much ask them about their athletic achievements, but rather more of their “Jewishness”. My questions asked things like “how observant were you”, “what was it like being a Jewish athlete at that time”, “had you experienced any anti-semitism”, etc,… Some of the letters from these former athletes are very interesting and I'd like to send copies to some of the Jewish museums and Jewish Sports HOFs.
How I got started: Back in the mid-1990’s, I received a gift-certificate from one of the book stores. I decided to use the gift certificate on the book, When Boxing was a Jewish Sport”. It was a fascinating history of Jewish boxers in the 1920’s thru 1940’s. After I read it, I decided to research & acquire autographs from some of the guys depicted in the book, who were still alive. Then, from there, (and I’m not sure how/why it happened) but I ended up interested in Jewish athletes from all sports, the major sports like baseball and football to the lesser popular sports like golf, gymnastics, lacrosse, swimming, etc,… I have since slowed down with the hobby over the last few years, though. It was getting too time consuming and too expensive with stamps.
Alan
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