Shvayg Shosh

My father wants me to remind everyone that back in the day there were famous Jewish NBA players! http://www.nba.com/history/players/schayes_bio.html I would like to remind him that I do live near enough to philly that I'm very aware of the South Philadelphia Hebrew Association. However, for those of you who need a little reminder of Great Jewish Basketball History, here is an old, yet good article: http://www.aish.com/societyWork/arts/Jewish_Basketball_Giants.asp (btw, I wrote my first post before reading the article, so forgive me for making the same joke)

When I saw that the Sacramento Kings picked Israeli Omri Casspi in the first round of the NBA draft, images of the movie Airplane flashed through my mind: Elaine Dickinson : Would you like something to read? Hanging Lady : Do you have anything light? Elaine Dickinson : How about this leaflet, "Famous Jewish Sports Legends?" The stereotype is hard to shake. I also think that it's a stereotype most Jews would just laugh at if a gentile made a joke about. I certainly can't think of many professional openly Jewish athletes in America today. (My father would scream, "what about Sandy Koufax?" To which I'd reply, " Sandy Koufax who refused to pitch on Yom Kippur during the 1965 world series? 1965!" of course, Shawn Green of the LA Dodgers also refused to play on Yom Kippur in 2004 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=3935847 How many people even know about that?) Obviously, in Israel the stereotype of the weak athletic abili...