'A good boxer with a proud Jewish name is assured of a great following. A Jewish name in athletics helps one in much the same way as an Italian name used to be in the field of music or a Russian still does in the field of dancing.
This is especially true in America, where in spite of the melting pot legend, national feelings run very high sometimes. The professional promoter who gets hold of a Jewish boxer will, therefore, at once placard the Jewish origin of his champion all over the place. A Jewish boxer is acclaimed and cheered by the crowd, and Jew and Gentile alike will pin faith in him. Such is the firmly established tradition that the Jew is victorious in the ring. So it is that many boxers of pure Arian [sic] or Nordic stock choose to adorn themselves with unmistakeably Jewish sounding names. Only recently the sports pages of the press carried the disclosure that Gus Sonnenberg, the new world's champion wrestler, is no Jew at all.
The predominance and success of Jewish boxers has naturally already produced a jealousy not undiluted by anti-Semitism, and the assertion that "the Jews have captured the ring". The only consolation is that the Jewish boxers do not remain long in the profession. After they reach prominence they retire to some quiet but lucrative business. And there again they are accused of "lack of sportsmanship". Papers announce that hardly a week goes by without the retirement of some Jewish boxer. Thus have retired Bat Levinsky and Joey Kaufman. And now Joey Sangor of Milwaukee, the famous lightweight, quits at twenty, announcing that he is dissatisfied with his 1929 showing in the ring.'
It's sad when what appears to be Judeophilia is actually motivated by anti-Semitic stereotypes.
ReplyDeleteSee also the horrid Whoopi Goldberg.
"She adopted the traditionally German/Jewish surname Goldberg as a stage name because her mother felt the original surname of Johnson was not "Jewish enough" to make her a star"
I know what you mean, Ian.
DeleteI believe the boxer Max Baer, who always wore a Magen David embroidered on his shorts, was rumoured not to be Jewish at all - but according to wikipedia he had a Jewish father.
interesting story
ReplyDeleteSadly, it did not paid to be a true Jew as Victor Perez
Victor "Young" Perez (October 18, 1911 - January 22, 1945) was a Jew born in French Tunisia, who became the World Flyweight Champion in 1931 and 1932. He was born to Khmaïssa Perez a household goods salesman and Khaïlou René Perez. He was raised along with his four siblings in Dar-El Berdgana, the Jewish quarter of Tunis. He started training as a boxer at age 14 along with his older brother Benjamin “Kid” Perez to emulate his idol Louis Phal, “Battling Siki,” a boxing champion from Senegal. Perez had a brief relationship with French-Italian actress Mireille Balin of Monaco.
Perez was denounced to the Occupation authorities and arrested in Paris on Septemner 21, 1943 and detained in the Drancy internment camp before being transported to Auschwitz where he was assigned to the Monowitz subcamp to serve as a slave laborer for I.G. Farben at the Buna-Werke. He was killed on January 22, 1945 on the death march from Monowitz to Gleiwitz.[1]
Thank you, Jean. Very sad.
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