When Jews Ruled Pro Basketball

In the 1930s, Hank Greenberg chased Babe Ruth’s records and won the 1935 World Series with the Detroit Tigers. The national pastime wasn’t friendly territory for a Jewish athlete then, but by proudly staking out a claim, Greenberg proved that Jews could play the game as well as anyone else. To his co-religionists cheering in the stands, this was proof that they could participate in American society.

Greenberg was progress incarnate. But there was another Jewish sports story of that decade—one far less uplifting, and therefore far less retold.