Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By richards on December 21, 2014

Distant Replay! Washingtons Jewish Sports Heroes

edited by Stephen Sadis

Washington State Jewish Historical Society, 360 pp., $36

Ever hear of the local softball team named Jews on First, baseball player Todd The Hebrew Hammer Rubin or boxer Abie Israel, Seattles Sephardic southpaw pugilist?

A great lineup of names, but even with my affliction for local sports history, I had never heard a word about them until I came across a fascinating new book: Distant Replay! Washingtons Jewish Sports Heroes.

The latest in a series of books from the Washington State Jewish Historical Society, Distant Replay resembles a fun scrapbook, packed with 182 stories and hundreds of photos from the distant past to the present. Its something you dont have to be Jewish or even a sports fan to enjoy, while discovering the impact these heroes have had.

This is where you can read about athletes and teams with such colorful and humorous names as Morrie Snooker Arnovichand The Jewcers.

Many of those in Distant Replay are athletes of all ages and eras from a wide variety of sports, but there also are stories about team owners, managers, coaches, investors, promoters, store owners, sports personalities, writers, photographers, historians, yell leaders and even an attorney. Its more a celebration of a communitys pride and love of sports than your typical sports Hall of Fame put to print. But its also an inside look at a big part of Washingtons sports history.

Some of those in the book, like Sue Bird (whose father is Jewish, the book notes, which allowed her to claim Israeli citizenship and play hoops in the Euroleague), Bob Melvin, the Alhadeff family, Herman Sarkowsky, Howard Schultz, Dave Grosbyand Dave Softy Mahler are household names. Many are not, unless your household knows a lot about Garfield High School sports history, where many of the early heroes went. As a result, Distant Replay is a tribute of sorts to Garfield, Seattles Central Area and its Jewish immigrant settlers.

The book was edited by Stephen Sadis, owner of Sadis Filmworks and co-producer of the historical sports documentary The Seattle Rainiers.

Link:

Distant Replay!: a pantheon of the states Jewish sports heroes

Category: Sephardic
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