website<\/a> launched last month by the museum, fans are encouraged to alert the museum to what items they might want to donate or lend, as well as to stories about the person\u2019s connections to baseball.<\/p>\nSome items to be displayed in the museum might not relate to Jewish ballplayers at all but will help illuminate the exhibit\u2019s theme, \u201cChasing Dreams: Baseball and Jews in America.\u201d<\/p>\n
For example, Paul Newman of Philadelphia posted photographs of two baseballs that were signed long ago by Pete Rose and Johnny Bench, stars on the Reds\u2019 championship teams in the 1970s. The players personalized their autographs for Newman\u2019s late father, Rabbi Max Newman, of Cincinnati.<\/p>\n
Another photo shows former Dodgers pitcher Carl Erskine posing in 2011 with a smiling Rebecca Alpert, a professor of religion and women\u2019s studies at Temple University. Alpert wrote in the post that she \u201cgrew up believing that rooting for the Brooklyn Dodgers was what Jews were supposed to do because the Dodgers integrated baseball and represented the working class.\u201d<\/p>\n
Erskine had been one of Alpert\u2019s favorite players, and she said she was \u201cthrilled\u201d to meet him at a conference on the Negro Leagues held in Cincinnati, where the picture was taken.<\/p>\n
Many of the items that respondents mentioned, posted or offered to the curators relate, of course, to Jewish Major Leaguers: a brilliant color image of a very young Koufax wearing his Brooklyn cap as he delivered a pitch against a backdrop of trees and a blue sky; photos from the 1970s of Washington Senators first baseman Mike Epstein fielding and sliding; and a black-and-white shot of Greenberg with boxing champion Joe Louis, under which the unidentified emailer wrote, \u201cJews have long regarded themselves as a people on the outside looking in. African-American heroes like Joe Louis and Jackie Robinson have been part of \u2018our crowd.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe story of Jews in baseball has typically been told by focusing on Major League Baseball, and counting up how many Jews played in Major League Baseball and disputing who\u2019s a Jew and who\u2019s not a Jew: Was Elliott Maddox Jewish? Was Rod Carew Jewish?\u201d John Thorn, the lead consultant for the exhibition, said by telephone. \u201cTo me, the far more interesting story was on the other side of the television set: What was the ordinary Jew\u2019s experience with baseball? How did baseball become a binding, integrating, assimilating force in Jewish life?\u201d<\/p>\n
Aside from his professional qualifications as Major League Baseball\u2019s official historian, Thorn is in a unique position to examine the issue. Thorn, who is Jewish, was born in a displaced person\u2019s camp in Germany after World War II and settled with his parents in New York. Baseball, particularly the experience of collecting baseball cards, was how the young Thorn made his way in his adopted country — his \u201cvisa to America,\u201d Thorn said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe story of baseball being more than a game, which is a cliche, of course, resonated for me particularly,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Up to 200 artifacts will fill the 2,400 square feet on the museum\u2019s fifth floor. After closing at the end of the 2014 baseball season, the exhibit will tour nationally, with smaller versions visiting Jewish community centers, synagogues, historical societies, libraries and stadiums, Perelman said.<\/p>\n
Besides the general public, items will come from the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, the American Jewish Historical Society and the Smithsonian Institution\u2019s National Museum of American History. Bud Selig, the commissioner of Major League Baseball, is among those serving on the advisory committee.<\/p>\n
What item would Perelman most like to acquire for display?<\/p>\n
A bat, glove or personal item relating to Pike would be nice, he said.<\/p>\n
The ultimate catch, though, would be the High Holy Days ticket that Koufax didn\u2019t use after making his celebrated decision to sit out Game 1 of the 1965 World Series against the Minnesota Twins because it fell on Yom Kippur.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs many shuls as there are in Minnesota, that\u2019s how many claim he was there\u201d to observe the day, Perelman said.<\/p>\n
The ticket, Perelman added — his slyness detectable even over the phone — is something \u201cI know doesn\u2019t exist because he didn\u2019t go to services.\u201d<\/p>\n
(Please email Hillel Kuttler if you would like \u201cSeeking Kin\u201d to write about your search for long-lost relatives and friends; include the principal facts and your contact information in a brief email. \u201cSeeking Kin\u201d is sponsored by Bryna Shuchat and Joshua Landes and family in loving memory of their mother and grandmother, Miriam Shuchat, a lifelong uniter of the Jewish people.)<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/Koufax-baseball-1.jpg\" "\\"Koufax")