The Jewish Sports Hall of Fame at the Jewish Community Center in Brighton

The Jewish Sports Hall of Fame at the Jewish Community Center in Brighton

David Kramer at the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in Rochester, NY  [Photo: JCC member who had never seen the display, 2/5/20]

Many — if not most — of the exercisers hurrying to and from the JCC’s upstairs fitness room probably only glance at the Rochester Jewish Sports Hall of Fame display. Today, I took a closer at this modest but fascinating installation.

In various roles — sportscaster, coaches, doctor, executive — six Hall of Fame members appear in Talker of the Town. (below)

[Photo: David Kramer, 2/5/20]

Along with names of Hall of Fame Inductees and Les Harrison Youth Award winners, the display includes a search monitor allowing viewers to take a Rochester sports historical journey — replete with narratives, images and newspaper clippings — from Selig “Jap” Apperman in 1963 to Jeremy Glick in 2019.

(left) Selig Apperman; (right) Jeremy Glick

As described on the Hall website:

Since its beginning in 1962, the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in Rochester, NY has recognized outstanding achievement in athletics and sports for this community’s citizens.  The span of members inducted over the years have served to link the generations of local men and women, both past and present who have excelled in competition, or have displayed extraordinary athletic leadership skills. Several inductees have achieved special international fame and national prominence, yet all inductees have respectfully brought honor and are a source of pride to the Rochester Jewish community’s identity by their image and performance.

Josh Lewin

(left) Josh Lewin ’86, BHS Yearbook, Crossroads; (right) Josh as a young announcer with the Rochester Red Wings

Brighton High School loses one of its two great sportscasters, Hank Greenwald ’53

 

Bradley Rosenbaum

(left) Brighton High School’s Volleyball NY State Champions outside BHS, 11/25/16; (center and right) The Twelve Corners Pick Up Softball game

In grand fashion, Brighton celebrates its volleyball champions and the first Boys state team sports title in school history and Farewell Boys and Girls of Summer! Under-40 MVP smashes 5 home runs off Over-40 MVP in Sunday finale

 

Morris Shapiro 

Morris Shapiro and team cropped

The 1928-29 Rochester YMCA league Jewish basketball team. (top right) Coach Morris “Red Fox” Shapiro. [Held at the JCC. Photo provided by the JCC’s Joy Getnick]

East High’s oldest athlete, Morris Shapiro’s (1913 – 2016) love of wrestling never waned

 

Dr. Morris Shapiro 

morris and lemuel

Lemuel Rogers and Morris Shapiro, Section V Wrestling Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, February 10th, 2016. [Photo provided by Tim Herman]

In Memoriam: Morris Shapiro 1913 – 2016

 

Naomi Silver

(left) Card and tickets sent by Anna and Naomi Silver to Eugene Kramer, August 2005

Dustin Pedroia, a 1999 lawn chair and a 2005 birthday gift from Naomi and Anna Silver

 

Jason Wasserman

(right) Batting ninth, Ernie Clement’s first game as a freshman at Brighton High School. Provided by his then coach, Jason Wasserman.

Brighton fans celebrate hometown hero Ernie Clement in victory

 

Lester Harrison

Sports and the American Jew (1998) edited by Steven A. Riess includes a chapter, “Lester Harrison and the Rochester Royals, 1945 – 1957: A Jewish Entrepreneur in the NBA” [Held at the Feinbloom Library, Jewish Community Center]

SEE ALSO 

A Shawn Dunwoody mural and the floor hockey legacy of Dave Rogachefsky at the JCC

Five years ago when Michael Raff found his perfect mark. And over 70 years of history at the B’Nai Brith bowling league

About The Author

dkramer3@naz.edu

Welcome to Talker of the Town! My name is David Kramer. I have a Ph.D in English and teach at Keuka College. I am a former and still active Fellow at the Nazareth College Center for Public History and a Storyteller in Residence at the SmallMatters Institute. Over the years, I have taught at Monroe Community College, the Rochester Institute of Technology and St. John Fisher College. I have published numerous Guest Essays, Letters, Book Reviews and Opinion pieces in The New York Times, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, the Buffalo News, the Rochester Patriot, the Providence Journal, the Providence Business News, the Brown Alumni Magazine, the New London Day, the Boston Herald, the Messenger Post Newspapers, the Wedge, the Empty Closet, the CITY, Lake Affect Magazine and Brighton Connections. My poetry appears in The Criterion: An International Journal in English and Rundenalia and my academic writing in War, Literature and the Arts and Twentieth Century Literary Criticism. Starting in February 2013, I wrote for three Democratic and Chronicle  blogs, "Make City Schools Better," "Unite Rochester," and the "Editorial Board." When my tenure at the D & C  ended, I wanted to continue conversations first begun there. And start new ones.  So we created this new space, Talker of the Town, where all are invited to join. I don’t like to say these posts are “mine.” Very few of them are the sole product of my sometimes overheated imagination. Instead, I call them partnerships and collaborations. Or as they say in education, “peer group work.” Talker of the Town might better be Talkers of the Town. The blog won’t thrive without your leads, text, pictures, ideas, facebook shares, tweets, comments and criticisms.

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