Judaism's Encounter with American Sports Jeffrey S. Gurock
Engages the controversial role that sports has played in shaping
American Jewish identity. Judaism's Encounter with American
Sports examines how sports entered the lives of American Jewish
men and women and how the secular values of sports threatened
religious identification and observance. What do Jews do when a
society?in this case, a team?"chooses them in," but demands
commitments that clash with ancestral ties and practices?
Jeffrey S. Gurock uses the experience of sports to illuminate an
important mode of modern Jewish religious conflict and
accommodation to America. He considers the defensive strategies
American Jewish leaders have employed in response to sports'
challenges to identity, such as using temple and synagogue
centers, complete with gymnasiums and swimming pools, to attract
the athletically inclined to Jewish life. Within the suburban
frontiers of postÐWorld War II America, sports?minded modern
Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform rabbi