Tag Archives: Baseball

Jew of the Week: Moe Berg

Baseball Player, Lawyer… and Secret Agent

Moe Berg

Morris Berg (1902-1972) was born in New York to Russian-Jewish immigrants. He began playing baseball at age 7, and by 16 was on Newark’s baseball “dream team”. He studied first at New York University, then Princeton, and graduated with a degree in languages, learning to speak seven of them. By his senior year, he was captain of Princeton’s baseball team. A day after his last game with Princeton, Berg signed a contract with the Brooklyn Robins. In the off-season, he headed to Paris and continued his studies at the world-famous Sorbonne (University of Paris). There, he began a personal routine of reading as many as 10 newspapers every single day. Berg was never very good at baseball, and was often traded and loaned between many different teams. Always a scholar first, in 1926 he told the Chicago White Sox that he is skipping spring training because he was enrolled in law school at Columbia University. He earned his law degree in 1930, and then split his time between baseball in the summer and working at a prestigious Wall Street law firm in the winter.

In 1932, Berg toured Asia, visiting Japan, China, Siam, India, and Egypt. A couple of years later, he returned to Japan with a video camera, later traveling to the Philippines, Korea, and Russia, before returning to play with the Red Sox for 5 seasons, then coaching the team for 2 more. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Berg joined the war effort and eventually became a spy. He shared his video footage of Japan, which was instrumental in planning American raids during the war. After serving in South America and the Caribbean, Berg was parachuted into Yugoslavia to assist resistance groups fighting the Nazis. His next mission was to travel across Europe and convince scientists working for the Nazis (particularly on their nuclear bomb project), to come work for the U.S. instead. In 1951, he requested that the CIA station him in Israel. Instead, they sent him to Europe to spy on Soviet nuclear work. In 1954, the CIA let him go and for the rest of his life Berg lived with his siblings, having never married. His wishes were to be cremated, and his ashes were scattered in Jerusalem. Berg was inducted into the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, and Baseball’s Shrine of the Eternals. He was awarded the Medal of Freedom, and his baseball card is on display at CIA headquarters. Berg was described as “the most scholarly professional athlete”, and the “strangest man ever to play baseball.”

Words of the Week

If you begin a good deed, finish it, for a mitzvah is credited to the one who concludes the task.
– Talmud, Sotah 13b

Jew of the Week: Hank Greenberg

The Hebrew Hammer

Hank Greenberg – ‘The Hebrew Hammer’

Hyman ‘Henry Benjamin’ Greenberg (1911-1986) was born in New York to a Romanian-Jewish family. As a child, he was faced with many physical challenges, including flat feet, a stutter, and lack of coordination. He worked hard to overcome these issues, becoming his high school’s best all-around athlete, especially in basketball. He preferred baseball though, and after a year of university was signed by the Detroit Tigers. At 19, he became the youngest player ever to make the big leagues. He went on to be a 5-time All-Star and 2-time MVP, still holding the American League record for most RBIs in a single season. Not forgetting his heritage, one of his most famous moments was abstaining from playing a critical game because it was scheduled on Yom Kippur. In the midst of his baseball career, World War II began, and Greenberg was the first player to be drafted to the US Army. He was soon released from the military, but that was two days before the attack on Pearl Harbor. Greenberg thus re-enlisted – the first Major League player to volunteer – and served for 45 months, the longest of any baseball player. He rose to the rank of First Lieutenant in the US Air Force, fighting in China, Burma, and India. At the end of the war he returned to baseball, still in good form and immediately making the All-Star team. He was later sold to the Pittsburgh Pirates, who offered him $80,000 so that he wouldn’t retire, making him the highest-paid player of that time period. After retiring, he turned to management and brought great success to several teams, especially the Cleveland Indians. Perhaps most significantly, Greenberg changed the face of the sport, sponsoring more African-Americans than any other baseball executive. In fact, he befriended and supported Jackie Robinson, the very first African-American player in the major leagues. Having experienced severe racism and anti-Semitism of his own, Greenberg worked hard to make the world of sport open and equal to all. A Hall of Famer, Greenberg is still considered one of the greatest baseball players of all time.

Words of the Week

The entire world is a very narrow bridge, and the most important thing is not to be afraid at all.
– Rabbi Nachman of Breslov

Jews of the Week: Sam & Charles Bronfman

Samuel Bronfman

Samuel Bronfman (1889-1971) immigrated to Canada from Bessarabia, Moldova, fleeing the pogroms of the Russian Empire. From tobacco farming to selling firewood, working in a sawmill, and building railways, Bronfman bounced around to make a living. The family eventually bought a small hotel and Sam soon realized that most of the profit was coming from alcohol. In 1924 he opened a distillery in Montreal which went on to make huge profits, much of which came from bootlegging to the U.S., taking advantage of America’s prohibition era. In 1928, Bronfman purchased Ontario’s Seagram Company and adopted its name. It would become the world’s largest producer of alcoholic beverages (with over 250 different brands), a title it held until the company was bought out by several corporations, including Coca-Cola. Sam Bronfman was also a noted philanthropist and served as president of Canada’s Jewish Congress for over 20 years. One of McGill University’s main patrons, he was awarded the Order of Canada.

Charles Rosner Bronfman

The same honour was awarded to Samuel’s son Charles Bronfman (b. 1931). Aside from business, Charles is famous for bringing a major league baseball team to Montreal, the ill-fated Expos. More significantly, along with Michael Steinhardt, he founded (and funds) Taglit Birthright, which has now brought over 220,000 young Jews around the world on free trips to Israel. Bronfman has signed the Giving Pledge, vowing to leave more than half of his wealth to charity. Part of that is creating the $100,000 Charles Bronfman Prize, honouring individuals who have contributed to humanitarian causes. A quirky fact: Charles is co-founding chairman of Historica, the company that brought you all those fun ‘Heritage Minutes’ on Canadian TV. He said, “If television can use 30 seconds or 60 seconds to persuade people that Cadillacs or cornflakes are interesting, couldn’t we also use that short piece of time to persuade Canadians that their history is interesting? You tell me how to do it, and I’ll fund it.”

Words of the Week

If you wait until you find the meaning of life, will there be enough life left to live meaningfully?
– Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, The Lubavitcher Rebbe