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When Boxing Was a Jewish Sport | 
 enlarge | Author: Allen Bodner
Publisher: Praeger Trade
Category: Book
List Price: $36.95
Buy New: $28.56
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Avg. Customer Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 982755
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 244
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.6 x 6.4 x 1.3
ISBN: 027595353X
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.830922
EAN: 9780275953539
ASIN: 027595353X
Publication Date: October 30, 1997
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Condition: **NEW** Book is in excellent condition, binding tight, pages crisp & clean. No remainder marks. Shipped with delivery confirmation inside US. Selling books since 1979*d
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
This is a splendid oral history of a time between World War I and World War II when Jewish athletes were the dominant ethnic group in professional boxing in the United States. The author draws on his own personal experience in New York City's fight arenas, and incorporates interviews with more than thirty former boxers, trainers, managers, promoters, and boxing judges to report on this overlooked aspect of sports history. Bodner explores the stories of the Jewish boxers both inside and outside the ring, and also examines their lives as they left the ring to pursue their careers which ranged from fire chiefs to boxing judges to hospital presidents. Boxing was a means many second generation urban immigrants--including Jews--used to get ahead in the early 20th century. The Jewish boxers interviewed reported that they took up fighting to earn money, not to defend their "race" or negate stereotypes that Jews were weak. These boxers were proud of their heritage and displayed Stars of David on their robes and trunks until religious symbols were banned in the 1940s. During the 1920s nearly one-third of all professional boxers were Jewish, and by 1928, they were the dominant ethnic group in the sport earning 30 World Championship titles between 1910-1940. Bodner's interest in the subject was kindled by his father who was an amateur boxer and professional manager during this period.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
 Anecdotal ramblings of an enthusiastic insider October 17, 2006
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
No one can question Bodner's sincerity or zeal. Through his father's friends he has gained entry to some great insider opinions and legends.
Bodner's story has some very engaging moments. But his access is largely confined to a small sub-set of the larger Jewish boxing world. As a result there are shocking omissions. For example, Abe Simon knocked Joe Louis down in the first round of their 1941 fight. Simon, despite a broken hand, went 12 rounds, lasting as long as Louis' last three opponents combined. The judges scored it 7 rounds to 5, before Louis took the giant out. Simon fought him a second time for the title as well. A Jewish museum dedicated a large part of last summer's boxing display to him. Yet Simon gets only one short mention in Bodner!
Bodner's most underdeveloped or slanted opinions are presented as Gospel. Long quotes from interviewed old-timers blur with Bodner's writing, as the editor made no effort to set these apart with italics, indents or different font. You have to carefully follow the quotation marks and hope the editor proof-read the text!
The index too is unreliable at points. (The sole Simon reference is left out, for example). And the pitance of photos are grainy photocopies!
I'd rate this two stars were it not for my great interest in the subject, and the anecdotal gems.
 The only good fighter is a hungry fighter June 27, 2005
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
This book is the story of a particular time in American and boxing history. During the twenties and thirties poor Jewish boys who had no other way up the economic ladder went into the ring. Bodner says that during that time over thirty- percent of the professional fighters were Jews. And so were many of the trainers and managers. And so it was not anti- Semitism or ' showing that we are just as tough as the Goyim' that put these people in the ring.
A good share of the fighters got out in time, before they were ' punch - drunk' and went on to make respectable lives for themselves. They married had families of their own, and did not send their children into the ring. In this they were much like Jewish mobsters, a one- generation phenomenom.
An exception to this rule was a Jewish fighter who lived down by the Hudson River in old shack in Troy, New York, the late Joe Bedell. He had once been a leading contender, and my father used to visit him when he had no one else in the world. His story was a different one, of a man who had known two minutes of glory in the ring, and had for whatever reason just dropped out of life.
I in my childhood knew this world of the Jewish fighter quite well. One of the pictures my father had in the Junk shop, and which my brother, Jake Freedman, who was also a Jewish fighter at one time, loved was of a bloody- faced Abe Attell fighting for the featherweight title, I believe against Joe Gans.
As opposed to what Bodner says in this fine book there was I think a large element for many Jewish youngsters of proving how tough they were, and disproving the old taunt that Jews ' can't fight'
In regard to reenforcement of this theme a previous fine book which chronicles the story of Jewish sports figures including Jewish boxers is Harold Ribalow's 'The Jew in American Sports'.
This outstanding book gives a nostalgic picture of another world and another time.
Its main theme is summarized in a saying of the late great Reuben Kelly Freedman who was a bit of an amateur Jewish fighter himself
," The only good fighter is a hungry fighter'
It should be titled: "When Boxing was a White Sport!" April 23, 2005
A good read! But it lacks info about how Blacks were not fully allowed to be part of the sport and how it was more fixed than real during this time period. Overall still a fun book to read.
Nostalgia Ain't What It used To Be February 22, 2005
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
It's nice to have a book based on authentic research and to have the exact things people said reproduced exactly on the page. When someone says their Mother paid a dime to the iceman to carry up a cube of ice and put it in the icebox, you know that guy was there. When he talks about having to change the drip pan in the mornings else the floor gets wet, there is no doubt about the truth when that same guy talks about fights getting bought (bought=old speak for fixed) or someone taking a dive. That guy was there. Much of the material covers the old New York that I knew and loved as a kid, particularly the Golden Gloves sponsored by the New York Daily News and the great gyms and trainers. But of course I knew the scene from the "other side", that is, the Irish point of view. Jewish kids wandered into the gyms and got into the fight game for the fun and money. The the Irish kids like myself were sent to the gyms for fisticuff lessons. "Stay out of trouble, Mickey and be a gentleman, but if some bully picks on you, just knock his block off." Yep, insulting the Irish was a sure way of getting hurt. With the Jews, it was different. They didn't care about the insults. They just wanted to get the watch or the prize money and get out of the game before they got punch drunk. The chapter on the Main Event is slow and tedious, somewhat repetitious, and needs to be shortened or something. And its hard to believe that 75% of the prostitutes in New York City were Jewish, that 35% of the criminals were Jewish, or that 60% of the lawyers were Jewish. The Jews had their share of prostitutes and criminals and shysters, but not that many. Otherwise, this is a wonderful book for nostalgia, especially the chapters that deal with the Jewish fighters relationship to his Mom and Pop. A trememdous oral history of a now by-gone era - Bravo!
Labor of Love December 9, 2002
10 out of 11 found this review helpful
Allen Bodner has tracked down and interviewed just about all of the surviving boxers from the Golden Age of Jewish participation in professional boxing, the 20's, 30's, and 40's. Jews then were near the bottom of the socio-economic ladder, entree to many of the professions denied them by "Jewish quotas" and other forms of officially sanctioned forms of discrimination. The tough, talented men sought out by Mr. Bodner grabbed their share of the American Dream with their fists. As times changed many later went on to successful careers outside the ring but if there is one common denominator to these men-other than their religion-it is that all still defined themselves by the warrior's heart that impelled them into the ring in the first place. Mr. Bodner has proven to be a skillful interviewer and chronicler. He hasn't limited himself to these oral histories, important though they are, but has gone through old newspaper accounts of fights held decades ago and also consulted numerous other source materials (the book contains an excellent bibliography) to profile other, deceased, Jewish fighters. "When Boxing Was A Jewish Sport" is so good that my only complaint is that two personal favorites didn't make Mr. Bodner's cut for inclusion-Benny Bass and Harry Blitman, both Philadelphians. Benny "Little Fish" Bass was dubbed by no less an authority than Jack Dempsey as one of the contenders for the mythical title of best pound for pound fighter of his era; he lost his share of the lightweight title to the legendary Tony Canzoneri. Harry Blitman only lost four times in his career, once to Bass. He beat Canzoneri in a non-title bout.
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