New York – The New York Yankees and their fans observe April 27 as Babe Ruth Day to remember the home run slugger’s exploits on the baseball diamond. Jewish New Yorkers, however, this year marked the day by remembering another side of Ruth – his little-known efforts to aid African-Americans and other minorities, including Jews in Europe during the Holocaust.
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In a program at Temple Israel in Manhattan, Ruth’s granddaughter, Linda Ruth Tosetti, joined with Dr. Rafael Medoff, director of The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, to describe their research on Ruth’s social activism. Rabbi William Gelfand, sporting a baseball cap with “Yankees” embroidered on it in Hebrew, emceed the event.
Tosetti shared with the standing-room-only audience a number of family stories illustrating her grandfather’s concern for the less fortunate. She also showed an excerpt from her forthcoming documentary film, “Universal Babe,” concerning Ruth’s efforts on behalf of minorities.
During the 1920s and 1930s, Ruth courted controversy in the off-season by barnstorming with players from the Negro Baseball League. At a time when racial segregation was rampant in the United States, Ruth defied convention and took part in exhibition games with African-American players.
“My grandfather made a powerful statement against racism,” Tosetti said. “Many people resented his actions – but they couldn’t lynch Babe Ruth. He was an American icon. And he used his status to demand equality for blacks.”
Ruth also actively assisted the Women’s Baseball League, which was later immortalized in the Tom Hanks film “A League of Their Own.”
Dr. Medoff spoke of Ruth’s key role in a full-page advertisement in the New York Times in December 1942, in which he and other German-Americans denounced the Nazis’ persecution of European Jewry.
“At a time when most Americans still doubted the truth about reports about the Holocaust, and few were interested in helping Jewish refugees, Ruth spoke out and tried to shatter the silence,” he said.
The ad, headlined “A Christmas Declaration by Men and Women of German Ancestry,” declared, in part: “[W]e Americans of German descent raise our voices in denunciation of the Hitler policy of cold-blooded extermination of the Jews of Europe and against the barbarities committed by the Nazis against all other innocent peoples under their sway,” the declaration began.
“These horrors … are, in particular, a challenge to those who, like ourselves, are descendants of the Germany that once stood in the foremost ranks of civilization.”
The ad went on to “utterly repudiate every thought and deed of Hitler and his Nazis,” and urged the people of Germany “to overthrow” the Nazi regime.
Medoff, who has written extensively about the involvement of athletes in political and social policy controversies, said Ruth’s willingness to participate in a protest against the persecution of European Jewry was “a welcome contrast with today’s athletes, whose off-field activities are too often sources of scandal and embarrassment.”
Widely regarded as the greatest baseball player in history, Ruth in his time held the records for most home runs in a season (60) and most home runs in a career (714) as well as other records – including the pitching record for the most shutouts in a season by a left-hander. The Sultan of Swat, as he was known, was one of the first players elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
The audience at Temple Israel also had a few standard questions for the baseball legend’s granddaughter. One attendee asked if there was any truth to the story that on one occasion Ruth gestured with his bat toward the center field fence, and then hit a home run in exactly in that place.
“Absolutely true,” said Tosetti.
What a great player. But more important, what a great man! Moral and courageous, Babe Ruth was larger than life. He inspires me even today, years after his death. Look at the impact one man can have…..may we continue to honor his memory!
(Reply to #2 ): Do you realize there were many Jewish leaders who didn’t take the situation in WWII Europe seriously until it was too late? I’m talking Rabbanim, #2 . Rabbanim and Gedolim.
And here comes Babe Ruth, who could have spent his whole life sipping Margaritas and basking in the adulation of his admiring fans, YET……………
……..he takes out ads and publicly condemns his ancestral country, calling on all Germans to overthrow Hitler ym”sh and his brutal Nazi regime, and denouncing the persecution óf Europe’s Jews! Do you know, #2 , that many JEWS kept silent! Many doubted the horrific reports emerging at that time from Europe. Ruth’s granddaughter specifically said that her grandfather “shattered the silence” about the barbaric torture and murder of Jews and other minorities.
And if you’re paying attention to other news items on Vosizneias, you’ll see the phenomenon of those who turn a blind eye to bullying, intimidation and harassment of Jews and other minorities every day, with nary a protest!!!
So the question, #2 , is not why I draw inspiration from, among others, a man like Babe Ruth. The question, rather, is WHY YOU DON’T!
i met babe ruth in 1925 when the yankees had spring training in hotsprings arkansas we stayed at the majestic hotel where the yankees also stayed.he talked to me!