January 09, 2015
Baseball player Sandy Koufax famously refused to pitch the first day of the 1965 World Series because it fell on Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement.
But lately, his role in the game is helping to preserve Jewish tradition. The Los Angeles Dodger earned a spot in the baseball exhibit, "Chasing Dreams: Baseball and Becoming an American," curated by the National Museum of Jewish History." Detroit Tigers slugger Hank Greenberg, known as "The Hebrew Hammer," is also featured.
As the Philadelphia Business Journal reports, the attraction drew unprecedented numbers of people to the museum and raised quite a bit of money. Attendance increased to 27 percent over the previous year. National Endowment for the Humanities gave the museum a $300,000 grant.
"The museum also raised a combined $1.6 million through two gala events that highlighted the exhibit — one in Philadelphia and another in New York."
The mobile exhibit, which includes artifacts, film and interactive features, is now on display at Larchmont Temple in Larchmont, N.Y. According to the Philadelphia Tribune:
“Chasing Dreams” features more than 130 original objects, including game-worn uniforms,
game-used objects, correspondence, newspaper accounts, board games, awards, baseball cards,
signed baseballs, Jewish ritual objects, ballpark giveaways, stadium seats, little-league
memorabilia and more."
The exhibition was partly crowdsourced on Tumblr, where the Museum asks visitors to share images and stories.
For the love of the game, visitors can become a part of the stitch work of Jewish history.
