Jews "vs" Jew in Flushing

by: Jeremy Burton

Tue Sep 28, 2010 at 12:04:05 PM EDT

It may be no coincidence that on the day that the Milwaukee Brewers, with their so-called "Hebrew Hammer" Ryan Braun, arrived for their once a season appearance against the NY Mets, the Mets rolled out a media event this monday that - to the best of my knowledge - is the 1st public event promoting NY's rookie 1st baseman as "half Jewish," as he described himself in today's NY Times.

Davis (full name Isaac Benjamin Davis), the son of former major league pitcher Ron Davis also has a Jewish mom.  To hear him tell it, his paternal grandfather's experience as a GI liberator of a concentration camp in WWII made him more open to the son bringing home a Jewish woman who herself had family experience in the Holocaust.

Davis said his grandfather was from a “particular time” and that “his family was a certain way” but that his “experience of opening those doors to the camp and the suffering he saw gave him an affinity for the Jewish people.”

He said of his parents, “I think it made things easier for their marriage.”

Yesterday Davis was embracing "both sides of his family history," decsribing himself as half jewish but not religious, and talking to a group of descendants of Holocaust survivors.

So, what does this have to do with Jewish social justice?

Well, it is always fun to take note of Jewish participation in our national pastime, especially when it sets up the potential of Jew v. Jew if Ryan Braun gets to 1st base (Braun sat out the 1st game, but they hopefully will both play in wednesday's double-header). 

But more broadly, the Mets as a franchise, have wrapped themselves in NY National League baseball's historic legacy at the forefront of the civil rights movement; with an Ebbets Field inspired stadium design and of course the jaw-dropping Jackie Robinson Rotunda (though personally I wouldn't mind them wrapping themselves in the legacy of finding and hiring capable on field players like Jackie Robinson as well).  What's less acknowledged is that this has happened under the ownership of Fred Wilpon, a leading Jewish philanthropist in NY, and his son Jeff, club COO and a member of the national Holocaust Museum board.

For the past 1/2 century in America, Jews have been a powerful force in support of civil rights, in no small part as a result of our own experience as a people with antisemitism and persecution. The Wilpons have, in two parts of their lives, carried this connection to Jewish values; preserving the memory of the Holocaust, and lifting up the best legacy of civil rights in baseball as they continue to support the Jackie Robinson Foundation and other causes to create opportunity for kids today.

So with the arrival of a rising Jewish (ok "half," but what exactly is a half -Jew?) star on the field in Flushing, we can hope that in the coming year we may see some more explicit lifting up of the shared legacy and path of Blacks and Jews.  I for one am hoping we can look forward to seeing Ike Davis talking about the connection between his family experience and the Robinson legacy as we continue to carry the work of Jewish support for civil rights and opportunity for all Americans in this century (and I can hope too that he'll continue his excellence on the field, because some day soon I really really hope to go to a post-season game in Flushing.