Martin Abramowitz

Website : www.jewishmajorleaguers.org
Residence : Boston, MA

Biographical information

Martin Abramowitz has been called “America's custodian of Jewish baseball memory.” He is the founding President of Jewish Major Leaguers, Inc., a Boston-based not-for-profit organization that documents “American Jews in America's Game.” His first project, in affiliation with Fleer Trading Cards, and the American Jewish Historical Society, was a baseball card set commemorating the 142 Jewish Major Leaguers from 1871 to 2003's All-Star Game. These cards were featured in the general and Jewish press around the country.

The follow-up to the baseball cards was a program “A Celebration of Jews in Baseball” at the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. The event included former players, biographers, journalists and fans for two days of memory, scholarship, argumentation, laughter, and the first kosher meals and minyans in Hall of Fame history! The program brought national media attention and a wave of successful speaking engagements at JCCs, synagogues, and Sports Lodges in Boston and around the country.

December 2005 saw the release of the “2006 Update Edition” of the baseball cards. This 55-card set is both a supplement to the 2003 edition and a stand-alone collectible and work of scholarship. In addition to the 13 Jewish Major Leaguers of 2005, the set includes "career leaders", 6 newly discovered Jewish “old-timers,” four Jewish women players, baseball in Israel, and a host of Jewish baseball history trivia. (For example, how could you not want to know which team holds the record for most Jews on the roster in a single year, and who those players were?).

Martin is currently working on “Playing America's Game,” a volume of oral histories of former players. In “real life,” Martin has been Vice-President for Planning at Combined Jewish Philanthropies since 1982. He came to Boston after holding Jewish communal professional leadership positions in Jerusalem and Montreal. He holds a Doctorate in Social Welfare from Brandeis University. He is a father of four, a grandfather of six, and an occasional student and teacher of Biblical and Rabbinic texts. A New York native, he insists there is no truth to the Baltimore Sun's allegation that he is “...a Yankee fan living undercover in Red Sox Nation.”

Discussion topics

• Jews and Baseball

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