The 2008 movie, part of the Y’s Reel Jewish Sports Film Series, was directed by Emmy-nominated filmmaker Judd Ehrlich.

Credited as the mastermind behind the New York City Marathon, this film chronicles how Lebow fled his orthodox home in war-torn Europe and found his calling when he brought together a group of runners for the first NYC Marathon in Central Park which led to his revolutionary creation of the New York City Marathon.

The film includes archival footage and interviews with elite runners Grete Waitz, Bill Rodgers, and Alberto Salazar, among others.

Ehrlich and Rodgers will be at the screening for a question and answer session, which also includes Allan Steinfeld, former president and CEO of the NY Road Runners Club and director of the NYC Marathon, and Bernie Cooper, former chair of the NYRRC.

Admission is $7.50, $5 for Suffolk Y JCC members. For more information, or to register, call 631-462-9800, ext. 125.

In their match, left-handed Muehleisen got to use a racquet but the ball was a handball, which is smaller, harder, and easier to spin than a racquetball. Remember, that racquets then were considerably smaller and less powerful than they are today, but it still seems amazing that Haber won the match. Muehleisen took a rematch seven months later.

Haber died in 2002 at the age of 65. He was inducted into the U.S. Handball Association Hall of Fame in 1983.

The film will be shown as  part of a session that begins at 9 a.m. on Sunday, Oct 4.

From the press release:

When Boston bagel maker Larry Baras wanted to create a professional baseball league in Israel, his idea was met with incredulity, dismissal, and even hostility. He attempted it anyway. Among the ballplayers swept up in his unlikely quest: a 41-year-old father of three with a Peter Pan complex; a 27-year-old Brooklyn artist/DJ still finding himself after the disappointment of not being drafted out of college; a 34-year-old father-to-be whose own father, now deceased, fought for Israel’s independence in 1948; and a 22-year-old African-American who was told by a preacher at a young age he would one day “play in front of God’s people.” Also along for the ride are former Jewish major leaguers Art Shamsky, Ken Holtzman, and Ron Blomberg — as team managers in the Israel Baseball League.

Tickets for the Film Festival are free of charge but limited and must be reserved. Members of the museum may reserve their tickets immediately, and any remaining seats will made available to the general public beginning Monday, Sept. 28, by calling the Membership department at 607-547-0397 or visiting the Membership desk in the Museum. The Awards Ceremony will be held on Sunday, Oct. 4, at 3 p.m. in the Grandstand Theater and is open to the public. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis.

The film, Berlin 36, premiers in September in Germany and I predict, before too long, it will be making the international film festival circuits.

According to the article, Lambert, then known as Gretel Bergman,

moved to England when she was 19, and found success in her renewed sporting career. But the Germans unexpectedly ordered her to return in 1936. The United States had threatened to boycott the Olympic Games because of the persecution of Jews in Germany. The Nazi propaganda machine needed to present a token Jew at the Games.

Her father cautioned her that if she refused to come back, their family would be in trouble….

Selected in the core team of high jumpers and spurred on by her anger, Bergmann equaled the German women’s national record of 1.60 meters at trials in Stuttgart. It was June 30, 1936 – one month before the opening ceremony of the Games.

Then came the shock: No sooner had the U.S. Olympic team set sail from New York than Bergmann received a letter saying she hadn’t performed well enough in the trials to participate in the Games and was offered “standing room only” tickets.

Lambert was the subject of Hitler’s Pawn, an HBO documentary released in 2004.

Karoline Herfurth stars as German-Jewish high Jumper Maraget Lambet in Berlin 36.

In celebration of Wimbledon, the Jewish Museum of Florida will host two screenings of A Perfect Match on June 28 at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. The documentary tells the story of Althea Gibson, an African-American from Harlem, and Angela Buxton, a Jewish girl from London, who overcame racial and religious intolerance to win the 1956 Wimbledon doubles title.

Tickets for A Perfect Match are $25 ($18 for Jewish Museum members) and include a Q&A session with the filmmakers, plus a tour of the museum’s Jews in Sports exhibit.

The Jewish Museum of Florida is located at 301 Washington Ave. in Miami Beach. For reservations, call 305-672-5044, ext. 3164.

I’ve always been fascinated by the game and would love to get involved, but at my age, I doubt there are many opportunities for beginners. There are teams that play in Watsessing Park in Bloomfield, NJ, but if anyone knows of other local spots that welcome neophytes, I’d appreciate hearing about it.

And while we’re on the topic, I might as well do my Roger Ebert impersonation and let you know about Wondrous Oblivion, a 2003 movie about a y0ung Jewish boy in a middle class section of England, circa early 1960, who’s mad for the sport but has little talent. That is, until some new neighbors movie in and build a “batting cage” in the back yard. The lad becomes friends with their daughter and before you know it, he’s a cracking player under the tutelage of the father, who played professionally in his native Jamaica.

Oh, did I forget to mention: the new neighbors are black. This, of course, presents all sorts of problems with the snooty neighbors, who barely tolerate the Jewish family. In such a delicate situation, which way will they go? Will the snub the sweet Jamaicans next door (there’s a brief and unnecessary subplot of a “forbidden romance” between the Jewish mother and the Jamaican dad) or, having been the victims of hatred themselves and forced to flee their Eastern European home, will they stand up and do the right thing?

The film is available through the Gandhi website for $9.95. Such a deal.

I could kick myself. I have a preview of his memoirs, The Wicked Wit of the West, sitting in front of me. The publisher sent it months ago and I was planning on doing an interview with Mr. Brecher and his “as told to” guy, Hank Rosenfeld, but I kept putting it off, timing it to be closer to the book’s release date of next Jan. 17, which would have been the Irving’s 95th birthday.

I had a similar experience last year with Eliot Asinof, author of Eight Men Out, the seminal book on the 1919 Black Sox scandal. An acquaintance gave me his phone number just a few days before his demise last June.

Fortunately I did get to speak with Mickey Rutner, who had a cup of coffee with the Philadelphia Athletics in 1947, and who, at the time we spoke, was the oldest living Jewish ex-major leaguer. I mailed him a card from the set of Jewish Major leaguers that featured him and Lou Limmer (the second oldest; he had already signed it). It came back a few days later with a note from his widow that he had died a couple of days before. Asinof had played in the minors with Rutner and used him as the inspiration for his novel Man on Spikes.

But I digress…

In his book, Brecher, who lived in the Los Angeles area, wrote about some of his experiences as a baseball fan.

In 1948, I went with Groucho and Julius Epstein to a baseball game, semi-pro, at Gilmore Stadium, which is now the Grove shopping mall on Third and Fairax. We’re sitting there watching the game when some fellow comes up and he says: “Did you hear on the radio? The state of Palestine has just announced they have a new name: ‘Israel.’”

Julie says: “In another six months, they’ll change it to Irving.”

By the way, Epstein was the great uncle of Theo Epstein, the general manager for the Boston Red Sox.

Brecher also talks about his friend lyricist Harry Ruby’s mania for the game:

[His] dream was to be a big league ballplayer. Once in the 1930s, he even had a tryout with the Washington Senators. He trotted out to centerfield and one of the coaches hit a fungo out to him. Harry moved eagerly forward, stuck out his glove, and the ball hit him in the head and knocked him down. he got up and quite baseball.

That scenario was “documented” in the film Three Little Words, with Red Skelton playing the role of Harry Ruby.

Brecher also briefly touches on the joys of watching the New York Giants beat the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1951 playoff game, thanks to Bobby Thomson’s “shot heard ’round the world.”

If there’s a lesson to be learned here, boys and girls, it’s “don’t wait.” If you want to call some old friend to catch up, don’t wait. If you get an opportunity to do something fun and different, don’t wait.

Created under the auspices of Jewish Pride Sports Heroes (JPSH), the DVD includes profiles of more than 30 basketball stars, including Dolph Schayes, Rudy La Russo, and Lennie Rosenbluth. It’s offered under the umbrella of Jewishhoopstars.com.

The website, while clunky in presentation (there are no links in the “directory of players” page, for example, and a Quick-Time plug-in is needed to view the trailer), invites the visitor’s participation in paying respects to other Jewish athletes, not just basketball players.

The DVD is available through the website for $36.

Herein we’ll take a look at what’s going on in the Jewish sports world: the people, the events, the history, the good times and not-so-good.

If you have any suggestions, recommendations, etc., don’t be a stranger. Drop me a line at rkaplan(at)njjewishnews(dot)com. Comments are always welcome, within the bounds of good taste and etiquette, of course.

Just a caveat: this is sports we’re talking about; don’t take it too seriously.