There is a new book out. By The Grace Of The Game by Dan [ben Ernie] Grunfeld.
Here is a description of the book:
When
Lily and Alex entered a packed gymnasium in Queens, New York in 1972,
they barely recognized their son. The boy who escaped to America with
them, who was bullied as he struggled to learn English and cope with
family tragedy, was now a young man who had discovered and secretly
honed his basketball talent on the outdoor courts of New York City. That
young man was Ernie Grunfeld, who would go on to win an Olympic gold
medal and reach previously unimaginable heights as an NBA player and
executive.
In By the Grace of the Game,
Dan Grunfeld, once a basketball standout himself at Stanford
University, shares the remarkable story of his family, a delicately
interwoven narrative that doesn't lack in heartbreak yet remains as
deeply nourishing as his grandmother's Hungarian cooking, so lovingly
described. The true improbability of the saga lies in the discovery of a
game that unknowingly held the power to heal wounds, build bridges, and
tie together a fractured Jewish family. If the magnitude of an American
dream is measured by the intensity of the nightmare that came before
and the heights of the triumph achieved after, then By the Grace of the Game recounts an American dream story of unprecedented scale.
From
the grips of the Nazis to the top of the Olympic podium, from the cheap
seats to center stage at Madison Square Garden, from yellow stars to
silver spoons, this complex tale traverses the spectrum of the human
experience to detail how perseverance, love, and legacy can survive
through generations, carried on the shoulders of a simple and beautiful
game.
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I didn't read the book but I remember Ernie well, having been a diehard Knicks fan growing up. I identified with him b/c like him I was also a Jewish kid who was going to play for the Knicks. It was just a matter of time. It hasn't happened "yet", but there is still hope!!
This book is about TRIUMPH. I saw an interview with Dan on an Orthodox podcast. He was celebrated as a HERO!!! WOWOWOWOW!!!! What an incredibly happy rags to riches story.
I totally get it. So much of his family was killed in the Holocaust. His grandparents came to America not knowing English but persevered and made it!! And then their son Ernie became a WORLD CLASS STAR. He was on the cover of Sports Illustrated!!! Big time Jewish name accompanied by big time Jewish nose family tradition. For a non--Jew, this story is truly one of triumph.
But here is where things get thorny. The Grunfeld family was Satmar Chasidim in Romania. Ernie went to Hebrew school, had a Bar Mitzvah and his mother still fasts on Yom Kippur. His parents came from true Torah observant families.
But as TRAGICALLY happened to so many who emigrated to the United States they assimilated. For a believing Jew, 20 MVP's and World Championships aren't worth ONE Krias Shma!!! One Kiddush!!! One Hanachas Tfillin.
So Ernie has spent decades pursuing a COWS HIDE. That is all it is. A cows hide with hot air inside. Men run around for hours in their underwear trying to put this cows hide in a net. That is fine. It keeps many people busy who would otherwise be up to trouble. It is an enjoyable form of exercise. Great! But a life pursuit?? The parnassa is super but it is just a game. A child's game. Nothing to take seriously. Nothing to be proud of.
If Ernie and Dan would have been stars and used their talent to spread Dvar Hashem and Jewish values [like for example
Doron Sheffer and
Tamir Goodman - two religious former basketball stars] - then AWESOME!!! But they are totally removed from anything close to that. During the course of the interview, the author Dan was dropping these woke terms like "owning my privilege". This is from a Satmar Chossid [at least biologically]!!!!!!!!!
I am disappointed that rabbis [who host the podcast] would not only give Dan a platform but celebrate him. This is not what we want to teach our children. We want our children to know that we are on earth in order to get close to Hashem, to serve Him with love and fear, to become Talmidei Chachomim, to perfect our middos and to be SEPARATE from the paganistic, hedonistic society in which we find ourselves. "הן עם לבדד ישכון ובגויים לא יתחשב". By celebrating people like Dan Grunfeld we are sending the wrong messages to our people.
Ernie Grunfeld's grandparents were slaughtered to death by the Nazis for one reason - b/c they were Jewish. With no malicious intent, Ernie is helping those who hate us by living a completely secular life. This is sad and much of what we are crying about on Tisha B'av.
The statistic is that there is about 70 percent intermarriage in the USA. About nine out of ten Jews don't go to shul [even those of the non-orthodox persuasion] even once a week. 41 percent of young Jews are completely unaffiliated. [From the latest Pew Survey which contains many more distressing statistics].
MILLIONS of Jews have no solid connection to Judaism. So Ernie and Dan are not bad people. They mean well. They live as they do b/c were brought up without the proper chinuch. However, I think that instead of taking pride in their accomplishments we should view it in light of the Torah which considers their lifestyle and ideals a tragic mistake.
I really think people live with this cognitive dissonance. On one hand they are observant of mitzvos and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on Jewish education for their children. On the other hand they send messages to their children that true success is not in being a Tzadik or Talmid Chochom but in secular success. Better a son who is a real estate mogul or who runs a hedge fund who davens three times a day and keeps kosher than a Baki Bi-Shas who is being financially supported.
I know that growing up I received from the Jewish society mixed messages and it seems that things have not only not gotten better but have gotten worse. I heard a talk from a RY of a Hesder Yeshiva who said that he spoke to the boys of his Yeshiva and told them what he thought was self evident - that even though we value secular studies, Jewish identity is paramount. He was shocked to the core when he received two hours of push back from the students. They "couldn't fathom" how he could say something like that. This is in a Yeshiva where they learn seriously on a high level.....
We should really take stock of what messages we are sending to our children and how much secular society has brainwashed even US.
