Kiddush Hashem at Northwestern

Barbara

Mon, Jan 06 2014, 12:59 pm

Northwestern University freshman Aaron Liberman on Sunday was the first player known to wear a yarmulke in a Big Ten basketball game, Big Ten Network reported.

According to an article in the Chicago Sun Times last month, Liberman, a 6-foot-10, 215-pound forward from Valley Torah High, in Los Angeles, is only the second Division I player to ever wear a yarmulke on the court. The only other player to do so was Tamir “Jewish Jordan” Goodman, who played for Towson in 2000 and 2001.

Liberman led Valley Torah to a 25-5 record and a CIF Southern Section championship as a senior, the first time a Jewish school had claimed a section title in basketball in California. Liberman then spent a year in Israel before coming to Northwestern, the Chicago Sun Times reported.

Despite the extra help from above, Northwestern on Sunday lost 74-51 at Michigan.

http://www.algemeiner.com/2014.....game/

Fox

Tue, Jan 07 2014, 12:09 pm

Mr. Liberman boards with a family a few blocks away from me, and my DS is friendly with him. The entire story is even more interesting than the press coverage suggests.

Part of the reason Liberman wound up at NU is, of course, because of its proximity to WRP, but there was another individual who made it an appealing choice: NU's Jewish president, Morton Schapiro. Mr. Schapiro, though he doesn't identify as Orthodox, is observant of kashrus and Shabbos to some degree. He took the initiative in educating the athletic poobahs about what accommodations an Orthodox Jewish athlete would need, and he encouraged them to see potential issues as easily surmountable.

Interestingly, Liberman is very, very ambivalent about college and the college sports environment. He has stated a number of times in private settings that he feels college campuses in general are not the right environment for religious Jews and represent a significant danger. I can tell you, these views have stopped conversation cold at a few Shabbos tables in the neighborhood where the hosts assumed he would be a booster of the college experience!

Ultimately, I think the story says a lot about labels: President Schapiro, a self-identified Reform Jew who takes Shabbos and kashrus seriously, promotes the interests of a basketball recruit with much stricter religious standards. Liberman, despite his MO bono fides, often sounds more Yeshivish than many of the guys wearing black hats. None of our usual assumptions about people apply.

This fits into the somewhat odd relationship NU alums and students have with their sports teams: we're mildly pleased when they win; we don't notice when they lose; and we're insufferable when they commit acts of widely publicized mentchlikeit.

The high point came a number of years ago when NU produced a winning football team after literally 50+ losing seasons, including the longest losing streak in college football. Having been on the losing side for so many years, the team refused to run up the score against lesser opponents, and on one occasion, the quarterback deliberately wasted time on the field to run down the clock without scoring additional points. The sports world was surprised, but the alumni went nuts and donations rose significantly after that event.

NU's development office, which probably tracks the size underwear worn by alumni/ae, never misses a trick. My zip code probably gave me away. Now, instead of endless mailings updating me on the accomplishments of former classmates in the entertainment world, my mailbox is stuffed with offers for basketball tickets and updates on when Liberman is expected to play, etc.

These efforts are wasted on me, but they are much appreciated by some of my DDs' friends, especially the tall ones, who have developed an amazingly keen interest in college basketball in the last two years. Wink