Jewish Sports Hall of Fame Welcomes Inductees
Twenty luminaries were inducted this year.
On Sunday, Oct. 25, the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame (IJSHOF) opened its doors to 20 new sports luminaries. The class of 2026 is indeed an eclectic one that covers generations of Jewish athletic history — Dezso Foldes, a Hungarian saber fencer who took home gold at the 1908 and 1912 Summer Olympic Games, is among the honorees — and several continents.
A wide spectrum of sports are represented, including those in the Paralympic Games, while perhaps the most famous inductees (broadcasting legends Al Michaels and Marv Albert and former Division I college basketball coach Bruce Pearl) never once played professional sports.
In this year’s class, basketball was the most prominent sport with one-time NBA players Danny Schayes (son of the late NBA Hall of Famer Dolph Schayes) and Omri Casspi getting the nod alongside Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer and two-time Olympian Nancy Lieberman. Rounding out the basketball contingent was Red Sarachek, the trailblazing former basketball coach and athletic director at Yeshiva University who is widely credited for championing motion offenses, trapping defenses, and out-of-the-box in-bound plays.
“Throughout my NBA career, I was always one of only a few Jewish players in the entire league and at times, the only one,” Schayes said in his pre-recorded acceptance speech leading up to Sunday’s virtual ceremony. “That just proves the old adage that Jewish men have a much better chance of owning an NBA team than playing on one.”
Lieberman acknowledged in her remarks, “A lot of us in life get a chance to have incredible honors, but this is very personal as a Jewish athlete. You never know where sports is going to take you.”
Other household names included former NFL greats Julian Edelman and Andre Tippett, both of whom coincidentally starred for the New England Patriots as a wideout and linebacker, respectively, and the recently retired Diego Schwartzman, who in 2020 reached the apex of his career by securing an Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) world ranking of No. 8.
Both current and former Olympians graced this year’s roster of inductees as Israeli fencer Lydia Hatuel-Czuckermann and Austrian Olympic champion weightlifter Robert Fein, who captured a gold medal in the lightweight class at the 1936 Summer Olympics, were both inducted. Meanwhile, the Australian slalom canoeist Noemie Fox, two years removed from earning a gold medal at the 2024 Summer Olympics in the kayak cross event and looking forward to the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles, was the sole active Olympian to be enshrined.
Fox, who openly embraces being a “role model and ambassador” for young female Jewish athletes, remarked, “It is something that I’m so proud to represent, something I’m so proud to carry with me, especially as I prepare for my big wedding that’s happening. Reflecting on my values, my community, and how I want to show up in the world is something that I’ve really been reflecting on.”
Along with the aforementioned Olympians, Zipora Rubin-Rosenbaum, who competed for Israel at seven Summer Paralympic Games while earning 31 medals, and Doron Shaziri, the renowned Israeli Paralympic shooter, were also welcomed in.
Other members of the 2026 class include professional golfer Morgan Pressel; Yuri Foreman, the erstwhile super welterweight world champion of the World Boxing Association; and Carolina Duer, at one time the International Boxing Federation (IBF) bantamweight champion, World Boxing Organization (WBO) bantamweight champion, and WBO super flyweight champion; and Jay Berger, who obtained an Association of Tennis Professionals singles ranking of World No. 7 in 1990.
In the broadcast booth, iconic play-by-play announcers Michaels and Albert, both of whom, coincidentally were born into Jewish Brooklyn households in the mid-1940s, also received this milestone achievement.
For Albert, who carved out his legacy with NBA on NBC broadcasts during the Michael Jordan years, the enshrinement took him back to his early years of obsessing over New York sports and idolizing Marty Glickman, the famed Jewish Olympian-turned sportscaster who became the longtime voice of the New York Knicks and New York Giants.
“When I was first informed of this prestigious honor, I thought back to my days as a 9- and 10-year-old, when my dad, who owned a grocery store in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, would take me to Brooklyn Dodger games at Ebbets Field or Knicks and Rangers [games] at Madison Square Garden,” recalled Albert. “And I would always look around to search where the sportscasters were sitting. I knew early on, that’s what I wanted to do — be a sports announcer.
“I can recall my teacher at Hebrew School saying to me one day, ‘Why would you want to be a sportscaster? Who does that?’ Well years later, at halftime at a game at Madison Square Garden, she stopped by to say hello and introduce me to her grandson and told him, ‘See, if you set a goal and work hard, you can accomplish whatever you want to do.’”
In conjunction with the induction ceremony, the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame posthumously presented its 2026 Global Tikkun Olam Award to Michael Sweetney, the veteran NBA forward and former Yeshiva University assistant coach who tragically passed away last month.
Though it was established in 1981, the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame has really taken off in recent years under the wing of Lenny Silberman, who was honored with the IJSHOF’s Chairman’s Award of Excellence in 2017 and has since been named the venerable institution’s first-ever CEO.
“Four years ago, I joined the board with a specific vision. I saw an organization that had been ‘sleepy’ for nearly 40 years — it lacked a digital presence, a strategic plan, and a modern development or election structure,” Silberman told the AJT earlier this week. “Having founded and served as CEO of Lost Tribe (where we built a global community reaching 500,000 followers by meeting Gen Z where they are), I knew we could re-engineer the Hall of Fame for a new era.
“Whether through sports or summer camping, my goal has always been to build Jewish pride and joy. Today, with the rise of antisemitism and anti-Zionism, this work is more critical than ever. We need to engage the next generation by meeting them where they are at, giving them what they want, making Jewish identity cool, fun, competitive, and social.”