Stoudemire Headlines Jewish Hall of Fame Inductees

Last month, the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, founded in 1981 and headquartered in Netanya, Israel, unveiled its 2025 induction class consisting of both athletes and media personalities. With its 14-member contingent, the 2025 class is steeped in both modern and early Jewish athletic history, representing a broad spectrum of sports including everything from Greco Roman wrestling and judo to NBA basketball and freestyle swimming as well as Olympians from the United States, Israel, Mexico, Denmark, Germany and France.

The newest members of the IJSHOF include:

Abraham Kurland, who captured a silver medal in lightweight Greco Roman wrestling at the 1932 Olympics before refusing to participate in the 1936 Summer Games taking place in Nazi Germany. In addition to his Olympic glory, Kurland, a 12-time national champion in Denmark, earned a gold medal at the Maccabiah Games in 1932 and at the European Championships in 1934.

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Amar’e Stoudemire, a six-time NBA All-Star forward and 2003 NBA Rookie of the Year. The longtime Phoenix Sun, who was inducted into the franchise’s Ring of Honor last year, was on the U.S. 2004 Olympic squad that captured a bronze. Much later in his pro career, Stoudemire was on Hapoel Jerusalem’s championship team in 2017 and Maccabi Tel Aviv’s 2020 championship team.

Gary Jacobs, who’s widely considered to be the most talented Jewish boxer of the past half-century. Born and raised in Great Britain, Jacobs was a dominant welterweight boxer during the 1980s and 90s, capturing both the European, Commonwealth and British championships. Jacobs, who in 1995 was ranked the world’s No.1 welterweight contender by the World Boxing Council, was later enshrined in the Scottish Boxing Hall of Fame in 2011.

Hanoch Budin, a former Israeli para swimmer who brilliantly represented Israel at six Paralympics, 1984 through 2004, by earning eight medals while also setting two world records. At the 1988 Summer Paralympics, Budin took home a handful of medals, including golds for 100-meter backstroke and 200-meter medley. He went on to capture two more Paralympic medals in 1992.

Leah Goldstein, a native of Vancouver who was raised in Israel, was crowned the women’s world kickboxing champion in 1989. Decades later, in 2021, Goldstein became the first-ever woman to win the exceptionally rigorous 3,000-mile cycling event known as the Race Across America.

Oren Smadja, an Israeli native, who received an Olympic bronze medal as a judoka participant in 1992 and another one as a judoka coach in 2016. In between those career-defining milestones, Smadja snagged a silver medal at the 1995 World Championships while being tabbed as Israel’s Sportsman of the Year in ’95.

Known by the moniker of “Mr. Basketball in Israel,” Ralph Klein is an erstwhile Maccabi Tel Aviv legend, piloting the team to eight Super League national championships and six State Cups in the 1950s and 60s. Before embarking on a highly successful coaching career in 1969, Klein represented Israel as a player on their national hoops team in the 1952 Summer Olympics and the 1954 World Cup.

Robert “Bobby” Berland, who during the 1984 Olympics became the first American judoka to advance to the finals, winning a silver medal in the 86kg middleweight division. A two-time Olympian who later participated in the 1988 Games, Berland was also awarded bronze at the 1983 World Championships and received a silver medal at the 1983 Pan American Games. In recognition of his sterling career – and work on the coaching staff for the 2004 U.S. Olympic Judo Team in Athens – Berland would go on to secure his spot in the USA Judo Hall of Fame.

Yves Dreyfus, a native of France who survived the Nazi occupation as a child before going on to capture a pair of Olympic fencing medals, a bronze during the 1956 and 1964 Games. Dreyfus, the recipient of France’s National Order of Merit in 1967, further cemented his remarkable legacy by earning four gold medals at the Maccabiah Games from 1961 to 1977.

Argentine broadcaster Andres Cantor, who has captured six Emmy Awards broadcasting a multitude of World Cups and Olympic Games for Telemundo and Universo. The 2020 recipient of the National Soccer Hall of Fame’s Colin Jose Media Award for substantial contributions to communications supporting U.S. soccer, Cantor will forever be associated with his trademark yell of “Goooooooooooal” after a goal is scored in soccer matches.

Hellen Plaschinski Farca de Finkler is a Mexican freestyle swimmer whose sparking resume includes three gold medals at the 1977 and 1981 Maccabiah Games, a sixth-place finish in the freestyle relay at the 1980 Olympic Games, and a pair of bronze medals at the 1979 Pan American Games. More recently, in 2007, Hellen participated in a round-trip English Channel crossing from England to France that established a world record of 18 hours 59 minutes. Accordingly, the Mexican relay team earned a reference in the following year’s edition of the Guinness World Records.

Sarah Poewe is a former German-South African swimmer, specializing in breaststroke, who participated in four consecutive Olympic Games (2000, 2004, 2008, and 2012), initially representing South Africa before later competing for Germany. One of the marquee moments of her storied career occurred at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, where she bagged a bronze medal as part of Germany’s 4×100m medley relay team. In addition to her Olympic success, Poewe earned multiple podium finishes at the World and European Championships,

Israeli native Shahar Pe’er, who captured five singles and three doubles titles on the World Tennis Association Tour. In 2011, Pe’er was ranked as the No.11 female tennis player in the world. In addition to her series of triumphs on the WTA circuit, Pe’er competed for Israel during two Olympic Games and in 2001, at age 14, became the youngest player to win the Israel women’s tennis championship.

Stan Fischler (aka “The Hockey Maven”) is one of hockey’s most iconic media personalities, having covered the sport as a broadcaster, author, historian, and reporter for over 70 years. While his written accounts have graced the pages of the New York Times, Toronto Star, The Sporting News and Sports Illustrated among other publications, Fischler’s broadcasting work on the MSG Network has garnered seven Emmy Awards. A member of the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame, Fischler was honored by the New York Islanders in 2022 when the club named the press level at UBS Arena after him.