Barney Ross

I have blogged about this previously but it bears a repeat.

Here's the letter of Barney Ross' niece in The Forward:-

My Uncle Was a Fighter Inside the Ring and Out

Gerald Eskenazi recalls that at one time, “boxing had its Jewish heroes,” citing Benny Leonard, the world lightweight champion in the 1920s (“Boxing Writing That Pulls No Punches,” October 27). My uncle, Barney Ross, was often regarded as a hero by American Jews for his prowess in the boxing ring — where he was lightweight, welterweight and junior welterweight champion in the 1930s — but I like to think that he was as much a hero for what he did after retiring from boxing.

In response to the attack on Pearl Harbor, Barney, although well past draft age (he was 32), enlisted in the U.S. Army. In the famous battle of Guadalcanal, he was seriously wounded while rescuing injured comrades from a Japanese ambush. His heroism under fire earned him a Silver Star.

Thanks to research by the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, we know that upon Uncle Barney’s return to the United States in 1944, he became active in the Emergency Committee to Save the Jewish People of Europe, also known as the Bergson group. The Emergency Committee used full-page newspaper ads, public rallies and Capitol Hill lobbying to pressure the Roosevelt administration to rescue Jews from Hitler.

Uncle Barney was also active in another of the Bergson committees, the American League for a Free Palestine, which sought to rally American support for the creation of a Jewish state. He spoke at its rallies and chaired its George Washington Legion, which recruited American volunteers to aid the Irgun Zvai Leumi, the Jewish underground militia (headed by Menachem Begin) that was fighting the British in Mandatory Palestine. The legion was patterned on the famous Abraham Lincoln Brigade, which had recruited Americans to fight against Franco in the Spanish Civil War. One of the Bergson group’s newspaper ads featured a photo of Uncle Barney with this message from the boxing champ: “There is no such thing as a former fighter. We must all continue the fight.”

Barney Ross fought the good fight, inside and outside the ring. He fought for America in World War II, and he fought for the Jewish people in his efforts on behalf of Holocaust rescue and Jewish statehood. That is a powerful and inspiring example for today’s Jewish athletes to follow.

Audrey Cantor
Director
Holocaust Community Services
Skokie, Ill.