About Jewish Major Leaguers

Jewish Major Leaguers, Inc. is a Boston-based not-for-profit organization with a mission to "...document American Jews in America's Game."

Our work builds on the pioneering research of the Jewish Sports Review, Total Baseball, the American Jewish Historical Society, and the National Baseball Hall of Fame. These organizations have, in turn, acknowledged their own debts to a dedicated band of individual researchers including Bernard Postal, Jesse and Roy Silver, David Spaner, Robert Greenberg, Neil Keller, and Peter and Joachim Horvitz. We're honored to follow modestly in their footsteps.

Our first project was "American Jews in America's Game", a commemorative set of baseball cards, printed in 2003 by Fleer Trading Cards for The American Jewish Historical Society. This set documented the 142 American Jews who had played major-league baseball from the 1870s to the 2003 All-Star break. Thirty-three of these players had never appeared on a commercially distributed baseball card, and another nine appeared on cards only as minor-leaguers.

Our second project was our Hall of Fame Weekend in August of 2004. The event brought together players, scholars, and fans, and received national press attention.

The Hall of Fame event and subsequent speaking dates told us that fans and scholars and gift-givers wanted the research to continue, so in December of 2005, we produced, once again in partnership with The American Jewish Historical Society, the 2006 Update Edition. This 54-card set was printed by the Upper Deck Company and licensed by Major League Baseball, the Major League Baseball Players Association, and the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

We also produced a 2007 Update edition, with a full twelve-card summary of 2006 season player stats, two 2006 rookies, off-season trades and free-agent signings, updated all-time Jewish career leader records, and a few new history and "odd-ball" cards

Responding to what we have heard from folks who have enjoyed the baseball cards, but whose "Jews in Sports" interests extend beyond Baseball, we are currently working with the National Basketball Association and the American Jewish Historical Society to produce a "Jews in Basketball" card set, hopefully by early 2009. Not too far behind will be a "Jews in Football" set.

Back to Baseball: We have conducted or located more than 25 oral history interviews of former Jewish Major Leaguers, and have made all transcripts available to the Hall of Fame and the Society for American Baseball Research. We know "there's a book in here", and the publishing world has expressed interest, but we have not had the resources to turn this great collection of raw material into a human-sized volume.

We have been funding our work through a combination of revenue from card sales, speaking engagements, and fund-raising. As a 501c3 not-for-profit organization, we welcome tax-deductible and tax-exempt support from individuals and organizations.

Martin Abramowitz, our President, CEO and file-clerk is available on a selective basis for "road-trip" presentations to groups with an interest in Jews in Baseball.Bnai Brith has called Martin "America's custodian of Jewish baseball memory." In "real life", Martin previously held Jewish communal professional leadership positions in Jerusalem, Montreal and Boston. He holds a Doctorate in Social Welfare from Brandeis Univeristy. Martin is father of four and grandfather to seven.

A New York native, he insist there is no truth to the Baltimore Sun's allegation that he is "...a Yankee fan living undercover in Red Sox Nation."