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Letters They Wouldn't Publish
June 17, 2004
Letters to the Editor
The Nation
letters@thenation.com
Dear editor:
According to Kelly Candaele and Peter Dreier (June 28), it was not until the 1960s that "some prominent athletes used their celebrity status to speak out on key issues, particularly civil rights and Vietnam," citing Muhammad Ali's refusal to be drafted in 1967.
But Ali was not the first famous boxer to enter the ring of political controversy. Back in 1944, former welterweight champion Barney Ross was active in the Emergency Committee to Save the Jewish People of Europe --better known as the Bergson group-- which used full-page newspaper ads, public rallies, and Capitol Hill lobbying to pressure the Roosevelt administration to rescue Jews from the Holocaust.
Ross was also active in a related committee, the American League for a Free Palestine, which sought U.S. support for the creation of a Jewish State. He spoke at its rallies and raised funds for its work. On one occasion, a group of St. Louis Jewish gangsters associated with reputed mob boss Mickey Cohen agreed to hold a fundraiser for the League on condition that the group provide Ross as the keynote speaker. In their eyes, the former boxer was the living symbol of Jewish toughness. League officials later estimated that the event raised more than $100,000 for the cause of Jewish statehood.
Ross also chaired the League's George Washington Legion, which recruited American volunteers for the Jewish forces fighting to oust the British from Mandatory Palestine. The Legion was patterned after the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, which had organized Americans to fight against Franco in the 1930s Spanish Civil War. A newspaper ad for the George Washington Legion featured a photo of Ross with this message from the boxing champ: "There is no such thing as a former fighter. We must all continue the fight."
Sincerely,
Dr. Rafael Medoff
Director
The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies
Melrose Park, PA
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An Earlier Black-Jewish Alliance
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