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The Real ‘Jewish Jordan’ Is Headed to Israel

Lakers guard Jordan Farmar is headed to the holy land. L.A. Jewish Journal blogger Brad Greenberg — who has, quite literally, dubbed Farmar “the Jewish Jordan” — reports:

Jordan Farmar, the Lakers back-up point guard and the NBA’s best Jewish player (the bar is admittedly low), will travel to Israel next month to run basketball clinics for Israeli and Palestinian kids. It appears the program, sponsored by the Peres Center for Peace, is designed to teach children to co-exist in the Holy Land while dominating each other on the basketball court.

After the clinic ends Aug. 11, Farmar plans to visit Haifa and Jerusalem as an emissary for Seeds of Peace and Players Peace International…

Hank Greenberg Would Be Proud of Brian Horwitz

Brian Horwitz is off to a pretty good start in the big leagues.

Last night, in his third Major League game, the San Francisco Giants’ rookie outfielder knocked off a two-run home run in his team’s blowout of the Mets. After eight at-bats, Horwitz is batting .500 with three RBIs and three runs scored.

“Unbelievable,” Horwitz has said of his Major League experience so far. “It’s extraordinary, surreal. It’s an out-of-body experience. I’m really enjoying being here. How could you complain? It’s great to be winning as well.”

The newest Jew in the Majors reportedly has already been dubbed “the Rabbi” by his teammates.

Personally, I have two reasons to shep naches about Horwitz. Not only is he a co-religionist, but he’s also a graduate of my alma mater.

Horwitz has arrived on the scene at a time when there are already a few really good Jewish ballplayers in the Majors. Last year, Jon Stewart and Denis Leary had some fun discussing the number of Jews playing baseball today. (The Jew-y bit of the following video begins around 4:15 — and, no matter what Leary says, David Wright isn’t Jewish.)

Baseball cap tip: J.J. Goldberg

Little-Known Fact: Nazis Lit the Flame of Olympic Torch Relay

Against the backdrop of this year’s tumultuous Olympic torch relay, New York Times polymath Edward Rothstein locates the origins of this peculiar ritual:

If you want to know how the Olympic torch really began its “Journey of Harmony,” as the Chinese call its current relay, if you want to see why the torch has had to pass through a human obstacle course composed of protesters, SWAT teams and police in San Francisco, Paris and London, then do not look to Tibet’s grievances against China. Look to the opening of Leni Riefenstahl’s 1938 film, “Olympia.”

In that homage to Berlin’s 1936 Olympic Games the origins of this ritual are revealed. Never before had a lighted torch been relayed from a Greek temple in Olympia to an athletic competition, let alone by thousands of runners trying to keep it from being extinguished.

Rothstein writes that with the 1936 torch relay Nazi Germany was staking its claim as “the living heir to Ancient Greece.” He also points out that the Nazis had plans for a 400,000-seat stadium in Nuremberg, since future Olympic Games, as Hitler put it, “will take place in Germany for all time to come” (with the exception of a 1940 turn at hosting for fellow Axis power Japan).

Unsurprisingly, Rothstein notes, the International Olympic Committee “offers a slightly different account of the torch relay.”

Is Joe Torre Headed for the Forward?

If manager Joe Torre gets canned following the Yankees’ pathetic post-season, he can work for the Forward. Or at least that’s what our associate publisher told the New York Post. The Post queried a slew of New York employers as to whether they’d hire the Yankees manager, including our very own David Drimer.

He told the Post:

I’d absolutely hire him. He’s the world’s master at managing gigantic egos and journalism and publishing certainly have a lot of those.

So, what do you say Joe? If George Steinbrenner gives you the axe, start brushing up on your Jewish history.

Muhammad Ali Is the Greatest (Neighbor Elderly Jewish People Could Ever Wish For)

The New York Post’s Page Six reports:

Muhammad Ali fought one of his toughest battles in a Miami old-age home. In his upcoming book, “The Fight of the Century,” Michael Arkush reveals that as Ali trained for his legendary 1971 fight against Joe Frazier, his handlers inexplicably moved him into an upscale Jewish retirement home called Octagon Towers. “The Jews, at first, were scared [bleep]less of Ali’s group. They didn’t realize they were boxers, not gangsters,” Ali’s physician Ferdie Pacheco tells the author. But Ali worked very hard to change that and the residents later gave him a farewell party.