{"id":426,"date":"2011-03-03T06:50:01","date_gmt":"2011-03-03T12:50:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/?p=426"},"modified":"2011-03-03T10:02:37","modified_gmt":"2011-03-03T16:02:37","slug":"jews-meet-american-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/jews-meet-american-sports-426.htm","title":{"rendered":"Jews Meet American Sports"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

When Central- and East-European Jews came to the United States, they encountered quaint native customs. Michel Rosenberg describes how Getsl (the typical Lower East Sider) by chance attends a baseball game. Having learned that a new cantor is performing somewhere in the Bronx, Getsl gets on an uptown train and follows the crowds which he assumes are going to hear the new cantor. They are getting off at \u201cYankl Stadium.\u201d Getsl takes his seat and observes\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

From one hole emerges some kind of man with a blue suit and a strange yarmulke. This is certainly the choir leader. Following him comes a colleague with woolen socks, long underwear and a sweater and on the sweater is written \u201cYankl.\u201d That\u2019s my cantor! They begin praying. Suddenly I feel such a slap on my back that my right lung feels like it\u2019s going to collapse. \u201cHello, buddy!\u201d I take a look it\u2019s the same guy with___. He gives me such a greeting with \u201cAta boy!\u201d that I almost pass out. I say, \u201cWho is the man with the long suit and the yarmulke?\u201d He says, \u201cThat is the oompire.\u201d I say, \u201cAnd the one with the freezing hand who wears a glove\/\u201d He says, \u201cThat is the peetcher.\u201d And immediately emerges someone with a mattress on his belly and something on his face that looks like a strainer for noodles. He says, \u201cThat is the catcher.\u201d I say, \u201cWhat does he catch other than a cold if the pitcher spits in the glove and throws the ball and there\u2019s tossing from pitcher to catcher and catcher to pitcher. Neither one wants the ball and they stand there!\u201d<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

(Thanks to Jack Kugelmass, Jews, Sports, and the Rites of Citizenship<\/em>)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Getsl\u2019s routines are on the internet \u2013 in Yiddish. My wife, who lived on the Upper West Side among one of the largest populations of Yiddish speakers in the world, says they are all of this caliber.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Some Jews regret the Jewish penchant for comedy. Jews use comedy to defuse a situation that a Goy would confront violently. I am not sure the Gentile way is better.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\r\n\t<\/div>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 When Central- and East-European Jews came to the United States, they encountered quaint native customs. Michel Rosenberg describes how Getsl (the typical Lower East Sider) by chance attends a baseball game. Having learned that a new cantor is performing somewhere in the Bronx, Getsl gets on an uptown train and follows the crowds which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[494,495],"tags":[498,500,499,497],"class_list":["post-426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-judaism","category-sports","tag-getsl","tag-humor","tag-jews-sports","tag-michel-rosenberg","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}