Willie Mays, the “Say Hey Kid,” died last week at the age of 93. Mays began his baseball career in the Negro Leagues before playing for the New York Giants, later becoming the San Francisco Giants, while finishing his career as a New York Met. He won multiple honors throughout his career, including Rookie of the Year, National League MVP (twice), Golden Gloves (12 times), and the Roberto Clemente award in 1971, which goes to the player who “best exemplifies the game of baseball, sportsmanship, community involvement, and the individual’s contribution to his team.” Mays hired banker Jacob Shemano, a Jewish immigrant from Russia, to help him get his finances in order at a point midway through his career when he found himself close to bankruptcy. Shemano refused to take payment, happy to work with the baseball great, and they became close friends, with Mays even visiting the Jewish Home for the Aged with Shemano. Their main point of contention was when Shemano’s wife served Willie Mays a bagel and lox, which Mays says he couldn’t swallow. While Mays did not pay Shemano for his services, what is one way that Mays returned the favor for Shemano’s work?

Willie Mays cropped by New York World-Telegram and the Sun staff photographer, William C. Greene is in the public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

A. Willie Mays won the National League MVP award in 1954 with the New York Giants, and in 1965 with the San Francisco Giants. The second time that Mays won the award, he gave his MVP plaque to Shemano, who proudly displayed it in his office at the Golden Gate National Bank.

B. Willie Mays attended the bar mitzvah of Gary Shemano, Jacob’s son, at San Francisco’s historic synagogue, Congregation Sherith Israel. Mays reluctantly agreed to Jacob Shemano’s request that Mays carry the Torah around the congregation at the beginning of the Torah reading (this was allowed at the Reform congregation at that time).

C. Willie Mays became a spokesman for the Golden Gate National Bank, which Shemano had founded. The ads featured Mays promoting the bank, and ending with the line “Golden Gate...The Grand Slam of Banking.”

D. Willie Mays became an annual donor to San Francisco’s Jewish Welfare Fund (which later became the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco). In 1975, Shemano was honored by the JWF as Man of the Year, and Mays attended the dinner. Mays addressed the attendees and spoke of the values which Shemano modeled in his relationship with Mays.

E. Willie Mays helped Jacob Shemano’s sons impress the girls. When Gary and Ritchie Shemano would attend Giants games, Mays would get the names of their dates in advance and then toss a personalized signed baseball to the girls as he came out onto the field.

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Donald Trump recently stated that “Milwaukee, where we are having our convention, is a horrible city.” He was specifically referring to crime, noting that “the crime numbers are terrible.” In response, Joe Biden tweeted a picture of himself with the 2021 NBA champion Milwaukee Bucks, saying “I happen to love Milwaukee.” German Jews first arrived in Milwaukee in the 1840’s. Most were Reform Jews, and many were secular and did not belong to synagogues. Eastern European immigration, mostly Orthodox, grew later in the 19th century, with many working in clothing and footwear manufacturing. The community continued to grow in the 20th century, and in 1938 the Jewish Vocational Service opened, the first organization in the country which focused on helping veterans get job training and employment. The current Jewish population is approximately 25,000, and the city features the Jewish Museum Milwaukee, which opened in 2008. What is another bit of Milwaukee Jewish history?

Milwaukee Skyline 2023 by Bfkenney is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

A. Miller Brewing Company was founded in 1855 by Ernst Meyerhof, a German Jew who emigrated to Milwaukee in 1845. He had worked as a brewer in Bavaria before coming to America. Not wanting to use his Jewish name for his company, he chose Miller as a take off from Milwaukee.

B. Harley-Davidson, Inc. company is headquartered in Milwaukee. The company was founded in 1903 when Milwaukee native William S. Harvey teamed up with a Jewish immigrant, Arthur Davidson, to design and market the motorcycle which is now an iconic brand. Harvey had worked as a salesman for Ford Motor Company, and Davidson was an engineer who had worked at Austro-Daimler in Vienna. 

C. In 1947 a Polish Jewish immigrant named Zalman Margulies opened a store, Margulies Dry Goods, on Wisconsin Avenue in downtown Milwaukee. Margulies later changed his name to Marshall, and when the store expanded, he changed the name to Marshalls. Marshalls eventually opened locations in 42 states, and in 1976 Zalman (Margulies) Marshall sold the chain to the Melville Corporation.

D. The Settlement Cook Book, published in 1901, was compiled by Lizzie Black Kander, who was the founder of the settlement house referenced in the title. The book, one of the first and still most famous Jewish cook books, contained Jewish recipes. cooking techniques, nutrition information and more. The Settlement House which Kander founded was located in Milwaukee, not New York City as most people assume.

E. Golda Meir grew up in Milwaukee after her family emigrated there from Kiev. Golda and her best friend Liba started a pro-Zionist club at Milwaukee’s North Division High School. As part of their activities, Liba and Golda would open every meeting of the club by dancing and singing the club’s theme song which they wrote, with the following lyrics: Ehad, Shtaim, Shalosh, Arba, Hamesh, Shesh, Sheva, Shmone./Schlemiel! Schlimazel! Hok a tchynik, Pupick, Shvitzer. Gary Marshall read Golda Meir’s autobiography and based the TV show Laverne & Shirley (which was set in Milwaukee), on Liba and Golda, incorporating their Zionist club song into the show’s theme song.

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Mexico just elected its first female, and first Jewish president, Claudia Sheinbaum. While not religious, Sheinbaum has acknowledged her connection to Judaism, saying, “I grew up without religion…But obviously the culture, that’s in your blood.” The first Jews to arrive in Mexico came in the early 16th century–Sephardic Conversos, or Crypto-Jews–who fled the Inquisition in Spain and Portugal. Some had converted to Catholicism, while others secretly maintained their Jewish beliefs and practices. More tolerance of Jews began in the early 1600’s, when the King of Spain ordered Mexico to free Conversos who had been imprisoned for maintaining their Judaism. After Mexico became independent in 1821, the Inquisition was officially abolished in Mexico, and Jews slowly gained more freedom. The first recorded instance of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services took place in 1861. Ashkenazi Jews from Eastern Europe began emigrating to Mexico in the late 1800’s, with more immigrants coming in the 1920’s when the United States established immigration quotas. By the mid-20th century there were numerous synagogues and Jewish organizations, and the current Jewish population is believed to be as much as 100,000. A Jewish man named Hernando Alonso holds what distinction in Mexico?

Sinagoga Monte Sinaí (Justo Sierra) - Ciudad de México I by Juan Carlos Fonseca Mata is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

A. He was the first rabbi to serve in Mexico, having moved there from Curaçao, where he had served as rabbi at Mikve Israel-Emanuel Synagogue, the oldest synagogue in the Americas.

B. He was a carpenter on the ship of explorer Hernán Cortés, which led him to be the first Jew known to set foot in Mexico, in 1521.

C. He was the first Mexican to win a Nobel Prize, specifically for literature, honoring his many poetry collections including El laberinto de la soledad: Vida y pensamiento de México (The Labyrinth of Solitude: Life and Thought in Mexico) and La Llama Doble, Amor y Erotismo (The Double Flame, Love and Eroticism).

D. He was one of the most successful matadors in the history of Mexican bullfighting, known as El Judío de los Toros.

E. He was the first Jew to be burned at the stake in the North American continent.

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Pope Francis has received some negative publicity of late, first for using a gay slur in comments at a meeting with bishops, and then for saying to a group of priests that “gossip is a women’s thing.” What did Pope Francis do that led Rabbi Noam Marans, Director of Interreligious and Intergroup Relations at the American Jewish Committee, to comment that the Pope “gets it in his kishkes”?

Pope Francis Korea Haemi Castle 19 by Korea.net /Korean Culture and Information Service (Jeon Han) is licensed under CC BY 2.0 DEED via Wikimedia Commons

A. In 2013, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, archbishop of Argentina (who became Pope Francis that year) co-wrote the book On Heaven and Earth: Pope Francis on Faith, Family, and the Church in the Twenty-First Century with his friend Rabbi Abraham Skorka. Rabbi Marans was referencing that book, where the two clergy focused on the building of bridges between Catholics and Jews worldwide.

B. In November 2019, a Roman Holocaust survivor had been the victim of death threats. As the Pope was offering remarks to a public audience, he veered from his prepared remarks and stated, “The Jewish people have suffered so much in history. But today the habit of persecuting the Jews, brothers and sisters, is here reborn. This is neither human nor Christian.” Rabbi Marans was in that audience and later praised the Pope for his compassion.

C. When Israeli President Reuven Rivlin visited the Pope in 2015, Rivlin’s bureau chief, Rivka Ravitz, was not comfortable bowing to the Pope, as is protocol. The Pope therefore covered his cross necklace with his hand and bowed down to Ms. Ravitz. Rabbi Marans made his comment following that interaction.

D. Pope Francis visited Israel in 2014. While there, he became the first Pope to visit the grave of Theodor Herzl, and he visited Yad Vashem, where he kissed the hands of Holocaust survivors. Rabbi Marans was referring to this trip by the Pope when he made his remarks.

E. Rabbi Marans had invited the Pope to his Passover seder. At one point, the Pope excused himself from the table and “disappeared” for a half hour, shortly after eating the Hillel sandwich of bitter herbs on matzah. After Rabbi Marans went to check on the Pope, he reported to the other guests that the Pope was okay, but “you know, some people can’t really handle the bitter herbs, like the Pope, who ‘gets it in his kishkes.’ ”

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