Out of Left Field: Jews and Black Baseball

Rebecca Alpert:  
Out of Left Field: Jews and Black Baseball

April 24th, 2012 - 6:00 - 7:30 pm

Blank Rome LLP  One Logan Square 1801 Cherry Street, Philadelphia PA

This event is free.  Seating is limited.  RSVP is required.

OU welcomes Professor Rebecca Alpert to discuss her most recent book, Out of Left Field: Jews and Black Baseball, an eye-opening look at one of baseball's most intriguing and little known stories: the many-faceted relationship between Jews and black baseball in Jim Crow America. In Out of Left Field, Rebecca Alpert explores how Jewish sports entrepreneurs, political radicals, and a team of black Jews from Belleville, Virginia called the Belleville Grays--the only Jewish team in the history of black baseball--made their mark on the segregated world of the Negro Leagues.

Out of Left Field offers a unique perspective on the economic and social negotiations between blacks and Jews in the first half of the 20th century, shedding new light on the intersection of race, religion, and sports in America.

Full Description of Book

Rebecca Alpert is graduate of Barnard College, Temple University with a Ph.D. in religion and received her Rabbinical training at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (RRC) in Wyncote, Pennsylvania. Her specialization is in American and Jewish American religious history, focusing on issues related to gender, sexuality and race.  She has lectured at a number of colleges and universities, including Columbia, UPenn, Princeton and Swarthmore and is an active public intellectual who writes for mainstream publications and frequently speaks in the Philadelphia region and beyond.

Please RSVP by April 23rd at 215-665-8575 or via e-mail: director@operationunderstanding.org.  Business attire. Limited capacity. Picture I.D. required to enter the building.