Jack Dempsey vs Joe Frazier

Max Baer is argued to be jewish by some genialogists, and other top jewish heavyweights of his era included Art Lasky and King Levinsky, who were both ranked in the top five while Baer was champion.

If we go back further then Daniel Mendoza was a jew.

 

Many don't realize that Dempsey was the biggest sports star in he world during his championship years , bigger than Ali ever was ... he was a huge movie star, he was mobbed everywhere ... there are reasons he did not fight, he was making so much money outside of the ring ... it severely effected his boxing career as his skills were lost .. from 1919 to 1926 he fought five times with huge gaps between bouts .. from 1921 to 1926 he fought twice ... I have always felt Dempsey showed more of what he could have been in the Sharkey and Tunney bouts than in his victories ...

 

from what little i have read baer was of french/jewish origin but in a book i was reading (when boxing was a jewish sport) the old fighters interviewed did not consider him jewish one said in the showers you could tell he was not a proper jew

 

An ocasional poster on this site, who knows more about Baer then prety much anybody, was asked by the "jewish sporting hall of fame" to comment on Baers eligibility for induction.

She recomended that it could be justified on geneological grounds.

 

so i am a jew then:yikes

 

I thought Max Baer was the first heavyweight boxing champion. His dad was Jewish, so I would say he was Jewish, by blood-line.

 

This is her argument:

Max was half Jewish from his paternal line. However, because "Jewishness" is traced through the maternal line, Max isn't Jewish at all in the eyes of practicing Jews. Max's grandfather, the 6 foot plus, 200 pound plus Achille or Aschell Baer, was an Alsatian Jew from France. The Baer family home and the synagogue that Achille's mother would have gone to still exist in Alsace-Lorraine. The Jewish section of an area cemetery is full of Baer tombstones. Achille emigrated from France to Wyoming Territory about 1864. According to family history, Achille engaged the services of a marriage broker to find a wife. A photograph of Frances "Fanny" Fischl, a lovely 6 foot plus Jewess from Prague in Bohemia (now the Czech Republic) caught his eye. The two met and were married, on August 7, 1869 in nearby Laramie, which was still part of the Dakota Territory. It is suspected by family members that the only way the couple could communicate would be in Yiddish, since both came from different countries with far different native tongues. Max's father, Jacob was born in 1875 in Michigan. Jacob married Dora Bales, an Iowa girl of Scots-Irish descent on Christmas Eve of 1904 in Nebraska. Jacob and Dora negligently raised their children in the Catholic faith, but allowed the children to practice whatever faith they chose.

Max Baer Jr. states "when I was around 10 years old and living in a Jewish neighborhood in Sacramento, I came across a boy wearing a yarmulke," he recalled. "So I went home and asked my mother why that kid was wearing a beanie without a propeller."
Prior to the Schmeling bout, the fight's promoter, Jack Dempsey, and Max's manager, Ancil Hoffman, thought that wearing the Star of David on his trunks would make Max more popular in New York. The press was soon rampant with "is he or isn't he Jewish ?" questions. Max's mother Dora reportedly snapped one day at the endless queries and stated that "You can tell those people in New York that Maxie has got a Jewish father and if that doesn't make him Jewish enough for them, I don't know what will."

 

good post janitor ,some of those interviewed for the book i mentioned were quite strong in thier views he was not and i think one or two mentioned it was just a gimmick to make him more popular


so now i am just plain old english my jewish practising blood goes back to my great grandfather :yep

 

I'm Danish / German / English............ A mix......... Proud of it, too........

MR.BILLhappy

 

Good Post Janitor,
Having the blood of a Jewish ancestor and being Jewish are 2 different things. There are Italian Jews, Russian Jews,German Jews,Polish Jews,Irish Jews, French Jews, Its a religion not a Nationality.

The fact that Max showed reconition by wearing the star says enough. The Jews were fans but lets face it in America as a whole Jews were succesful but not popular or loved. I think I could also say the same thing about most of the Europeon decent Americans but if Max wore the star, there must have been more to it and your explanation adds to that thought.

 

'Baer' IS a German name......................... HOWEVER! That means nothing......... Lotsa' half-breeds came to New York in 1900-circa............ I believe Maximum Baer to be a half-breed of some type............. I'm sure he had 'Jew' blood in his veins......... BUT! He prolly had some German in him, too.........

MR.BILL:good:shock:

 

Baer was not Jewish. It as marketing , plain and simple ... maybe a slice of something was there , like a 1/16th or something but I read the same about Dempsey ... Baer definately did not consider himself Jewish that is for sure .... he said after the Louis fight "now I look like one" , making fun of his swollen nose ... not a nice comment ...

 

"Mad Max" Baer was missing the 'Dick' nose that many Jews' own.......... I hate them noses' as well......... ****in' beaks, etc.....
:yikes

MR.BILL

 

Me too :good

 

you learn something new every day :good i'd always thought that maxie was german-jewish on one side and scots-irish on t'other.
up till a few years ago i also thought that baer was the first champ to say he'd defend his title against anyone regardless of colour