The Jewish Community Center has been a hub for sports, exercise, and fitness activities for more than a century, first for Jewish Omahans and later for the whole city. Generations of youth from preschool through high school have learned and honed skills here in basketball, T-ball, soccer, swimming, tennis, racquetball, aerobics, pickleball, and more.
ANTI-SEMITISM IN SPORTS
Throughout most of the twentieth century, Omaha’s Jews, and almost all American Jews, were denied membership from private golf and country clubs. They responded by building clubs of their own. The Highland Country Club opened at 128th and Pacific Streets in 1924 and flourished for many decades. It closed in 2009 and is now the site of the Tri-Faith Initiative.
JEWISH ATHLETES IN OMAHA
Omaha’s rich sporting culture produced many top Jewish athletes. A number of them have competed at the NCAA Division I level in baseball, basketball, golf, tennis, and other sports. Mayor Johnny Rosenblatt was one of the city’s most influential Jewish sportsmen and was an ardent sports advocate.
Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium – Dedicated 1964
JOHNNY ROSENBLATT
The son of immigrants, Johnny Rosenblatt was a talented semiprofessional baseball player, visionary leader, and passionate sports advocate. In the 1940s, he led successful and transformative efforts to build the iconic stadium south of downtown that would eventually bear his name and host the College World Series for sixty years. He also worked to attract AAA Minor League Baseball to Omaha. From 1954 – 1961, Rosenblatt served as one of Omahas most prominent mayors. He worked hard to find compromise in a time of rapid and complicated growth and change.
Ben Belmont, 1979 – Omaha Boxer in Maccabiah Games
Tammy Rubin, Gymnast, 1979
Baseball PSI MU Fraternity Baseball Team
