There is only one Jewish player in the National Basketball Association today, Washington Wizards forward Deni Avdija. But if it wasn’t for his Jewish predecessors in professional basketball, the Israeli and his non-Jewish contemporaries might not even have a league. In the 1920s, ’30s and early ’40s — the decades predating the launch of the NBA — Jewish players abounded in leagues like the American Basketball League, helping to establish pro basketball in America. One all-Jewish team, though, still stands as the pinnacle of Jewish success on the hardwood. The Philadelphia SPHAs, who grew from the city’s Jewish neighborhoods to...
Monitoring Antisemitism Intel
