Having Your Judaism…and Your Sports, Too
As part of USY Awareness Week, Adam spoke to members of the Fair Lawn/Glen Rock (NJ) chapter of USY on November 9th. The author served up a brief history of the Jewish sports experience and led a discussion and debate on the conflicts that arise when being a Jewish athlete.
Buy Diovan hct onlineAdam hits the road!
The author of Coaching Ira tries on the lecture and book signing circuit with two engagements for the month of November. On the 18th, Adam will be visiting Princeton University’s Hillel (Jewish Student Union) for a talk on Jews and Sports Culture. On the 26th, it’s a Coaching Ira book reading and signing at the New York offices of the American Associates of Ben Gurion University of the Negev. Those interested are welcome to attend either event.
Buy Ceftin onlineSigning/Talk Official
The plans are set for Adam’s talk and book signing at the Fair Lawn (NJ) Jewish Center on Sunday, November 9. The 7 PM event will be a joint function of both the Fair Lawn and Glen Rock USY chapters. USY and its basketball league inspired Adam’s debut novel, Coaching Ira, the story of a Jewish youth group basketball team and their hapless coach. Adam will discuss the great and little-known Jews of Sport, the genesis of Ira, and host a sports trivia contest. Most importantly, there’ll be snacks.
For more information contact USY advisor Darin at FLGRUSY@aol.com.
Buy Viagra onlineThe Ira Tour, Second Leg
After taking a much-needed summer hiatus from the road, Adam resumes his tour to promote Coaching Ira. Adam’s next appearance will take place at the Fairlawn (New Jersey) Jewish Center on the night of Sunday, November 9th. His talk will be part of a celebration of USY awareness week. USY is the Jewish youth organization featured in Coaching Ira.
Keep checking back for specific times and details on this event as well as future events.
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Adam had one of his most rewarding talks in Rumson, New Jersey, on Sunday, May 4. He addressed the crowd of Rumson USY champions at Congregation B’nai Israel. USY Hoops is the same organization that inspired Coaching Ira, Adam’s novel about the adventures of a Jewish youth basketball team and their reluctant coach. It was a night of sharing great USY hoops memories…and tons of baked ziti.
Buy Starlix onlineLeaving Scottsdale
So it’s the end of the trip and my wife Michelle and I are disembarking from our plane in Newark. We were welcomed back to the area by 34 degrees, snow, slush and freezing rain — the very snow, slush and freezing rain that delayed our flight by 45 minutes. Why we didn’t take that as a sign and head back to Scottsdale, I’ll never know, but cranial tests are being conducted as we speak.
I turned to my lovely female and said, “Honey, just this morning we were shielding our eyes from the sun during brunch on the patio. Then we walked amidst the palm trees and the co-eds at Arizona State with their year-round tans and flip-flops.” At that moment I was wrestling my North Face jacket out of my suitcase like it was a floatation device so necessary for my survival. “And now we return to the Winter that Wouldn’t End.”
If you sense a Northeast weather resentment in this piece, you can at least consider yourself warned.
Not only is Andrew Flynn the designer of this site and the founder and managing editor of Hoopville.com, he is also a good friend. The latter was enough to shoot 2500 miles to see him exchange vows with the charming and wonderful Marcia Bosio. The Desert Botanical Garden is a pretty remarkable place even without a wedding and I urge you to stop by next time you’re in the Phoenix area.
I searched desperately for indigenous creatures of the area, as well as a dictionary so that I could spell indigenous, but came up nil on both counts. I was later informed, by a rather unreliable source, that the scorpions, rattlesnakes and buzzards were actually displaced to clear out land for the flora and fauna. Forced retirment, you might say. I can just picture a scorpion and a buzzard sitting down for a game of canasta while waiting for their 4 o’clock feedings.
The wedding was a heck of a time — the ceremony under sunset at the gardens, the party indoors after dark. We swung to the hep sounds of The Swingtips. The highlight of the night (or lowlight as the case may be) was me attempting to slide across the dance floor, then realzing abruptly that the dance floor was too dry for sliding. I still have scuff marks on my thighs.
The following morning I brought my presentation (and my limp) with me to Beth El Congregation in Phoenix. First, the congregants and I brunched, because you can’t present on an empty stomach. Bagels, lox, tuna — I was almost homesick. I then presented the warm and friendly Beth Ellers with a presenation on Jews in Sports Culture, which mutated into a talk about kosher slaughterhouses in Iowa that could have gone on for hours. How we got off course, I still don’t know, but it just so happens that sports and slaughterhouses are two of my areas of expertise. (Read the book on Postville, Iowa or The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, and you too can be a butchery aficiando!)
Fortunately, Beth El executive director David Brook transitioned us smoothly to a book signing. Regardless, I greatly enjoy talks like this, where the congregants feel comfortable enough to dive right into the conversation. And dive they did!
Special thanks once again to David Brook for his kind invitation.
My next talk/book event will take place on May 4th at Congregation B’nai Israel in Rumson, NJ. I am greatly looking forward to this event as it honors the past five seasons of Rumson USY/Kadima basketball teams. USY basketball is the very program that inspired Coaching Ira, so I’ll be talking to my target audience. Former Duke champion and NBA guard Bobby Hurley, Jr will also be on hand. I can’t wait to tell him that I used to harass his dad (St. Anthony’s High School coach Bobby Hurley, Sr.) by asking him tons of innane questions while I was a reporter at WGHT-AM.
I hear Bobby Jr.’s already asking to be seated at the other side of the dais.
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Adam’s next speaking event/book signing will take place at Phoenix, Arizona’s Congregation Beth El on Sunday, April 6, between 10:30 am and Noon. The topic? What else? Perceptions of Jews in Sports Culture and the origins of Coaching Ira. Brunch (the magic word) will be served and a book signing will follow the discussion. For more info, contact David Brook at 602-944-3359 or dbrook@bethelphoenix.com. For a preview of Adam’s visit, check out this article in the Jewish News of Greater Phoenix.
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Only in Dallas can you visit a synagogue and come home with a 10-gallon yarmulke. I’m kidding, really.
Forget what you’ve heard about Dallas being a steambath. Every time I go to big D, Old Man Winter loosens his belt and makes himself at home. But the wintry mix of hail, snow and rain (which everyone accused me of bringing from New York) could not keep me, or those interested, from a Jews in Sports Culture/Coaching Ira talk.
My first stop on Sunday, January 12th, was Congregation Shearith Israel (CSI-Dallas, enter David Caruso joke here) where I spoke with members of the Zohar USY chapter on the topic of Jews in Sports Culture. It was a small, intimate gathering, but, as I always say, “Small gatherings are like fruit.”
(What? You were expecting something from Aesop’s Fables?)
Talkin’ sports with Zohar USYers on a rare, wintry day in Dallas.
The USY gang from Dallas brought me back to my own youth group days in Jersey. Glory Days — they will pass you by, but you can go back again, and I have Dikla Biton and Josh Nason to thank for it.
Adam and Zohar USYers at Congregation Shearith Israel.
That night, I was hosted by the Congregation Tiferet Israel Brotherhood for yet another talk on what is quickly becoming my favorite subject: Yup, Jews in Sports Culture. This was a crowd none-too-shy from audience participation. Sure, I got the ball rolling, but members raised their hands, asked questions, told anecdotes and reminisced about their own experiences on the topic.
Adam at Congregation Tiferet Israel, Dallas.
Adam and CTI members go into overtime.
After the event was officially declared “adjourned”, the members and I continued to chat it up about our favorite Jews in Sports moments while I signed copies of Coaching Ira. The KQ (Kibbitz Quotient) was through the roof that night, and I came home with some new material. You may just hear some new schtick at my next book event.
Special thanks to Cantor Jacob Cohen, the CTI Brotherhood and the entire CTI congregation for an enjoyable weekend.
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(And Wearing Some Flowers In His Hair):
Adam just returned from Dallas, Texas, where he spoke about Jews in Sports Culture and his novel, Coaching Ira. And now it’s official! United Jewish Communities has invited Adam to speak at its West/Midwest Regional Conference in San Francisco (March 7-9) Other speakers include well-known radio talk show host Dennis Prager, motivational humorist Scott Friedman, and Ernie Gruwell, President and Founder of the Tolerance Education Foundation.
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At Princeton Hillel
Wow, my first book tour event. I’m still floored by the notion that people actually want me to come and educate them on certain subjects. Me, the guy who had to cut early morning classes in college because he stayed up all night to compete in SEGA hockey tournaments.
And what a way to start a tour – at the Jewish Student Union of Princeton University, a profound pillar of learning and…well, more learning. No pressure or anything. I had an image of super-intellectual co-eds walking about campus smoking pipes and wearing mortarboards. I would be wearing a black turtleneck that I got for half-off at Today’s Man.
Yes, one would think that addressing such an erudite and knowledge-thirsty crowd would be intimidating; that my audience would have tongues at the ready to ask me some Rubik’s Cubian zinger following my presentation. Yet, this was not the case. I found the informal, intimate dinner gathering at the Princeton Hillel to be not only comfortable and enjoyable, but a perfect way to kick off a book tour.
The students were receptive, asked some really good questions and even laughed at some of my jokes. (The really unfunny ones, too.)
The crux of my presentation centered around Jews in Sports Culture. For more on the event and what I discussed, read Jeff Milgram’s Princeton Packet article.
A tip of the yarmulke to program director Kate Lester, who had the extraordinary vision to invite me.
At AABGU-New York City
First, I’ll tell you what AABGU (www.aabgu.org) is all about. (Don’t worry, this isn’t a public service announcement.)
The American Associates of Ben Gurion University of the Negev (exhale) is the American support flagship of Israel’s most active and popular university. It’s a school that values plurality, accepting students of all races, religions, nationalities and socio-economic backgrounds, not just well-off Israeli Jews. The place is Oz without the munchkins…they are growing food in the desert and raising aqua farms! They are developing cures for wasting diseases and are making such advances in science and technology that you wonder why you haven’t heard more about it. All of these breakthroughs are meant to better the world at-large, not just the state of Israel.
Adam with the good folk of AABGU.
At this event, I conducted a brief talk on the roots of Coaching Ira and read a few “teaser” chapters to get everyone into the story. By the end, the guests and I were all in our short shorts, organizing a pick-up game.
A portion of all book proceeds went to the AABGU Student Life Program, which provides much needed scholarships to Israeli students devastated by the economic crisis in that country.
Our door prize winner was Leah Perel, who went home happy with a personally signed copy of Coaching Ira.
Adam with Coaching Ira cover boy Lon Samuelson at AABGU book reading.
If you’re interested in having me speak at one of your events, please contact me via the Contact Adam link on the right. I don’t do balloon animals or saw ladies in half, but I do have some fun, educational programs that can be tailored to suit your group’s needs.
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