Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By richards on November 27, 2013

Avi Rosenblum plays both sides. On offense, he runs and catches. On defense, he tackles. He is 6-foot-2, 210 pounds and adorned with tattoos. He is a 20-year-old African American man and the grandson of an Orthodox rabbi who survived the Holocaust.

And now, Rosenblum is one of the newest members of the Ramat Hasharon Hammers a team in the Israeli Football League, an amateur league that has been playing full-contact American football since 2007.

Avi Rosenblum makes a catch in a preseason game on Nov. 23 in Israel. photo/courtesy avi rosenblum

The Hammers played their first and only preseason game last weekend, and Rosenblum went off like a sonic boom: He caught two touchdown passes, ran for two other touchdowns and also scored a two-point conversion in the Hammers 52-26 victory over the Petah Tikva Troopers.

The Hammers, who went 8-2 last season, will open the regular season on Dec. 12 against the Jerusalem Lions.

Even before suiting up in Israel, Rosenblum had some lofty athletic achievements. He competed twice in baseball at the JCC Maccabi Games and, in 2010, was honored by the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame of Northern California.

Im a black Jew and live with everything that goes along with it, he says today. When asked to elaborate, he explains, People are surprised when theyre expecting to meet [someone with the name] Avi Rosenblum and its me. Sometimes when I go to a Jewish function, people look at me funny or ask, Do you know this is a Jewish function? Yeah, I do; Im Jewish.

According to a recent article in the Times of Israel, Rosenblum has been getting a lot of stares on the streets of Israel.

Logo of the Ramat Hasharon Hammers

Hes also been getting many calls from papers and TV stations for interviews, says his father, Rom, a longtime audio engineer who used to work on Oakland As and San Francisco Giants broadcasts. Who knew hed be such a star? Such a proud abba [father] I am!

See original here:
Albany High grad puts on the football pads in Israel

Category: Jewish American Heritage Month
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