By Jon Marks
David Rubenstein said since he couldn’t throw like Sandy Koufax, one of the greatest Jewish pitchers of all time, he’d do the next best thing and become an orthopedic surgeon treating athletes with ailing elbows like Koufax.
After his playing career was short-circuited by injury, Seth Berger parlayed his love of basketball into becoming a championship coach whose resume includes coaching a number of NBA players. He also founded the iconic footwear company And1.
Rachel Magerman’s stellar field hockey career includes winning an NCAA championship at North Carolina as well as participating in the Maccabi games in Argentina and Israel.
And Mike Sielski is making history because he’ll be the first person going into the Philadelphia Jewish Sports Hall of Fame who’s not even Jewish.
They’re four among 13 men and women who’ll be honored this September, five of whom are no longer with us.
Joining this select group is Jesse Rappaport, who’s played, coached or been an administrator at every level of basketball in addition to being the founder of an after-school basketball program in Israel. There’s also the late Susan Tose Spencer, daughter of the late former Eagles owner Leonard Tose, who remains the only woman vice president/general manager in NFL history.
As a player, golfer Ben Feld won a gold and silver medal in the Maccabi Games competition both in Israel and Europe, shooting a course record 65 at the latter. He then became golf coach at Drexel at 25.
The Hall’s annual Simcha Gersh honor will go to Ken Gross, while Brett Gold will receive the Spirit honor.
“I’m super happy with this class,” said Hall of Fame Chairman Steve Rosenberg. “This class embodies what the Hall is all about.”
As for the decision to go outside the box and select longtime Philadelphia Inquirer columnist and author Sielski as the PJSHOF’s “Ally on the Court,” Rosenberg said it’s something he’s had in mind for a while.
“With where we sit in the Jewish world, we can’t win the fight against antisemitism with Jews alone,” he explained. “We need great friends. Mike never says no when the Jewish community calls. He’s been a great friend.”
Sielski was both shocked and honored by the news.
“I had no idea this was coming when Steve told me they’d created this award,” said Sielski, author of “The Rise,” the story of Kobe Bryant’s development, which included his regular workouts at Kaiserman JCC. “I didn’t know what to say. It later occurred to me that I’ve written a number of times about issues connected to Judaism. And I appreciate when I go to a Maccabi event or a synagogue to speak, what’s so present in the room is all this togetherness. When they ask me to do something, I jump.”
In a different vein, Rachel Magerman says that she, too, draws inspiration from her heritage.
“I’ve always been proudly Jewish,” said Magerman, who grew up in Blue Bell, then after starring in field hockey and lacrosse at Germantown Academy helped guide North Carolina to the 2009 national title. “Given the timing of this, it makes it more special. There’s a lot of antisemitism. The fact I can be recognized and, despite potential consequences, proudly wear my Jewish star and be identified with so many great Jewish athletes is special to me. People don’t realize there are a lot of stereotypes about Jewish athletes. I like helping to break that stereotype.”
Meanwhile, Rubenstein has broken a different stereotype of sorts, or at least helped set the precedent by becoming team doctor for two of Philadelphia’s major sports teams. The man who was trained by the legendary Dr. Frank Jobe in Los Angeles, who later had him serve as his proxy when the Dodgers came to town, gradually worked his way up.
He started with the Philadelphia Wings and Philly Barrage lacrosse teams in 1991, followed by Jon Bon Jovi’s Philadelphia Soul indoor football team, then Billie Jean King’s Philadelphia Freedom tennis team. That set the stage for him to become the Sixers’ team orthopedic surgeon from 2008 to 2013, before crossing Pattison Avenue to the Phillies from 2013 to 2024.
The kid from Dresher attended Temple Beth Am, where he remembers the rabbi interrupting services to give the score of the Dodgers’ game when Koufax pitched. He went on to graduate from the University of Pennsylvania before heading West for his residency, where he worked with Dr. Jobe. He says he couldn’t have asked for more.
“I think to be able to be a Jewish doctor and take care of teams is a dream,” said Rubenstein, who got to meet his idol, Koufax, years later. “There aren’t many Jewish doctors in Philadelphia taking care of teams. I was probably the first one helping the Sixers. It’s an honor to represent the Jewish community doing what I love to do.”
Seth Berger’s love has been basketball. The native New Yorker was a good enough player to make the junior varsity at Penn before blowing out his knee, then went on to Wharton business school, which set the stage for this young entrepreneur to develop And1 into the world’s No. 2 apparel store.
“I got incredibly lucky with what started as a T-shirt company,” said Berger, whose early clients included Stephon Marbury, Larry Johnson and Kevin Garnett and eventually reached a point where 105 NBA players wore And1 shoes. “I got to spend my life in basketball on the business side for years.”
Then he started coaching, moving from assistant to take over the reins at Westtown School in 2007. There, he’s compiled a 392-159 record, capturing a record-tying four state Independence School titles.
“I think, for me, coaching is the most fitting way to have an impact on a kid’s life,” he said.
“A big part of being Jewish is leaving a place better than you found it. A big part of my identity is being Jewish, and that’s how I express it.”
Jon Marks is a Philadelphia-area freelance writer.