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Comments (0)Hank Rosenstein, who played for a mostly Jewish New York Knicks team that took part in what is considered the NBA’s first game in 1946, has died.
Rosenstein, a member of the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, died Saturday in Boca Raton, Fla., of heart failure, The New York Times reported. He was 89.
Rosenstein, who at 6 foot, 4 inches played in the frontcourt, was one of eight Jewish Knickerbockers when they played the Toronto Huskies in Toronto on Nov. 1, 1946 in the debut of the new Basketball Association of America. He scored five points in a game won by the Knicks, 68-66.
The BAA merged with the National Basketball League in 1949 to form the National Basketball Association, and the NBA considers the Knicks-Huskies game its first.
Rosenstein was traded to the Providence Steamrollers, then helped the Scranton Miners of the American Basketball League to championships in 1949-50 and 1950-51, according to the Times. In the latter season, he led the team in scoring with an average of 11.7 points.
He later became a coach in the semipro Eastern Pro League.
Rosenstein, who also starred at Boys High School in Brooklyn and City College, was inducted into the Jewish Hall of Fame in 1998 and the New York City Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007.
Dueling Protests Meet at UC Irvine
Hundreds of demonstrators converged on the administration building at the University of California, Irvine in support of 11 students who were arrested for disrupting a speech by Israel’s U.S. ambassador.
The protest Tuesday was met by a counter-demonstration of about 60 people organized by local Jewish student groups. The Jewish Federation of Orange County has called for the arrested students, who have come to be known as the “Irvine 11,” to be prosecuted.
Supporters of the arrested students, convened by the Black Student Union and other groups, including the Muslim Student Union, said they were objecting to what they claim is the “conflating” of the Irvine incident with other recent acts of racism at California campuses, including the carving of a swastika into the dorm room door of a Jewish student at UC Davis and the recent discovery of a noose in the library at UC San Diego.
“They are trying to draw a connection between the ‘Irvine 11’ and racism,” Irvine alumnus Marya Bangee told the Orange County Register. “[The Irvine 11 issue] is about free speech and student activism.”
Both groups of demonstrators reportedly shouted at each other outside the administration building. There were no reports of violence.
“It was civil discourse of two different opinions,” said Shalom Elcott, president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Orange County, “although there was a lack of factual dialogue.”
The arrests came during an address last month at Irvine by Ambassador Michael Oren.
Zuckerman Drops Senate Bid
Mortimer Zuckerman says he won’t run for New York’s junior spot in the U.S. Senate.
Zuckerman, 72, was considering mounting a Republican challenge against Sen. Kirsten Killibrand (D-N.Y.), who was appointed to the seat a year ago to succeed Hillary Rodham Clinton when she was named U.S. secretary of state.
Zuckerman, a Canadian-born naturalized American and a media magnate who would have funded his own run, said business and family obligations kept him from running, The New York Times reported.
Zuckerman is a past chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.