NYRR Celebrates Jewish American Heritage Month
May is Jewish American Heritage Month (JAHM), a time to discover, explore, and celebrate the vibrant and varied American Jewish experience from the dawn of our nation to the present day.
At New York Road Runners, we look at Jewish representation throughout the history of our organization and highlight the impact these athletes have had on the sport and in our community.
Jewish Runners in the NYRR Hall of Fame
Jewish runners made up many of the founders of NYRR nearly 70 years ago and have played a key role in our history. Several of these figures are members of the NYRR Hall of Fame.
Fred Lebow was born Fishel Liebowitz in 1932 in Romania into an Orthodox Jewish family. He survived the Holocaust and immigrated to the U.S. as a yeshiva student. He was working in the garment business in the late 1960s when he took up running on a whim, fell in love with it, and made it his life's mission to make the sport as inclusive as possible. Lebow was the president of NYRR and the race director of the New York City Marathon from 1972 until his death in 1994.
George Spitz
Born in New York City in 1922, George Spitz was known for speaking his mind and running unsuccessfully for public office. During one failed campaign, he described himself as “the only vegetarian, only road runner, only veteran of World War II, only senior citizen, only union person, only Orthodox Jew and only high school dropout in the race.” In 1976, his political connections helped bring about the first five-borough New York City Marathon. He completed over two dozen marathons in his lifetime.
Allan Steinfeld
Allan Steinfeld and Alice Schneider (second and third from left) with NYRR colleagues.
A native of the Bronx, Allan Steinfeld earned master’s degrees in electrical engineering and radio astronomy. He started volunteering with NYRR in the 1960s and quickly moved from stuffing envelopes to serving as official race timekeeper. He became the technical director of the New York City Marathon in 1981 and led the effort to accurately time and score mass-participation races. Steinfeld succeeded Lebow in 1994 and led NYRR until his retirement in 2005.
Steinfeld's wife, Alice Schneider, was a pioneer in computerized road race registration, timing, and scoring. When Steinfeld began working with NYRR’s operations team, he brought along Schneider, who had experience as a compositor on phototypesetting equipment. She started doing data entry on a small IBM computer that was on loan to the organization. Over time, Schneider taught herself computer programming and developed the software and systems that allowed NYRR to register, time, and score thousands of runners.
Dick Traum was the first known amputee runner to complete a marathon, a feat he accomplished at the 1976 New York City Marathon. The founder of Achilles International, he completed 11 marathons using a prosthesis and dozens more using a handcycle. He coached and advocated for athletes with disabilities throughout his life. In 2003 Achilles International founded the Achilles Hope & Possibility, an annual road race celebrating disability inclusion.
Deena Kastor
Deena Kastor is the former American half marathon and marathon record-holder and won a bronze medal at the Athens 2004 Olympics. She set an American debut record at the 2001 New York City Marathon and won the New York Mini 10K in 2004 and the More/SHAPE Women’s Half Marathon in 2013, 2014, 2016, and 2017. She held 10 American records and represented the U.S. on 16 world championships teams. Off the roads, she has contributed to the sport as a broadcaster, mentor, and avid supporter of NYRR’s youth and community programs.
National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame
Fred Lebow, Dick Traum, and Deena Kastor are also members of the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.
Located at the Suffolk Jewish Community Center in Commack, New York, the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame and Museum is dedicated to honoring American Jewish figures who have distinguished themselves in sports. Its objective is to foster Jewish identity through athletics and to commemorate sports heroes who have emerged from people not commonly associated with sports.
The hall held its first annual induction ceremony in 1993 and has inductees in the sports of American football, auto-racing, baseball, basketball, bicycling, bowling, boxing, Canadian football, canoeing, cycling, fencing, figure skating, golf, gymnastics, handball, horse showing, horse-racing, ice hockey, karate, lacrosse, marathon running, pole vault, racquetball, rowing, rugby, shot put, skiing, soccer, softball, squash, swimming, tennis, track, triathlete, volleyball, weightlifting, and wrestling. It has also inducted authors, broadcasters, columnists, and sportscasters.
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