Dov Levi - Alan Veingrad

COVER STORY
that was so incredibly out-of-the-ordinary.
In truth, Shlomo Veingrad once regarded
Judaism the same way. “The frum life wasn’t
weird for me, but it was very different.”
In fact, the New York Times once observed:
Within his 6-foot-5 frame, Mr. Veingrad
embodies two Jewish archetypes that do
not often meet. He is the ba’al guf, the
Jewish strongman, and the ba’al teshuva,
the returnee to the faith…. Mr. Veingrad
may well be the only Orthodox athlete
from the United States’ hugely popular
team sports.
And it wasn’t just a flight of fancy that
sent him in search of something to spice up
his life. He is an intelligent, emotionally solid,
personable man with a keen perception
who has made a radical choice that has left
some colleagues happy for him and others
confused or even resentful.
In order to comprehend the strength of
character required for such a transformation,
one would have to consider the significance
Alan Veingrad when he played for the Green Bay Packers.
of the status of an American sports hero.
The concept of organized sports has its
roots in Ancient Greek civilization, a culture
that glorified the human body and its
physical strength. In America today, people
are still enraptured with sports, especially
professional sports. Professional athletes
ultimately become icons of American culture
and idols to America’s youth, and there is
nothing like a game between two teams to
get their respective fans going. In fact, the
term “fan” is a shortened version of the term
“fanatic.” Fans often live and breathe the
sport to the point of addiction.
Popular culture worships and
immortalizes national sports players,
irrespective of their intelligence… or
morality. The best players earn sevenfigure
annual salaries and are worshipped
by young and old, wealthy and poor, and
all ethnicities. Though their talents are
frequently limited to the physical realm,
their opinions are consistently touted in the
media as if they would be profound pearls
of wisdom. Intelligent and well-educated
people will vie for their autographs, and
carefully preserve them. Incredibly, these
items of sports paraphernalia often procure
exorbitant sums of money at auctions.
It is worthy of note that, though millions
of American elementary and high school kids
dream of a future in professional football,
only one-half of one percent of college
students in American universities succeed
in playing the sport at the professional level.
In other words, there are currently about
1,600 professional football players – that
is approximately one out of half a million
students!
We asked Shlomo Veingrad to share
with us a bit of what it was like to be an
athlete and national celebrity. He responded
that there was no way he could describe it.
Words could not do justice to the emotions
he experienced before a game, knowing
that some 80,000 people had gathered in
the stadium to watch him play, and millions
more were following along via the media.
There is simply nothing that is remotely
similar in magnitude.
Shlomo Zalman speaks with Zman.
His Childhood
Alan Veingrad was born in Brooklyn on
July 24, 1963. His father hails from Russia
and Romania, and his mother was born in
Odessa, in the Ukraine.
When he was eight-days old, his parents
gave him a bris according to Jewish tradition
and named him Shlomo Zalman -- a name he
only discovered many years later and one by
which he proudly identifies himself today. When
he was three years old, his parents moved to
Elizabeth, New Jersey, where they remained
until Alan was nine. In 1972, the family again
relocated, this time to Miami, Florida.
During that same year, the Miami
Dolphins went undefeated, ultimately
winning the Super Bowl to become world
champions, the only team to ever do so.
“I was nine years old then,” Veingrad
relates, “and when at that young age, I
witnessed the Dolphins go on that Super
Bowl run to become world champions, they
became my life. The following year, my
father, of blessed memory, bought season
tickets and took my brother and me to the
Dolphins games and all the practices -- and,
last but not least, to get autographs.”
That same year, Alan’s parents also
decided it was time for their son to get a
Jewish education. After all, he would become
a bar mitzvah soon and like all good Jewish
parents in their community, they wanted him
to share in the tradition – whether or not their
son was interested in his Jewish heritage at
all. Alan, like most such young Jews, was not.
So a very disinterested Alan was sent kicking
and screaming to a Conservative “Sunday
school” or “Hebrew school.”
In his words:
If you look at a typical American
Jewish family, you know that a typical
American family has two kids. Eventually,
they move out of New York, perhaps to
Florida, as we did.
My parents spoke Yiddish when they
wanted to say something they didn’t want
us kids to understand.
So I went to Conservative Hebrew
school to learn about the history of the
Jewish people only because my parents
forced me to. It wasn’t at all interesting
and it was no fun whatsoever; I loathed
every minute I had to spend there.
The teachers were the same age
as my great-grandparents…. They had
very little affection for us kids, and we
in turn absolutely detested them. Each
138 | ZMAN • July 2011
ZMAN • Tamuz 5771 | 139