We are proud to announce the 2025 Class of Honorees to be inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.
Abraham Kurland won a silver medal in lightweight Greco Roman wrestling at the 1932 Olympics. He was favored to win the gold medal in the 1936 Olympics, but refused to participate because the Olympics were in Nazi Germany. He won gold at the Maccabiah Games in 1932, gold at the European Championships in 1934 and silver at the 1935 European Championships. Kurland was Denmark’s national champion 12 times between 1932 and 1949.
As a member of the Phoenix Suns in 2003, Amare Stoudemire was National Basketball Association Rookie of the Year. He played in six NBA All-Star games and was named to All-NBA teams five times. (The first team once and second team four times.) Stoudemire averaged more than 20 points per game in seven NBA seasons. He was on the U.S. 2004 Olympic team that won a bronze medal. Stoudemire was on Hapoel Jerusalem’s championship team in 2017 and Maccabi Tel Aviv’s 2020 championship team. The Suns inducted Stoudemire into its Ring of Honor in 2024.
Argentine broadcaster Andres Cantor is famous for bellowing “Goooooooooooal” after a goal is scored in soccer matches. Popularized by Cantor, this elongated shout has been widely imitated by play-byplay soccer broadcasters. Since 1979, Cantor has won six Emmy Awards broadcasting many World Cups and Olympic Games for Telemundo and Universo. In 1994, he was named Sports Personality of the Year by the American Sportscaster Association. In 2004, he won the Broadcasting & Cable/Multichannel News Lifetime Achievement Award in Hispanic Television. In 2020, the National Soccer Hall of Fame named Cantor its Colin Jose Media Award recipient for significant long-term contributions to soccer in the U.S.
Arguably the greatest Jewish boxer of the past half century, Great Britain’s Gary Jacobs was an outstanding welterweight boxer of the 1980s and ‘90s, winning the European, Commonwealth and British championships, and fighting a legendary bout for the world title. In 1995, the World Boxing Council ranked Jacobs the world’s No. 1 welterweight contender. That year, he fought world champion Pernell Whitaker, widely regarded as the world’s best boxer, and lost the wild brawl on points. Jacobs was given the nickname “Kid” in tribute to Great Britain’s Jewish boxing greats Kid Berg and Kid Lewis (both inductees of the IJSHOF). He compiled a professional record of 45 wins, 8 losses. Jacobs was inducted into the Scottish Boxing Hall of Fame in 2011 and is currently a boxing coach.
Hanoch Budin won eight medals representing Israel at six Paralympics, 1984 through 2004, establishing two world records along the way. At the 1988 Games, he won five medals, including golds for 100-meter backstroke and 200-meter medley. He won two more Paralympic medals in 1992 and another in 1984. He also won gold in the 100-meter freestyle Swimming World Championships of 1994.
Hellen Plaschinski Farca de Finkler is a world-record holding Mexican freestyle swimmer. She was part of a round trip English Channel crossing from England to France that set a world record of 18 hours 59 minutes in 2007. Because of this result, the Mexican relay team was inducted in the book of the Guinness World records in 2008. In 2008, Hellen participated in a swimming relay race around the island of Manhattan in which she placed first. She also set meet records at the Central American and Caribbean Games and won two bronze medals at the 1979 Pan American Games. She won first place in 100-meter freestyle at Copa Latina, in Madrid, 1980, breaking a new meet record, earning her place in the Mexican Olympic team for the Moscow Olympics. Fastest latinoamerican swimmer in the world. Hellen represented Mexico in the 1980 Olympic Games qualifying to the final in the freestyle relay placing sixth. In 1980, Hellen was inducted to the Ft Lauderdale International Swimming Hall of Fame in Florida, her name is inscribed in a trophy called Cabeza de Palenque. She won three gold medals at the 1977 and 1981 Maccabiah Games, 2 in 100m freestyle, breaking two Maccabiah records and one in the 200m freestyle. Hellen also won one silver and one bronze in 100m breaststroke. She was honored with the National Sports Award by Mexican President Lopez Portillo in 1978. In 2019 during the opening ceremony of the Pan American Maccabiah Games in Mexico City, Hellen was the torch bearer and lit the Maccabiah flame.
Born in Vancouver and raised in Israel, Leah Goldstein is an enduring multi-sport champion. In 1989, she became the women’s world Kickboxing champion. In 2021, she became the first woman to win the arduous, 3,000-mile cycling Race Across America. In the 32 years between those two championships, this indefatigable all-round athlete compiled a long list of accomplishments, including Duathlon champion of Israel in 1998 and Israeli national women’s road cycling champion of 2008 and 2009.
Israel’s Oren Smadja won Olympic medals as a judoka athlete in 1992 (bronze) and a judoka coach in 2016 (Ori Sasson’s bronze). In 1995, Smadja won a silver medal at the World Championships. Smadja, of Tunisian Jewish descent, was 12 years old when he won a gold at the first Israel Judo Championship. He was named Israel’s sportsman of the year in 1995 and coach of the year in 2015 and 2016.
Ralph Klein was known as “Mr. Basketball” in Israel. He starred for Maccabi Tel Aviv, winning eight Super League national championships and six State Cups in the 1950s and ‘60s. As a member of Israel’s national basketball team, he played in the 1952 Summer Olympics and the 1954 World Cup. Named head coach of Maccabi Tel Aviv in 1969, his teams won 10 Israeli Super League championships, nine Israel State Cups, and the FIBA European Champions Cup (EuroLeague) championship of the 1976-77 season. As head coach of the national team, Klein won a silver medal at the 1979 EuroBasket. He was later head coach of the West German national team. Klein was awarded the Israel Prize for sport in 2006.
Robert “Bobby” Berland made history at the 1984 Olympic Games as the first American judoka to advance to the finals, earning a silver medal in the 86kg middleweight division. A two-time Olympian, he also competed in the 1988 Games. Prior to his Olympic success, Berland won bronze at the 1983 World Championships and secured a silver medal at the 1983 Pan American Games. A dominant force in U.S. judo, he claimed five national titles (1981, 1982, 1983, 1986, 1987).
A graduate of San Jose State University, Berland was a two-time national collegiate champion before making his mark on the international stage. After retiring from competition, he remained dedicated to the sport as both a coach and leader. He was a member of the coaching staff for the 2004 U.S. Olympic Judo Team in Athens and later served as a board member for the Chicago 2016 Olympic Bid effort, focused on bringing the Olympic Games to his hometown. His contributions to judo earned him a place in the USA Judo Hall of Fame.
Sarah Poewe is a former German-South African swimmer, born on March 3, 1983, in Cape Town, South Africa. Specializing in breaststroke, she competed in four Olympic Games (2000, 2004, 2008, and 2012), initially representing South Africa before switching to compete for Germany in 2002. One of the highlights of her career came at the 2004 Athens Olympics, where she won a bronze medal as part of Germany’s 4×100m medley relay team. In addition to her Olympic success, Poewe secured multiple podium finishes at the World and European Championships, excelling in both individual and relay events. She also achieved victories in FINA World Cup competitions and held national records in breaststroke for both Germany and South Africa. Her remarkable longevity and versatility cemented her status as one of the top breaststroke swimmers of her time. Her participation in the 2004 Athens Olympics, where she won a bronze medal in the 4×100m medley relay, was not only a personal achievement but also a symbolic milestone for Jewish representation in German sports.
Israel’s Shahar Pe’er won five singles and three doubles titles on the World Tennis Association Tour. She reached her peak with a World No. 11 ranking in 2011. In doubles, she was ranked No. 14 in 2008. She represented Israel in two Olympic Games. Pe’er won the Junior Girls Australian Open when she was 16. In 2001, at age 14, she became the youngest player to win the Israel women’s tennis championship.
Stan (“The Hockey Maven”) Fischler is a legendary hockey broadcaster, author, newspaperman and historian. While at Brooklyn College in the early 1950s, he began writing about sports for local newspapers. More than 70 years later, Fischler is still covering hockey in The Fischler Report. His writing has appeared in numerous major publications, including The Hockey News, New York Times, Toronto Star, The Sporting News and Sports Illustrated. As a broadcaster, Fischler has won seven Emmy Awards for his work on the MSG network. He has authored or co-authored nearly 100 books, from The Hockey Encyclopedia to Metroice: A Century of Hockey in Greater New York. In 2022, the New York Islanders hockey club re-named their press box in his honor. Fischler is a member of the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame and was presented with the NHL’s prestigious Lester Patrick Trophy for “outstanding service to hockey in the United States.”
France’s Yves Dreyfus survived the Nazi occupation as a child and went on to win two Olympic fencing medals. A three-time Olympian, he won bronze medals at the 1956 and 1964 Games. He also won a gold medal at the Mediterranean Games in 1963 and four gold at the Maccabiah Games between 1961 and 1977. Dreyfus was given France’s National Order of Merit in 1967.
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Copyright 2025 © International Jewish Sports HOF
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Copyright 2025 © International Jewish Sports HOF
All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy