International Athletes Named to Jewish Sports Hall of Fame

Fourteen former athletes from six nations have been elected to the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.

They will be officially recognized in July at the organization’s museum, housed in the Wingate Institute in Netanya, Israel.

The five American athletes are: Arthur Bluethenthal, Princeton University All- American in football, 1911-12; Milton Green, Harvard’s world record-setting high hurdler, 1935-36; Solly Krieger, world middleweight boxing champion, 1938- 39; Mort Lindsay, tenpin bowling pioneer champion, 1912-34; and Sid Tannenbaum, New York University’s All-American in basketball, 1946-47.

Also named were Johan Harmenberg, Swedish world champion and Olympic gold medalist in epee fencing, 1980; Hans Haas of Austria, Olympic weightlifting gold medalist in 1928 and silver medalist in 1932; Pierre Darmon, France’s No. 1 seed tennis player in the late 1950s and 1960s; and Sandor Gombos, Olympic and World Championship gold medalist in fencing from 1926-28.

Named, in addition, were five members of The Netherlands’ women’s gymnastics team, which won the first gold medal in the event at the 1928 Olympics. They were Ana Polak, Helena Nordheim, Estella Agsteribbe, Judijke Simons and Elka de Levie. Except for de Levie, the gynmasts and their coach, Gerrit Kleerekoper, perished in the Holocaust.

To be honored with the Sports Hall’s Pillar of Achievement Award are Margalit Sonnenfeld of Israel, the coach of 76 medal winners in the Paralympics, for handicapped athletes, 1962-92; American William Lippy, founder and chairman of the Israel Tennis Centers; and Murray Olderman, American sports writer and cartoonist.