After reading the book How Soccer Explains the World, there were many chapters that hit very close to my heart, causing me to feel emotion. The chapter that affected me the most and was very moving to me was How Soccer Explains the Jewish Question. "An entire movement of Jews believed that soccer and sport generally, would liberate them from the violence and tyranny and anti-Semitism." That quote is incredibly powerful and liberating. The chapter explains how throughout history there has not been very much Jewish dominance when it comes to athletics, but Franklin Foer came to find out about small specific instances where Jews dominated a sport. Within the history of sports there are a few rare Jewish superstars: Hank Greenberg, Mark Spitz,
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Without a doubt one of the most horrific chapters in the book was the first, How Soccer Explains The Gangster’s Paradise. Soccer in Serbia during the tensions of Yugoslavia were incredibly violent and a prime example of Hooliganism. Soccer in Serbia was heavily controlled by gangs and dictated around violence and committing violent acts against rival soccer team’s fans. The soccer games seemed to be more about beating the life out of the other team’s fans than actually watching the game. Comparing The Jewish Question to The Gangster’s Paradise, without a doubt one would think the situation in Serbia is far worse than that of the Jewish bearing name calling. Being a Croatian or Bosnian in Serbia in the 1990’s was just absurd, you would not be able to live in the godforsaken conditions. In Serbia, for the Belgrade Red Star, soccer was a lifestyle. Being a hooligan for The Red Star was a lifestyle, a time consuming will to assert aggression upon others. On the other side of the spectrum, we have the Jewish soccer teams and their affiliates. The Jewish soccer teams did not for the most part receive acts of violence against them. But, the MTK, Ajax, Hakoah, and Tottenham all received verbal abuse for their association with Jewish cultural. On the bright side, being called names for what you are seems a lot nicer than getting beat to death for who you were born as. The Red Star took pride as a soccer team, where in history there has not been a large population of Jewish athletes, let alone dominant Jewish athletes. That is where the difference is made, Serbians were hooligans and soccer was their life because they had to, where the Jewish soccer players had a choice to be apart of teams and associate themselves with specific groups. In the chapter of the book called “How Soccer Explains the American
Without a doubt one of the most horrific chapters in the book was the first, How Soccer Explains The Gangster’s Paradise. Soccer in Serbia during the tensions of Yugoslavia were incredibly violent and a prime example of Hooliganism. Soccer in Serbia was heavily controlled by gangs and dictated around violence and committing violent acts against rival soccer team’s fans. The soccer games seemed to be more about beating the life out of the other team’s fans than actually watching the game. Comparing The Jewish Question to The Gangster’s Paradise, without a doubt one would think the situation in Serbia is far worse than that of the Jewish bearing name calling. Being a Croatian or Bosnian in Serbia in the 1990’s was just absurd, you would not be able to live in the godforsaken conditions. In Serbia, for the Belgrade Red Star, soccer was a lifestyle. Being a hooligan for The Red Star was a lifestyle, a time consuming will to assert aggression upon others. On the other side of the spectrum, we have the Jewish soccer teams and their affiliates. The Jewish soccer teams did not for the most part receive acts of violence against them. But, the MTK, Ajax, Hakoah, and Tottenham all received verbal abuse for their association with Jewish cultural. On the bright side, being called names for what you are seems a lot nicer than getting beat to death for who you were born as. The Red Star took pride as a soccer team, where in history there has not been a large population of Jewish athletes, let alone dominant Jewish athletes. That is where the difference is made, Serbians were hooligans and soccer was their life because they had to, where the Jewish soccer players had a choice to be apart of teams and associate themselves with specific groups. In the chapter of the book called “How Soccer Explains the American