Posted to Chabad News on

A story which recently appeared in the news section of Chabad.org about a Jewish Golf pro who refuses to play on Yom Kippur has the staff at the Jewish Telegraphic Agency all in a dither. Chabad.org portrayed Letitia Beck as the 'Sandy Koufax of women’s professional golf,' but the JTA says that title actually belongs to a Jewish woman who refused to play golf on Yom Kippur long before Sandy Koufax was born.

JTA Fact Checks Chabad.org Yom Kippur Story

A story which recently appeared in the news section of Chabad.org about a Jewish Golf pro who refuses to play on Yom Kippur has the staff at the Jewish Telegraphic Agency all in a dither. Chabad.org portrayed Letitia Beck as the ‘Sandy Koufax of women’s professional golf,’ but the JTA says that title actually belongs to a Jewish woman who refused to play golf on Yom Kippur long before Sandy Koufax was born.

From the JTA:

In the bunker of the JTA Archive, we’re fuming as we reach for the sand wedge.

Chabad.org has a nice feature about Laetitia Beck, a Duke University golf player from Israel who’s chosen to lay down her clubs this Yom Kippur and attend High Holiday services. Here’s the line that bogeys: “Laetitia Beck is well on her way to becoming the Sandy Koufax of women’s professional golf.”

No disrespect, but the first Sandy Koufax of female golf played 85 years before Laetitia Beck. That’s well before Koufax. Or Hank Greenberg, for that matter.

Clara Spitz (nee Herzfeld) of Richmond, Virginia, relinquished her shot at the 1926 Virginia State Golf Association amateur championship title in deference to the Day of Judgment. Listed under her husband Jacob’s initials (sign of the times), the VGSA indicates her sacrifice in their online record-keeping with the word “default.”

Without Koufax or Greenberg in the picture, the local Richmond Jewish paper “The Jewish Morning Journal” had to pick their own name. They went with, “the lady martyr.”

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6 Comments

  • Huh?

    LOL

    If Spitz played before Koufax, then Chabad.org is right.

    The one who follows in Koufax’s footsteps is Beck. How could someone who came BEFORE Koufax be the Koufax of golf? That title needs to go to someone who came…AFTER..Koufax.

    I think JTA is jealous of the fact that Chabad news organizations have supplanted it in many ways.

  • Please

    I think the three of you are fuming and being nasty (LYR Shame on you for attacking other Jews – I happen to know many people at JTA who fast on YK and more).
    My guess is that the JTA’s archive blog was trying to bring up an interesting tidbit from their archive in a humorous way.

  • Shlucha

    Great compliment to chabad.org! J
    TA is carefully reading their stories. Go chabad.org – one of the greatest, unsung chabad organizations who produce top-quality product without the fancy fanfare and noise of some of the others. Just solid quality every time, all the time.