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Originally Posted by mark evans
I'm unfamiliar with the Museum's standards but believe that Jewish Sports Review does not follow strict doctrine and thus includes all athletes where either parent is Jewish, athlete did not practice another faith during career, and self-identifies as ethnically Jewish.
But, even if one were to adopt this broader standard, Zinn's status remains unclear as the Wechsler article states that BOTH of his parents were Christians. I would be most interested in learning the basis for that conclusion, which would appear to be inconsistent with the HOF library form completed by Zinn's daughter. To square the conclusion that both parents were Christians with the form would require quite a stretch -- that Zinn's daughter interpreted the term 'ancestry' to mean the folks in the 'old country' and not necessarily Zinn's religion.
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Mark, I believe it was religious rather than national origin because decades ago using religion was a commonplace part of ethnic identification alongside national origins. In the 1921-28 issues with the printed backs Jewish fighters were labeled as “Jewish”, “Jewish-American”, “Hebrew” or “Hebrew-American”, while fighters from other immigrant populations were categorized as “hyphen-Americans” (Polish-American, German-American, etc.) or from their family’s original locations. This applied even to fighters who were born in the United States. It is typical to see a fighter born in New York listed as Hebrew, Irish, Polish or Scottish. My favorite one of these nationality identifiers was that of Leo Lomski, a native Washingtonian who was identified in the 1928 set as “Polish-Jewish-American”. The racial tone of the era also was reflected in the cards. African-American fighters were frequently referred to as “colored” champions.