"The 5-foot-10, 200-pound teenage boxer had little reason to cower. When Sinakin stepped into the ring, he was wearing gold trunks with a Star of David emblem on the left leg, following the tradition started by Max Baer, the Jewish fighter who knocked out German heavyweight Max Schmeling in 1933 at Yankee Stadium.
He sees the star, also sometimes described as a shield, as protection.
“The star means a lot to me because when I go in there, I’m not just fighting for me, I’m fighting for my name. I’m fighting for the people I represent,” said Sinakin, a sophomore at The Academy at Palumbo, a magnet school in South Philadelphia where the young amateur fighter lives with his family.
The people he represents, aside from the wider Jewish community, he said, are his father, Lincoln Sinakin, and his older brother, Demetrie Sinakin, 19, a boxer who also fought for the city championship and is known as the “Jewish Brown Bomber.” (Their mother was born on the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent and both sons have her dark complexion.)"
Teen Jewish boxer wins Philadelphia Golden Gloves, advances to May regionals...
ReplyDelete"The 5-foot-10, 200-pound teenage boxer had little reason to cower. When Sinakin stepped into the ring, he was wearing gold trunks with a Star of David emblem on the left leg, following the tradition started by Max Baer, the Jewish fighter who knocked out German heavyweight Max Schmeling in 1933 at Yankee Stadium.
He sees the star, also sometimes described as a shield, as protection.
“The star means a lot to me because when I go in there, I’m not just fighting for me, I’m fighting for my name. I’m fighting for the people I represent,” said Sinakin, a sophomore at The Academy at Palumbo, a magnet school in South Philadelphia where the young amateur fighter lives with his family.
The people he represents, aside from the wider Jewish community, he said, are his father, Lincoln Sinakin, and his older brother, Demetrie Sinakin, 19, a boxer who also fought for the city championship and is known as the “Jewish Brown Bomber.” (Their mother was born on the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent and both sons have her dark complexion.)"
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Great picture in the South Philly Review, too...