This list of Jewish athletes in sports contains athletes who are Jewish and have attained outstanding achievements in sports. The topic of Jewish participation in sports is discussed extensively in academic and popular literature.
Sports have been a historical avenue for Jewish people to overcome obstacles toward their participation in secular society. Many Jewish people immigrated from the countries where they had faced persecution to the United States or have made an Aliyah to the State of Israel.[1][2][3]
The criteria for inclusion in this list are:
1–3 places winners at major international tournaments;
For team sports, winning in preliminary competitions of finals at major international tournaments, or playing for several seasons for clubs of major national leagues; or
To be included in the list, one does not necessarily have to practice Judaism. Some members of the list may practice another faith or not at all; although they do have to be of either ethnic Jewish descent or other Judaism-related background.
^See, e.g.: Encyclopedia of Jewish people in Sports by Bernard Postal, Jesse Silver, Roy Silver (1965); Great Jewish Athletes in Sports by Robert Slater (2003), ISBN0-8246-0453-9; Emancipation Through Muscles: Jews and Sports in Europe by Michael Brenner, Gideon Reuveni (2006), ISBN0-8032-1355-7; Jewish, Sports, and the Rites of Citizenship ed. Jack Kugelmass (2007), ISBN0-252-07324-X; Ellis Island to Ebbets Field: Sport and the American Jewish Experience by Peter Levine (1993) ISBN0-19-508555-8; Judaism's Encounter with American Sports by Jeffrey S. Gurock (2005) ISBN0-253-34700-9.