IT'S118 seasons now since the London-born Barnett Joseph Lazarus first took to the field for the Carlton Football Club. At long last, Barney and his like and the seismic contributions they have made to this nation’s sporting antiquity, are the latest subjects of a much-anticipated publication destined to find a place on any bookshelf.
For the first time, tales of Australian Jews and their connection with sport has been captured in a newly-released book People of the Boot: The Triumphs and Tragedy of Australian Jews in Sport. From Australian rules football and rugby league to lawn bowls and mountain climbing, People of the Boot explores the country’s greatest acts of sporting triumph on and off field.
Published by Hybrid Publishers and funded through the support of website Plus61J and philanthropic group the Pratt Foundation, the collection includes contributions from senior journalists including AFL Media’s Howard Kotton, who has chronicled the story of the late Richard Pratt and his profound contributions to the Carlton Football Club for a chapter entitled “Let There Be Light”.
Richard Pratt was president of the Carlton Football Club from 2007 until his death in 2009. (Photo: Supplied)
Inevitably, when one ponders Carlton the powerhouse, thoughts turn to the Pratts and the Smorgons at board level rather than those who have made their mark as players – although Pratt, in another life as the club’s resident Under 19 ruckman - took out the 1953 Morrish Medal for competition best and fairest.
Of Pratt - or Ryszard Przecicki as he was known in the then Free City of Danzig (now the Polish city of Gdansk) before setting foot in the new country in 1938 – Kotton writes.
“It was Richard Pratt, who in 2007 flicked the switch and brought the Carlton Football Club – beloved by him and so many in the Melbourne Jewish community – back to life after years of under‑achievement.
“The story of Pratt’s elevation to the club’s presidency, and his brief but transformative reign, involved obstacles great and small. Much like his own migrant story and the story of his people.”
Collection co-editor Ashley Browne, a senior writer with AFL Media, said the collection is long overdue . . . “and these are genuinely remarkable sporting stories”.
The collection charts early 20th century discrimination experienced by Jews like Barney in Australian sporting clubs and institutions through to integration across all codes, culminating in AFL premierships, world championships, baggy green caps and Olympic medals. It also shines a light on the profound legacy of Jewish sporting administrators, commercial leaders like Pratt and even doctors, whose stories have never been published.
Co-editor Dashiel Lawrence a long-time researcher and writer on Jewish community life in Australia said the collection breaks new ground.
Barney Lazarus, pictured here in later life, played seven games for the Blues in 1902. (Photo: Supplied)
“The literature on Jewish life and history in Australia is outdated. It pays very little attention to the role of sport and its part in individual or collective Jewish identity.
“In conceiving this book, we wanted to cast aside some very well-worn assumptions and stereotypes about what it means to be Jewish. We wanted to introduce new ideas about Jewish experience.”
Click here to learn more about 'People of the Boot: The Triumphs and Tragedy of Australian Jews in Sport'.
