Just and Righteous Causes : Rabbi Ira Sanders and the Fight for Racial and Social Justice in Arkansas, 1926-1963

**Winner, 2019 Booker Worthen Prize from the Central Arkansas Library System.** A dedicated advocate for social justice long before the term entered everyday usage, Rabbi Ira Sanders began striving against the Jim Crow system soon after he arrived in Little Rock from New York in 1926. Sanders, who led Little Rock’s Temple B’nai Israel for nearly forty years, was a trained social worker as well as a rabbi and his career as a dynamic religious and community leader in Little Rock spanned the traumas of the Great Depression, World War II and the Holocaust, and the social and racial struggles of the 1950s and 1960s. __Just and Righteous Causes__—a full biographical study of this bold social-activist rabbi—examines how Sanders expertly navigated the intersections of race, religion, and gender to advocate for a more just society. It joins a growing body of literature about the lives and histories of Southern rabbis, deftly balancing scholarly and narrative tones to provide a personal look into the complicated position of the Southern rabbi and the Jewish community throughout the political struggles of the twentieth-century South. Introduction : sport and American cold war culture / Toby C. Rider & Kevin Witherspoon -- Projecting America : sport and early U.S. cold war propaganda, 1947-1960 / Toby C. Rider -- Millard Lampell : from football to the blacklist / Dennis Gildea -- The "big arms" race : doping and the cold war defense of American exceptionalism / John T. Gleaves & Matthew P. Llewellyn -- Preserving "the American way" : Gerald R. Ford, the President's Commission on Olympic Sports, and the fight against state-funded sport in America / Nevada Cooke & Robert K. Barney -- "Wolves in skirts?" : sex testing in cold war women's sport / Lindsay Parks Pieper -- America's team : the U.S. Women's National Basketball Team confronts the Soviets, 1958-1969 / Kevin B. Witherspoon -- To win one for the Gipper : football and the fashioning of a cold warrior / Katelyn Aguilar -- "An outstanding representative of America" : Mal Whitfield and America's Black sports ambassadors in Africa / Kevin B. Witherspoon -- "One of the greatest ambassadors that the United States has ever sent abroad" : Wilma Rudolph, American athletic icon for the cold war and civil rights movement / Cat Ariail -- Defying the cultural boycott : Arthur Ashe, the anti-apartheid activist / Damion L. Thomas -- Sport is not so separate from politics : diplomatic manipulation of Germany's postwar return to the Olympic movement / Heather L. Dichter -- Sport and American foreign policy during the 1960s / Thomas M. Hunt -- In defense of a neoliberal America: Ronald Reagan, domestic policy, and the Soviet boycott of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games / Bradley J. Congelio -- Olympic spectacles in the next "American century" : sport and nationalism in a post-cold war world / Mark Dyreson

Winner, 2019 Booker Worthen Prize from the Central Arkansas Library System. A dedicated advocate for social justice long before the term entered everyday usage, Rabbi Ira Sanders began striving against the Jim Crow system soon after he arrived in Little Rock from New York in 1926. Sanders, who led Little Rock's Temple B'nai Israel for nearly forty years, was a trained social worker as well as a rabbi and his career as a dynamic religious and community leader in Little Rock spanned the traumas of the Great Depression, World War II and the Holocaust, and the social and racial struggles of the 1950s and 1960s.

Just and Righteous Causes —a full biographical study of this bold social-activist rabbi—examines how Sanders expertly navigated the intersections of race, religion, and gender to advocate for a more just society. It joins a growing body of literature about the lives and histories of Southern rabbis, deftly balancing scholarly and narrative tones to provide a personal look into the complicated position of the Southern rabbi and the Jewish community throughout the political struggles of the twentieth-century South.

Winner, 2019 Booker Worthen Prize from the Central Arkansas Library System. A dedicated advocate for social justice long before the term entered everyday usage, Rabbi Ira Sanders began striving against the Jim Crow system soon after he arrived in Little Rock from New York in 1926. Sanders, who led Little Rock’s Temple B’nai Israel for nearly forty years, was a trained social worker as well as a rabbi and his career as a dynamic religious and community leader in Little Rock spanned the traumas of the Great Depression, World War II and the Holocaust, and the social and racial struggles of the 1950s and 1960s. Just and Righteous Causes —a full biographical study of this bold social-activist rabbi—examines how Sanders expertly navigated the intersections of race, religion, and gender to advocate for a more just society. It joins a growing body of literature about the lives and histories of Southern rabbis, deftly balancing scholarly and narrative tones to provide a personal look into the complicated position of the Southern rabbi and the Jewish community throughout the political struggles of the twentieth-century South. The Cold War was fought in every corner of society, including in the sport and entertainment industries. Recognizing the importance of culture in the battle for hearts and minds, the United States, like the Soviet Union, attempted to win the favor of citizens in nonaligned states through the soft power of sport. Athletes became de facto ambassadors of US interests, their wins and losses serving as emblems of broader efforts to shield American culture—both at home and abroad—against communism. In "Defending the American way of life", leading sport historians present new perspectives on high-profile issues in this era of sport history alongside research drawn from previously untapped archival sources to highlight the ways that sports influenced and were influenced by Cold War politics. Surveying the significance of sports in Cold War America through lenses of race, gender, diplomacy, cultural infiltration, anti-communist hysteria, doping, state intervention, and more, this collection illustrates how this conflict remains relevant to US sporting institutions, organizations, and ideologies today "The Cold War was fought in every corner of society, including in the sport and entertainment industries. Recognizing the importance of culture in the battle for hearts and minds, the United States, like the Soviet Union, attempted to win the favor of citizens in nonaligned states through the soft power of sport. Athletes became de facto ambassadors of US interests, their wins and losses serving as emblems of broader efforts to shield American culture--both at home and abroad--against communism. In Defending the American Way of Life leading sport historians present new perspectives on high-profile issues in this era alongside research drawn from previously untapped archival sources to highlight how sports influenced and were influenced by Cold War politics. Surveying the significance of sports in Cold War America through lenses of race, gender, diplomacy, cultural infiltration, anticommunist panic, doping, state intervention, and more, this collection illustrates how the legacy of this conflict remains relevant to US sporting institutions, organizations, and ideologies today"--Back cover "A dedicated advocate for social justice long before the term entered everyday usage, Rabbi Ira Sanders began striving against the Jim Crow system soon after he arrived in Little Rock from New York in 1926. Sanders, who led Little Rock's Temple B'nai Israel for nearly forty years, was a trained social worker as well as a rabbi and his career as a dynamic religious and community leader in Little Rock spanned the traumas of the Great Depression, World War II and the Holocaust, and the social and racial struggles of the 1950s and 1960s. Just and Righteous Causes--a full biographical study of this bold social-activist rabbi--examines how Sanders expertly navigated the intersections of race, religion, and gender to advocate for a more just society. It joins a growing body of literature about the lives and histories of Southern rabbis, deftly balancing scholarly and narrative tones to provide a personal look into the complicated position of the Southern rabbi and the Jewish community throughout the political struggles of the twentieth-century South"-- Provided by publisher "Little Rock Rabbi Ira Sanders was a dynamic force for social justice and racial equality in Arkansas. His lifetime devotion and many activities on behalf of bold social activism provide a means to analyze not only his specific contributions to Arkansas history, but also the larger story of the movements for racial and social justice in Arkansas and the twentieth-century south. This is the first biography written about this influential figure in Little Rock history"-- Provided by publisher