Fred Lebow’s Race to The Finish

ROADRUNNER The Knickerbocker recently talked with Ron Rubin about his book on the New York City Marathon’s co-founder, “Anything for a T-Shirt: Fred Lebow and the New York City Marathon, the World’s Greatest Footrace” (Syracuse University Press).The book – the first biography of Lebow – has been published on the 10th anniversary of his death. When not writing, Mr. Rubin teaches political science at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, as he has for the last 40 years.Mr. Rubin said Lebow proved that ordinary people could run a marathon. “I was one of these people and I wanted to know, ‘Who was this guy?'” said Mr. Rubin, who has run the 26.2 miles.The book recounts the multifaceted story of Lebow – ne Ephraim Fishl Lebowitz. Born in 1932 in Romania, Lebow survived the Holocaust after the German army arrived late in the war in his Transylvanian town near the Hungarian border. Lebow immigrated to America, studied at Yeshiva Torah Vodaath in Brooklyn, and opened an improvisational theater in Cleveland.Upon his return to the Big Apple, Lebow helped to organize the first New York City Marathon in Central Park in 1970.Mr.Rubin wondered what motivated Lebow to put on a marathon; he concluded that Jewishness contributed to Lebow’s lifelong goal of “inclusiveness.”Mr. Rubin said Lebow’s early core constituents were Upper West Side baby boomers, who were trying to define themselves. The first race had 127 runners and no police. Dog-walkers and bicyclists got in the way. Lebow’s big breakthrough came in 1976, when the race spanned five boroughs and knitted the city together. That event drew about 2,000 entrants.As part of Lebow’s encouraging approach, every finisher received a medal, and every woman, a rose. “You feel like you’re part of one big urban street theater,” Mr. Rubin said. This year, about 37,000 people participated.Through more than 120 interviews, Mr. Rubin tried to discover how Lebow was able to convince the city that never sleeps to shut down for one day a year.Intriguing anecdotes in “Anything for a T-Shirt” include one about those jerseys: One year’s showed the city’s skyline minus the Citcorp building, presumably because Chemical was a sponsor. Readers learn that Lebow is buried at Mount Hebron Cemetery in Queens in block 26 line, matching the number of marathon miles.The book covers Lebow’s battle with cancer (he ran the marathon in 1992 despite a malignant brain tumor) and his decision to take back his given name late in life.Another of Mr. Rubin’s books is about Mayor Giuliani, and one is on Soviet anti-Semitism called “The Unredeemed: Anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union” (Quadrangle).The Bronx-born professor brings journalistic flair to his work. He was editor in chief of Heights Daily News at New York University, where he received his Ph.D. If he hadn’t been an academic, he might have become a newspaperman: After graduate school, he passed up a night-shift job on the copy desk at the New York Times, where he would have earned $75 a week.***FRIENDS AND ENEMIES An assistant professor of history at Kalamazoo College, James Lewis, participated in a conference titled “Columbia’s Legacy: Friends and Enemies in the New Nation” at the New-York Historical Society and at Columbia University as part of Columbia’s 250th year celebration.Speaking at a panel about “Franco-American Diplomacy, 1781-1803,” Mr. Lewis said he was at a triple disadvantage. The audience laughed when he explained: First, he attended William & Mary, which celebrated its 300th anniversary, so he wondered what the fuss was for 250 years; second, he has recently been studying the Burr conspiracy, and Burr’s connection with the figures discussed at the conference was weak; and third, he was still adjusting to his bifocals.

Fred Lebow’s Race to The Finish

Fred Lebow’s Race to The Finish

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