GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — The Triplex Cinema announced two special screenings of the Peabody award-winning documentary "The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg." 

 

On Sunday, Aug. 17 at 4:00 pm director Aviva Kempner and Lou-Ellen Barkan, Hank Greenberg's niece, will speak after the film. The screening is sponsored by the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at Berkshire Community College. Aviva Kempner will also speak after the Aug. 18 7:00 pm screening. 

 

Tickets are available at www.thetriplex.org.

 

According to a press release:

 

Celebrating its 25th anniversary, "The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg," is the story of Baseball Hall-of-Famer Hank Greenberg, the first star Jewish player in Major League Baseball. Playing for the Detroit Tigers during baseball's golden age, Greenberg's batting accomplishments rivaled those of his competitors, and friends, Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. His story is told through archival footage and interviews with "Hammerin' Hank" himself, as well as fans, teammates, friends, and family. 

 

Greenberg faced extraordinary prejudice because of his religion and transcended that prejudice to become an American icon. He also became a beacon  to American Jews who faced bigotry during the depression and World War II. Some of the people interviewed in the film are baseball legends Bob Feller and Charlie Gehringer, as well as former Senator Carl Levin, Dick Schaap, Walter Matthau, and Maury Povich, among others. 

 

Born in New York City in 1911, Greenberg was an outstanding high school athlete, playing baseball, soccer, track and field and basketball, his preferred sport at the time. Recruited by the New York Yankees in 1929, Greenberg turned down the offer to attend New York University, and then signed with the Detroit Tigers and played minor league baseball for six seasons. In 1933 he joined the Tigers and immediately became a hitting powerhouse and helped the Tigers reach the 1934 World Series. Greenberg famously refused to play on the Jewish high holiday of Yom Kippur In 1934, even though the Tigers were in a pennant race at the time. Greenberg was voted Most Valuable Player in the American League in 1935 and the Tigers again made the World Series, winning this time.

 

In 1940, the year Greenberg won his second Most Valuable Player award, he became the first American League player to register for the peacetime draft. Rising to the rank of Sergeant, he was honorably discharged in 1941 because he had reached the age of 28 and was barred from service. In 1942, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, he became the first major league player to re-enlist and was commissioned as a first lieutenant in the Air Corps. In 1944 he was promoted to captain and served in the China-Burma-Indian Theater, scouting locations for B-29 bomber bases. Greenberg ultimately served 47 months, the longest of any major league player. 

 

Returning to baseball, Greenberg helped the 1945 Detroit Tigers again win the World Series before being traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates where he finished out his career. 1947 was the first year that Jackie Robinson played in the major leagues, and Greenberg was one of the few opposing players to publicly welcome Robinson to the majors. In his post-season career, Greenberg joined the Cleveland Indians as general manager where he sponsored more African American players than any other major league executive. Elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1956, Greenberg became  the first Jewish player in the Hall of Fame. HIs batting records are all the more remarkable because of his  years of military service when he did not play.

 

Aviva Kempner is an award-winning documentary filmmaker. Her documentaries investigate non-stereotypical images of Jews in history and focus on untold stories of Jewish people. Her documentary subjects include businessman and philanthropist Julius Rosenwald, radio and television personality Gertrude Berg, and Jewish baseball player and spy Moe Berg. Kempner also produced Partisans of Vilna, a documentary on Jewish resistance against the Nazis and she co-directed and co-produced Imagining the Indians, a documentary about the movement to remove Native American names, logos and mascots from the world of sports. Kempner is currently making a film about award-winning novelist, screenwriter and activist Ben Hecht.

 

"I am excited to return the Berkshires where I have vacationed many times. I will be joined by Hank Greenberg's niece, Lou-Ellen Barkan, for the Sunday screening and look forward to hearing her stories about Hank," Kenper said. "These screenings mark eighty years since Hank Greenberg, after four and half years at war,  returned to baseball and led the Tigers to a World Series win in 1945.  With the current rise of anti-Semitism, this film offers an inspiring example of how a  Jewish athlete broke barriers and navigated an astonishing career, while enduring prejudice and intolerance on and off the field."