**Part of the Jewish Encounter series
**
Born Dov-Ber Rasofsky to Eastern European immigrant parents, Barney Ross
grew up in a tough Chicago neighborhood and witnessed his father's
murder, his mother's nervous breakdown, and the dispatching of his three
younger siblings to an orphanage, all before he turned fourteen. To make
enough money to reunite the family, Ross became a petty thief, a
gambler, a messenger boy for Al Capone, and, eventually, an amateur
boxer. Turning professional at nineteen, he would capture the
lightweight, junior welterweight, and welterweight titles over the
course of a ten-year career.
Ross began his career as the scrappy "Jew kid," ended it as an American
sports icon, and went on to become a hero during World War II, earning a
Silver Star for his heroic actions at Guadalcanal. While recovering from
war wounds and malaria he became addicted to morphine, but with fierce
effort he ultimately kicked his habit and then campaigned fervently
against drug abuse. And the fighter who brought his father's religious
books to training camp also retained powerful ties to the world from
which he came. Ross worked for the creation of a Jewish state, running
guns to Palestine and offering to lead a brigade of Jewish American war
veterans.
This first biography of one of the most colorful boxers of the twentieth
century is a galvanizing account of an emblematic life: a revelation of
both an extraordinary athlete and a remarkable man.
