last word
Lou Moyerman
Sasha Rogelberg | Staff Writer
L ou Moyerman has competed in
the Maccabiah Games in two
sports: judo, which he’s practiced
for 58 of his 70 years of life, and
Bavarian curling, which he learned in
an hour and a half.

Regardless of the event in which
he’s competing, Moyerman has shown
a lifetime commitment to sports,
particularly in Jewish communities. In
1981, Moyerman competed in his first
Maccabiah Games in judo, and his
team won gold. He went on to coach
the USA Maccabi judo team for the
1989, 1993, 1997 and 2001 Maccabiah
Games, helping him earn an induction
in the Philadelphia Jewish Sports Hall
of Fame with the 2004/2005 class.

Moyerman’s credentials don’t end
there. He was a gold medalist in the
1982 National Masters, the 2002-2003
Midwestern Championships, the 2004
Keystone State Games and an eight-
time gold medal winner in the USA
National Championships. When he
wasn’t competing, Moyerman was
coaching Temple University’s judo team
— which he formed in 1969 — until 1977.

The lifelong Philadelphian and Northeast
Philadelphia resident taught physical
education in Philadelphia public schools
for 35 years, retiring 11 years ago.

Retirement simply afforded more
time to invest in Jewish community
sports. Moyerman serves on the
board of the Maccabi USA Executive
Committee and was the general chair
for the 21st Maccabiah in 2022.

Most recently, his leadership took
him to Germany, where Maccabi USA
helped support and compete in the
Makkabi Deutschland Winter Games
from Jan. 2-9, the first Maccabi winter
games since Czechoslovakia hosted
the Olympic-style tournament in
1936. Judo is not a winter sport, but
convinced by the young, energetic
German team to compete in the games,
Moyerman picked up Bavarian curling.

He had one day to learn the sport, a
variation on curling where athletes
fling ice stocks with vertical handles
across the icy surface toward a target.

“We just want to go over and have a
good time and try it,” Moyerman said.

“We did.”
Moyerman and the rest of Team USA
placed fourth in the event, though
Team USA took home 18 medals in
the tournament with more than 350
athletes. Though medalless, winning
was never what brought Moyerman to
Ruhpolding, Germany, for the games.

“I find myself still in awe when I
see all Jewish athletes compete,”
Moyerman said.

Every Maccabiah game Moyerman
has attended has instilled a similar
feeling: “I just think it’s a pride. Feeling
like we are as good as anybody else.

... Whether it’s basketball, soccer — or
whatever sport it is — karate, judo,
you’re going to go home more proud
to be a Jew.”
Sports weren’t always a source of
pride for Moyerman, and his foray into
judo was not his decision.

When Moyerman was 12, he and
his friends spent a day in Center City
“horsing around,” when they were
approached by a group of kids.

“​​We basically got jumped by some
kids there,” Moyerman said. “Nothing
really happened. Nobody got hurt. But
the parents of the other boys and my
dad started talking about what could
they do for us to learn something, to
help defend ourselves.”
Moyerman enrolled in a judo class
taught by Helen Foos, one of the first
women black belts in the country.

Though reluctant at first, Moyerman
learned to enjoy the sport. It taught
him discipline, about competition and
getting up after being knocked down.

“It prepares you for life,” he said.

“Sometimes I’ve looked at some of the
things that I do in life through judo.”
One of the larger Olympic sports,
judo has its fair share of Jewish super-
stars in the sport. In 1964, Jewish
athlete Jimmy Bregman competed
with the U.S.’s first Olympic judo
team, earning a bronze medal. (He
won gold in the Maccabiah Games a
year later.) Rena “Rusty” Kanokogi,
a Jewish athlete from Coney Island,
was the first woman to train with male
judo students. She coached the U.S.

Olympic team in 1988.

The Jewish pride instilled in playing
sports with other Jews can help
combat antisemitism, Moyerman said.

He remembered a young athlete he
coached at a previous Maccabiah
game attending a talking with an
athlete who survived the Munich
Massacre, a terrorist attack at the 1972
Olympic games. The young competitor
told Moyerman that just attending that
talk made the games worth it.

Despite being surrounded by snow
and ice for a week, Moyerman’s Jewish
pride was “a warm feeling that you get
inside your body,” he said. ■
srogelberg@midatlanticmedia.com JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
27 Courtesy of Sheryl Raskin
A LIFELONG JEWISH ATHLETE