senior lifestyle
Jerry Izenberg,
Who Worked as a
Reporter for 72 Years,
Publishes New Memoir
The Sager Group, LLC and Courtesy of Jerry Izenberg via JTA
Jacob Gurvis | JTA.org
T hroughout an illustrious 72-year career as a
newspaper reporter, Jerry Izenberg has just about
seen it all.

The longtime columnist for The Star-Ledger in Newark,
New Jersey, Izenberg covered the fi rst 53 Super Bowls.

He’s been to 58 Kentucky Derbies, not to mention
numerous Olympics, World Cups and boxing matches.

He considered Muhammad Ali a close personal friend.

But the fi ery 92-year-old, who still contributes to
the paper as a columnist emeritus from his home in
Nevada, doesn’t approve of the term “journalist.” He’s
a newspaperman.

He dropped the name of Samuel Pepys, the 17th-cen-
tury British diarist, as a contrast.

“Every day he took his big diary, and he wrote what
he did this day, what he was planning to do later —
that’s a journalist,” Izenberg said. “I’m not in my world.

I’m in the world of other people trying to interpret and
to repeat what values they have or what lack thereof
they have.”
Izenberg’s latest story breaks that rule. His 17th
book, which recently hit shelves, is a memoir about his
Jewish upbringing in Newark. Titled “Baseball, Nazis,
and Nedick’s Hot Dogs: Growing Up Jewish in the
See Izenberg, page 30
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM 17