About the Blog

Educating fellow Jews about the sporting and defensive use of firearms. Especially Jews in North America, too many of whom are instilled with the belief that guns aren't for nice Jewish boys and girls.

If you know of notable Jewish shooters that should be documented on the blog, even if it is only at the local club level, I am happy to report and profile them. And don't be shy if that person to be documented is you! Please drop me a line at jewishmarksman at gmail dot com. Also follow me on twitter @JMarksmanship.

Friday, May 28, 2010

Morris Fisher - Greatest Jewish Marksman?

Today on The Rifleman's Journal (and also here) there is a great story about Morris Fisher, one of the greatest rifle shooters of all time. A summary of the article doesn't do justice, just go and read it! If you must have the bare bones summary from Wikipedia:
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Morris Fisher (May 4, 1890 – May 23, 1968) was an American sports shooter who competed in the 1920 Summer Olympics and in the 1924 Summer Olympics. He won a total of five olympic gold medals. He was the author of Mastering the Pistol (1940) and Mastering the Rifle (1940).
He was born in Youngstown, Ohio, and died in Honolulu, Hawaii. Fisher frequently competed in shooting tournaments while on duty as a United States Marine. He retired from the Marine Corps as a Sergeant Major and in April 2009, he was inducted into the United States Marine Corps Sports Hall of Fame.

So of course I ask, with a name like Morris Fisher....was he Jewish? I believe so, but could not verify 100% using Google. Here's what I found:

1. Books.google.com gave me some hits, but only snippets are available:
a. American Hebrew and Jewish messenger, Volume 115, Issue 4:
b. Studies in the American Jewish experience: contributions from the fellowship ... By Jacob Rader Marcus, Abraham J. Peck:c.
-->-->Jews and the Olympic Games: sport : a springboard for minorities By Paul Yogi Mayer2. Aside from the book snippets, a web site listing prominent Jews does identify him as Jewish (go to sports, then shooting).

3. On the blog Grunt.com blog I found someone posted "I think I read he is in the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. VERY interesting Marine. " However, I could not find him in any Jewish Sports Hall of Fame lists on the Internet...

The snippets from the books are the most persuasive, but if anyone has more proof please let me know! Perhaps someday Google will publish the entire pages...or a Jewish genealogy buff will help me out.

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