A week before his next fight, boxer Yuri Foreman visited the Rebbe’s Ohel in Queens for a blessing, as is his tradition before each match. Next Saturday night, he will be in the ring, defending his national title at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.
This combination of two very different worlds is familiar to Foreman, a 28-year-old rabbinical student and an undefeated (26-0) professional light middleweight boxer, who wears the Star of David on his boxing trunks and a black yarmulka on his head.
Born in Belarus and raised in Israel, Foreman emigrated to the United States as a teen. After meeting Rabbi DovBer Pinson and attending Shabbat dinners at the Pinson’s home, he and his wife Leyla, previously an amateur boxer herself, began to keep Shabbat and other Jewish laws, and Yuri started wearing tefillin and tzitzis. He refuses to fight on Shabbat.
Foreman now studies Talmud and Yoreh De’ah in the morning, trains for boxing in the afternoon and attends rabbinical classes twice a week with the rabbi at the IYYUN Chabad Institute in Brooklyn.
“Yuri is a very good student,” said Rabbi Pinson, “Most people (in the class) who find out that he’s a boxer are very surprised. He doesn’t have that boxing personality, at least in the perception of what a boxer is. He’s not the rough kid on the block. He’s a sweet, easy-going kid.
When Pinson sent out an email to his students, offering them the opportunity to study in a Semicha program, Foreman jumped at the opportunity.
“Boxing and Judaism go side by side, because they both have a lot of challenges,” he said. “I would love to be a world champion now and a rabbi in the future.”
Yuri’s dream of a world championship is now a reality. He is currently the North American champion and is ranked #4 in the world in his division. On Dec 13, in Atlantic City, Yuri will defend his National title in a match against “Irish” James Moore.
Foreman says he hopes to one day give back to the community, and he says he would love to return to Israel to share what he learned.
“God gave me opportunities,” Foreman said. “I feel like I have to do something in return.”
For ticket information on Yuri’s upcoming match go to TicketMaster.com
800-736-1420
You duh man Yuri
man keep up the good work g-d is with you
hes studing to be a rabbi? pls let us know if al pi din you allow to do this. ushmartem meod lenafshoseichem and other issues are implicated in this. and to 5 pls what kidush hashem is this pls!!! will he refuse to fight another jew? maybe we should also mechanech our kids to learn how to box or carate? the liberal modern ‘chabad’ mentality is a big worm which is loy oleynu kriching in our community. hashem ishmereynu.
Yuri your a true inspiration to us all! We KNOW your shmeering tactics will prove victorious!!
Wishing you the best of luck
from all the CH Pinsons!!
good luck man!i have COMPLETE faith in you yuri!! keep up the great work of being an inspiration and a kiddush hashem to many of us..may we all be fighters against the darkness of golus together, as one people, and bring the light of redemption NOW!
Why dont you look at the kiddush hashem aspect of it like Dmitry Salita who refuses to play on shabbos and the has had the boxing federation switch around his schedule for him and stop brining your fagrebete misnagishe rayos that you probaly read in some stupid artscroll book
B”H
To ‘huge fan,’ etc. Silly and foolish! You’re both probably teenagers or of the same mentality.
The Rebbe would NEVER be maskim to someone involving themselves in the brutal pursuit of boxing for parnossa.
Read what Rabbi Avigdor Miller, A”H wrote about it.
[email protected]
seriously semicha without a beard….
– A FAN
see you at the fight yuri!
your greatest fan mendel