Abdul-Jabbar Courts the Jews

By Dawn Swann Special to the Jewish Advocate A 7-foot-2-inch African-American Muslim may not be the first person you’d expect to see lecturing at a Jewish federation event. But last Sunday, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar packed the auditorium of Worcester’s Hanover Theatre for the Harold N. Cotton Leadership Lecture sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Central Massachusetts.…

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Kareem Abdul-Jabbar — the author — helps retell black troops’ role

By Kim Ring TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF WORCESTER —  When retired basketball superstar Kareem Abdul-Jabbar bumped into his father’s good friend Leonard “Smitty” Smith in 1993 at a movie premiere about the 761st Tank Battalion, he learned something he’d never known: The former transit cop was a war hero. Smitty was part of the all-black…

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