Former Milwaukee Bucks player and general manager Ernie Grunfeld is believed to be the only athlete in NBA history whose parents survived the Holocaust. A longtime figure in the public eye, audiences know very little about Jewish aspects of his life.
His son, Dan Grunfeld, himself a former professional basketball player for eight seasons, has written a book about his father and grandparents titled, “By the Grace of the Game: The Holocaust, a Basketball Legacy, and an Unprecedented American Dream.”
Dan will be speaking about the book and his family in a virtual event at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 6. The book talk is presented by the Nathan and Esther Pelz Holocaust Education Resource Center, a program of Milwaukee Jewish Federation. The talk is sponsored by Michael and Kari Altman.
Dan, 37, is an accomplished writer for publications as diverse as Sports Illustrated and the Jerusalem Post.
He explains the origins of the book, which was five years in the making and published by Triumph Books in November. “Knowing the kind of profound impact that basketball had on our family, as I got older and understood the story more and more, it all kind of coalesced,” said Dan, who starred in basketball at Nicolet High School and later at Stanford University.
After his professional basketball career in top leagues around the world, including Israel, he retired, got his M.B.A. at Stanford and now works in venture capital in the San Francisco Bay area.
Dan’s family has deep roots in Wisconsin. His grandfather, Gerald “Jerry” Kahn, was one of the original owners of the Milwaukee Bucks, founder of the law firm Godfrey & Kahn, a philanthropist and a leader for Milwaukee Jewish Federation.
Dan’s father Ernie was drafted by the Milwaukee Bucks in 1977. It was how Ernie met Dan’s mother Nancy Kahn, who is from Milwaukee. Ernie continued to play professionally until he became an executive with the Knicks in the 1980s. Later, Ernie and Nancy moved with their son Dan to Milwaukee and attended Congregation Shalom. Ernie served as general manager for the Milwaukee Bucks.
Born in rural Romania, Dan’s grandmother Lily Grunfeld, now 96, was saved twice by Swedish Diplomat Raoul Wallenberg—first by issuing false citizenship documents to Jews in Hungary; second by personally convincing Nazi guards not to gun down the 80,000 Jews left in the Budapest Ghetto at the end of the war.
“My grandma was hiding in a burnt-out building, crammed into a small attic space with her fellow prisoners,” Dan has written. She lost both parents and five of her nine siblings in the Holocaust. Dan’s grandfather was in a forced labor camp in Hungary.
The book illustrates how basketball transformed Ernie Grunfeld from an immigrant outcast to an Olympic gold medalist for the U.S.
“There are difficult things in my family’s history, but there’s much more light. This is a hopeful and inspirational story.”
Dan feels an obligation to tell his family’s Holocaust story. “If we don’t tell these stories, no one else will. We need to make sure that it never happens again and not just the Jews, to anyone else. We need to remember those who are lost, honor those who survived.”
His father is now 66 and lives in the Washington, D.C. area. He gives to philanthropic causes and, from time to time, is known to assist people in the sports world, Dan said.
“When he read the book, he was very proud of me and very grateful that I told this story, but it was also difficult to relive some painful moments from the past.”
Register for Dan Grunfeld’s talk at HolocaustCenterMilwaukee.org/Events.
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What: Book talk: “By the Grace of the Game: The Holocaust, A Basketball Legacy, and an Unprecedented American Dream.”
When: Sunday, Feb. 6, 2 p.m.
Where: Virtually, with the Nathan and Esther Pelz Holocaust Education Resource Center.
Register: HolocaustCenterMilwaukee.org/Events
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Editor’s note: A prior version of this article, in print, included a sub-headline that misstated which Milwaukee Jewish Federation program is responsible for the Feb. 6 event, “By the Grace of the Game: The Holocaust, a Basketball Legacy, and an Unprecedented American Dream.” The Nathan and Esther Pelz Holocaust Education Resource Center is the organizer of the event. We apologize and regret the error.
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