>>>>I'm surprised to hear that some Jews don't observe Yom Kippur.
>>>
>>>Just as there are Christians who consider themselves Christian but never go to church except Christmas, there are Jews who never go to synagogue except on the "High Holidays" (Rosh Hashanna and Yom Kippur).
>>>
>>>Just as there are Christians who never go to church there are Jews who never go to synagogue at all. They don't observe any of the laws or rituals "required" by the religion. For many years I was one of them (eating a ham and cheese sandwich during Passover, for example). But they (we) still identify ourselves as Jews with a strong attachment to the cultural and ethnic aspects of being Jewish. And, except for the ultra-orthodox, they are recognized as Jews by those who are more "observant."
>>>
>>>>While in college I was caddymaster at an all Jewish golf club on Long Island.
>>>>The members were widely divergent in their religious observance the rest of the year but absolutely no one played golf on Yom Kippur.
>>>
>>>I suspect that is more of a matter of social pressure than religious observance. There would be a social stigma attached to playing golf on Yom Kippur at that club. My strong expectation is that they were playing somewhere else. Or perhaps even at work (yes, there are Jews who go to work on Yom Kippur).
>>
>>I think at the time that Bill's talking about, that pressure was even stronger and that virtually nobody who thought of themselves as Jewish would play golf anywhere on Yom Kippur because of how it would look. ("A shanda fur der goyim.") Today, not so much.
>>
>
>As a fellow baseball fan only a year younger than me I'm sure you remember Sandy Koufax refusing to pitch a World Series game because it was on Yom Kippur. It was kind of controversial at the time.

I don't remember it happening. (My birth family was pretty much non-sports.) But it would be hard to be an American Jew of my generation and not know about it, That's considered a moment of pride by the Jewish community.

FWIW, Hank Greenberg refused to play on Yom Kippur as well, though it wasn't the World Series, but that was in 1934. Pretty cool story:

"Late in the 1934 season, he announced that he would not play on September 10, which was Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, or on September 19, the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. Fans grumbled, "Rosh Hashanah comes every year but the Tigers haven't won the pennant since 1909." Greenberg did considerable soul-searching, and discussed the matter with his rabbi; finally he relented and agreed to play on Rosh Hashanah, but stuck with his decision not to play on Yom Kippur. Dramatically, Greenberg hit two home runs in a 2–1 Tigers victory over Boston on Rosh Hashanah. The next day's Detroit Free Press ran the Hebrew lettering for "Happy New Year" across its front page." (Wikipedia)

Tamar