Hank Greenberg was born in the Bronx, New York, to an Orthodox Jewish family. He attended James Monroe High School, where he was recognized as a gifted athlete. In 1929, he was recruited by the New York Yankees but turned them down, eventually signing with the Detroit Tigers. Greenberg was not the first American Jew to play professional baseball, but he was the first Jewish super-star in the game. He hit 58 home runs in 1938, falling just three runs short of breaking Babe Ruth’s single-season home run record. In 1934, when the Jewish holidays fell during the American League pennant battle, Greenberg compromised; playing on Rosh Hashanah but attending synagogue on Yom Kippur.