Vox Tablet

In Training

Boxer Yuri Foreman is about to fight for the middleweight title. He’s also studying to be a rabbi.

November 9, 2009
Yuri Foreman (right) lands a punch on Vinroy Barrett of Kingston, Jamaica in an October 2008 bout.(Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images)
Yuri Foreman (right) lands a punch on Vinroy Barrett of Kingston, Jamaica in an October 2008 bout.(Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images)


Yuri Foreman is not afraid of challenges. After being bullied as a kid in Gomel, Belarus, he took up boxing, and was soon able to defeat the bullies. When he was nine years old, he moved with his family to Israel, where he became a national boxing champion. These days, he trains at Gleason’s Gym in Brooklyn and is preparing for a fight Saturday that could win him a world-championship title, the first for an Israeli. But even more daunting, he says, is the work he does each morning and between training sessions: he is studying the Shulchan Aruch, or Jewish code of law, in preparation to become an Orthodox rabbi. Matt Lieber reports the story.

Vox Tablet is Tablet Magazine’s weekly podcast, hosted by Sara Ivry and produced by Julie Subrin. You can listen to individual episodes here or subscribe on iTunes.

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