The pigskin rabbi
By: Willard Manus.
Publisher: Breakaway Books
Published: 1999
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 300
Subjects: Rabbis -- Fiction; Quarterbacks (Football) -- Fiction; Football players -- Fiction; New York (N.Y.) -- Fiction
Genres: Fiction.; Fiction
Description: In this madcap comic novel, a young orthodox rabbi becomes a pro football superstar. Ezekiel "Ziggy" Cantor becomes (by a strange sequence of events) the quarterback of the New York Giants, drilling passes with godlike accuracy, kicking miraculous field goals, playing out of pure love of the game, and catapulting the team toward invincibility.

Ziggy's Judaism, formerly a burden in gentile society, now becomes the apparent source of all good - for him, for the team, for its coaches and owners, for the fans and sportswriters. His teammates - convinced of the luck of the Jewish - start eating kosher food during games, prepared by Ziggy's kindly grandmother. The Giants fans chant lustily in Yiddish. Gucci-made Giants yarmelkehs are all the rage in Manhattan. New York takes Ziggy to its heart - he is a homegrown hero.

Even his grandmother becomes a celebrity. Judaism is hip, it's in, and is all-empowering. The backlash from some less-hip characters - the murderous second-string quarterback, every other team in the league, and a band of Christian fundamentalists - only serves to heat things up in the second half. Meanwhile, Ziggy is tormented by doubts about the seriousness of his faith, by the implications of his affair with a gorgeous shiksa, and by his betrayal of his father.