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Barney Ross Was Ring Champ And WWII Hero

By Joe Guzzardi

Born Dov-Ber Rasofsky on December 23, 1909, in New York City to Eastern European Jewish immigrant parents, Barney Ross would become a world champion in three different weight divisions and a decorated World War II hero. His journey from Jewish enclaves to boxing’s elite tells of his determination and toughness that transcended his three world championship titles—welterweight, light welterweight, and lightweight.

Ross was one of several Jewish boxers who anglicized their names to fend off antisemitism, gain wider acceptance, and sell more tickets to boxing matches. Benjamin Leiner, also known as Benny Leonard and considered one of the best lightweights ever, became a dominant champion in the 1910s and 1920s. Vincent Morris Scheer adopted an Irish-sounding name, Mushy Callahan, and won the junior welterweight title in the 1920s.

Known in boxing circles as “The Pride of the Ghetto,” Ross spurned his family’s religious lifestyle and instead, during his troubled teen years, ran with gangsters like fellow Jew Jack Ruby, Lee Harvey Oswald’s murderer. The pair of young hoodlums did Al Capone’s bidding. Ross’s father, Isidore “Itchik” Rosofsky, was a Talmudic scholar who had emigrated to America from his native Brest-Litovsk after barely surviving a pogrom. After the family moved from New York to Chicago, Isidore became a rabbi and owner of a small vegetable shop in Chicago’s Maxwell Street neighborhood, a Jewish ghetto like 1920s New York’s Lower East Side.

Ross’s life changed forever when his father was murdered while resisting a robbery at his small grocery. Grief-stricken, his mother Sarah suffered a nervous breakdown, and his younger siblings—Ida, Sam, and George—were placed in an orphanage or farmed out to other members of the extended family. At age 14, Dov was left to his own devices and turned to boxing.

In his 81-bout professional career, Ross won 74—22 by knockout—against four losses and three draws. Remarkably, Ross, famous for his relentless pace, sharp footwork, ring savvy, and ability to absorb punishment while dishing out precise combinations, was never knocked out.

Retired from the ring at 32, Ross enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps, where he eventually fought in the Pacific Theater’s Battle of Guadalcanal. During one battle, he and three fellow Marines were trapped under enemy fire. All four were wounded; Ross was the only one able to fight. Ross gathered his comrades’ rifles and grenades and single-handedly fought nearly two dozen Japanese soldiers over an entire night, killing them all by morning. He survived 30 shots that ricocheted off his helmet. “The ring is kid’s play compared to the battle out here—this is a finish fight with no holds barred and no referee to break up the clinches,” Ross said. His heroism earned Sergeant Ross, the Silver Star, and a Presidential Citation, which Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivered to him in the Rose Garden.

During his service in Guadalcanal, Ross began an enduring friendship with Catholic priest Frederic Gehring, a wartime chaplain. Gehring considered Ross a national treasure and the only soldier on Guadalcanal who could play the pipe organ. On Christmas Eve, before the Marines were about to go into battle, Gehring asked Ross to play “Silent Night” and other Christmas songs for the troops. After Ross played a Christmas carol medley, Gehring asked the champion for a Jewish song. Ross played “My Yiddishe Momme,” about a child’s love for his self-sacrificing mother. Many of the gathered Marines knew the song from Ross’s boxing days, when it came over the loudspeaker as he entered the ring. When the Marines heard Ross play the song, newspaper reports said that they all wept.

While recovering from malaria and his wounds suffered at Guadalcanal, Ross developed a dependency on morphine. Upon his return stateside, Ross replaced morphine with heroin, an addiction on which he spent $500 a day. Ross went to a recovery center and overcame his addiction. He gave lectures to high school students about the dangers of drug addiction. Ross’s struggle against morphine addiction, which he labeled his life’s toughest battle, is detailed in his autobiographical book, No Man Stands Alone.

In January 1967, after a long struggle with throat cancer, Ross passed away, a champion to Jews and Christians alike.

Joe Guzzardi is an Institute for Sound Policy analyst. Contact him at jguzzardi@ifspp.org

Congress Drops Bill to Cure TDS

By Joe Guzzardi

Within my immediate family, the Trump Derangement Syndrome team outnumbers the MAGAs by an 8–1 ratio. Some on the TDS squad resemble retiring U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi in their passionate anti-Trump rhetoric. After calling President Trump “a vile creature” and “the worst thing on the face of the Earth,” Pelosi told CNN host Anderson Cooper that she could have said “much worse.”

I can understand not liking Trump. He’s long-winded and pats himself on the back too often. On the other hand, Trump takes all the questions, even from the most hostile reporters who can barely hide their contempt for the president. Think fake news king and queen, Jim Acosta and Joy Reid. Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, held the fewest press conferences of any president in modern history. No denying that Trump is, to use politicians’ favorite word, more “transparent” than Biden. For the TDS gang, the elusive Biden never existed; they choose not to mention him — -ever!

Given my family’s mixed history with its Trump opinions, I was struck by the possible TDS solution that Congress introduced: H.R. 3432, the TDS Research Act of 2025 by Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH). The bill’s purpose is “to direct the Director of the National Institutes of Health to conduct or support research to advance the understanding of Trump Derangement Syndrome, and for other purposes.” The act defines TDS as “a behavioral or psychological phenomenon characterized by intense emotional or cognitive reactions to Donald J. Trump, his actions, or his public presence, as observed in individuals or groups.” Under the National Institutes of Health’s auspices, ongoing research will be conducted to advance the understanding of TDS, including its origins, manifestations, and long-term effects.

In his Wall Street Journal article, psychotherapist Jonathan Alpert wrote that about 75 percent his patients are afflicted with TDS. “Patients across the political spectrum have brought Donald Trump into therapy not to discuss policy but to process obsession, rage and dread. Their distress is symptomatic, not ideological.” Among the most common symptoms that Alpert encounters are persistent intrusive thoughts, emotional dysregulation, impaired functioning, sleepless nights, compulsive news checking and physical agitation. In summary, Alpert called TDS an “obsessive political preoccupation” that strains marriages and has fractured friendships, outcomes that, based on my own family’s experiences, I can attest to.

The public reaction to Alpert’s diagnosis proved his point. After the WSJ published Alpert’s op-ed, he expanded his theme on a Fox News appearance and on his social media accounts. Alpert received a barrage of vulgar messages and death threats. Portions of his essay were taken out of context; he was accused of protecting a fascist. Voice mails wished him dead. The frightening messages were not sent by the fringe but rather by individuals who described themselves as compassionate and dedicated to mitigating mental health issues.

If TDS were limited to the area in and around Capitol Hill, the condition might be more understandable. Trump arrived in 2016 as an outsider and immediately disrupted the establishment apple cart. He’s not a Clinton, a Bush, a Biden or an Obama acolyte. No matter how hard the Swamp tried to rid itself of Trump, he refused to go away. In 2024, Trump delivered the cruelest blow to the D.C. institution: He won the presidential election in a landslide.

The most effective way for TDSers to gain credibility and reach a larger audience is to find something — anything — about Trump’s administration that’s praiseworthy, hail it, then dispassionately and without expletives express reservations about the president. The border is Trump’s biggest and most inarguable success. With his Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Trump immediately ended the illegal immigration invasion that admitted countless millions of unvetted foreign nationals including criminals and terrorists. America could not withstand four more years of the Biden/Harris open border agenda that overcrowded schools and hospitals, strained social services, drove housing prices ever higher and contributed to soaring inner-city crime.

Give Trump credit where he’s earned it. By acknowledging the good Trump has done, the TDS victims give their never-Trump agenda more credibility.

Joe Guzzardi is an Institute for Sound Public Policy analyst. Contact him at jguzzardi@ifspp.org