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10/26/2004 Archived Entry: "Sam Kellerman, Life and Yiddish Book Center"
Sam Kellerman, Life and Yiddish Book Center
By Umar Lee
For all boxing fans, and in particular those in the New York-area, the Kellermans have been a great source for boxing information and entertainment. It can be said that they have helped reach out to a new generation of boxing fans and have helped bring boxing back into the mainstream sports conversation. For a family that has given so much to the sport of boxing it is very sad to see that Sam Kellerman, someone who loves boxing, murdered by one of boxings own; the arumloifer (street punk) James Butler, a feier zol im trefen (may he burn up if proven to be guilty).
I only met Sam a couple of times, but from what I knew of him he was a Choshever mentsh (nice guy) and we should all mourn the loss and mourn for his family. This separates the civilized from the uncivilized, those who respect the dignity of human life and its value, and those who have no respect for the life of humans and will murder people without hesitation or for a pair of sneakers and ten bucks. This is a time when all in the fight game should examine themselves.Boxing is a regulated athletic competition and there is no way that boxers should be threatening the lives of one another and making the ignorant and hollow statements such as "I'm going to kill him", " I'm a killer", etc. You may have noticed that I used some Yiddish phrases earlier, that is because Max Kellerman has requested that in leiu of donations that interested parties donate to the National Yiddish Book Center www.yiddishbookcenter.org , which is an organization dedicated to preserving the Yiddish language for the generations to come. I strongly encourage all to donate in his memory.
Editor's Note: Outside of the fact that the two were blood related, it's not too difficult to understand how much Sam Kellerman meant to his older brother Max and their close family. Though I never had the fortune of meeting Sam, you knew there must have been a tight bond between the two. Over the years, the siblings would attend prize-fights together and they even recorded music together. Whenever one catches up with Max, he always poses the question, "How is your family doing?" 'Family' means something to the Kellermans and they are clearly a bunch that possesses good human, old-fashioned values. Max, I'm so terribly sorry this has happened. The CBZ would like to extend its deepest condolences to the Kellerman family. - J.D. Vena
