Louis Bookman

Louis Bookman (6 November 1890 – 10 June 1943), also known as Louis Buckhalter or Louis Buchalter, was a Lithuanian Jewish footballer and cricketer who represented his adopted country, Ireland, at both sports. The son of a Rabbi, his family emigrated from Lithuania to Ireland in the 1895 to escape antisemitism, and subsequently changed their name to Bookman.

He represented numerous football clubs, moving from Belfast Celtic to English club Bradford City in 1911. Three years later he switched to West Bromwich Albion, before the First World War led him to return to Ireland to play for Glentoran and then Shelbourne. He won the County Antrim Shield with Glentoran and helped Shelbourne to a Leinster Cup and league win in 1918–19. He returned to the Football League of England to sign for Luton Town in 1919, and played over 100 games for the club before joining Port Vale in September 1923. He returned to Shelbourne the following year.

He also won four caps for Ireland, and helped the Irish to claim victory in the 1914 edition of the British Home Championship.

In his cricket career, he represented the Railway Union Cricket Club, the Leinster Cricket Club, Bedfordshire, and Ireland. A left-handed batsman and left-arm spin bowler, he played in nine first-class international matches. After his career in sports was over, he worked in Ireland on the railways, and also entered the jewellery business.

November 6, 1890, is the birthdate of Louis Bookman, a Lithuanian-born rabbi’s son who became the first Jew to play in British soccer’s top professional league, early in the 20th century. He also made quite a name for himself playing cricket later in life – and did all of that in the face of both parents and a wife who found it humiliating to have an athlete in the family.

Bookman was born Louis Buchalter, in Zagare, in today’s Lithuania, one of nine children of Mathias and Jane Buchalter. In 1895, the family boarded a ship with the intention of immigrating to New York. According to family lore, however, they misunderstood an announcement when their ship stopped for provisions in Cork, Ireland, and it is there they alighted.