By Bruce F. Lowitt
Jewish Press of Tampa
TAMPA, Florida — Jeff Halpern is an assistant coach with the Tampa Bay Lightning, which resumed play Aug. 3.
It was Wednesday night, Oct. 12, 2005, and the Washington Capitals were suiting up to play the Carolina Hurricanes in Raleigh, N.C. – all but Caps center Jeff Halpern. He would not skate that night.
It was Yom Kippur and, like the Dodgers’ Sandy Koufax, who would not pitch on the Day of Atonement in the World Series 40 years earlier, Halpern’s faith precluded him from playing on the highest of Holy Days.
“My role models go back to my mom and my dad; their background and their identity was always important to me,” said Halpern, 43, in his second season as an assistant coach with the Tampa Bay Lightning following 14 seasons as a player in the National Hockey League, including two with the Lightning.
“But even growing up, seeing Koufax and other (Jewish) players, different athletes, and knowing what it meant to other people – Sandy Koufax sitting out a game in the World Series – it obviously had a big impact on my dad and his family,” Halpern said. “You grow up in that environment, you understand that. With your heritage and your background comes the weight of a lot of people looking up to you. So, I do take pride in those moments.”
Halpern will become only the second hockey player to be inducted into the Jewish Sports Heritage Association, joining Mike Hartman, who played 58 of his 397 career games with the 1992- 93 Lightning during nine NHL seasons. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman also has been so honored.
The induction ceremony at Temple Israel of Lawrence on Long Island, New York., was originally planned for April 26, but the Coronavirus pandemic forced cancellation of the program until 2021, at a date to be announced.
Among this year’s other inductees are former Boston Red Sox infielder Kevin Youkilis, former NBA Commissioner David Stern, author Mitch Albom, boxing analyst Al Bernstein, and the late Ed Sabol and his son, Steve, co-founders of NFL Films.
Halpern says his Judaism is “somewhere between Reform and Conservative.” He is not a member of any local synagogue.
Alan Freedman, director of the Jewish Sports Heritage Association, said it has “basically two criteria for induction – that the individual considers himself or herself Jewish and that he or she has achieved a significant level of success.”
“I’m trying to educate the public, hopefully break down some barriers. People say ‘Jewish athlete’ is an oxymoron. They don’t realize how hearing these things can dig in and hurt. I tell them, ‘Don’t start with the stereotypes,’” Freedman said. “What we’re trying to do is educate people.”
Halpern married Kelley Cornwell in 2011. She converted to Judaism before they wed. He and the former Washington Football Team cheerleader, a licensed medical aesthetician, live in Tampa and have four children. But as far as any of the kids following in his footsteps, “They haven’t taken to hockey. They’ve enjoyed skating as they’ve gotten older but they’ve never gotten into the sport. I’d like it if the girls did.”
Halpern was born in Potomac, Maryland, in 1976, two years after the birth of the Capitals, an NHL expansion team that played about a half-hour drive away in the Capital Centre in Landover, Maryland. His parents, Mel and Gloria, had him on skates by the time he was 3 years old. By 9 he was playing for the Little Capitals, a youth hockey team that competed up and down the eastern seaboard.
At 15 he enrolled at St. Paul’s, a prep school (and hockey power) in Concord, New Hampshire. But he was regarded as too small except for some Division III colleges. So, his next step was a year of Junior B hockey in Stratford, Ontario, Canada, where he not only excelled but grew to 6 feet. Princeton University took notice and, as a junior, he had 28 goals and 25 assists in 36 games as the Tigers won the Eastern College Athletic Conference and made it to the NCAA Tournament quarterfinals.
No NHL team drafted him, but the Capitals, who had invited him to training camp to skate with other prospects, offered him a contract. Halpern spent six seasons with the Caps and, during the 2004-05 NHL lockout, he played in Switzerland.
After the 2005-06 season Halpern became a free agent and signed with the Dallas Stars. Two years later he was traded to the Lightning and after that he played for Los Angeles, Montreal (twice), Washington again, the New York Rangers and, in 2013-14, Phoenix.
“I wanted to play again the next season,” he said, “so I basically kept on skating on my own until January 2015. Then I decided to pursue coaching, so I got into some youth hockey and development hockey programs in the Washington, D.C., area before joining the Lightning” as its player development coach.
The following two years he was a full-time assistant coach with the Syracuse Crunch, Tampa Bay’s top farm team, before becoming an assistant coach for the Lightning on June 22, 2018. “During summers we’ve gone back to Washington and back to the Syracuse area, but right now we consider this home,” he said.
It was during that 2004-05 season overseas that tragedy struck. His mother, Gloria, an aunt and uncle and a fourth person were in Davie on Florida’s east coast when the driver of a fuel tanker lost control of his 18-wheeler. It flipped over, landed on their car and exploded, killing all four passengers.
Halpern is reticent to talk about the accident but says he believes his competitiveness comes from his mother. “It was her work ethic,” he said. “She was a teacher and an accountant. She was always working. Growing up, I remember the light always being on in her office. And whenever there were any board games or family games, basketball – anything – her competitive nature always showed up.”
Previously, potential nominees had to be present in order to be inducted into the Jewish Sports Heritage Association. But some were bypassed because they couldn’t commit to attending. “This year we waived the requirement,” Freedman said. “If they’re that good an athlete, coach, broadcaster, whatever, they need to be honored. … They’ve got lives, they’ve got commitments. We understand that.”
Halpern was one of the candidates passed over several times because the Lightning were in the NHL playoffs when the ceremonies were being held – and they would have been playing for the Stanley Cup in April as well before the league “paused” the season March 12 due to the coronavirus.
Games resumed Aug. 3 with a 24-team Stanley Cup round robin, played in two Canadian cities, Toronto and Edmonton. As the second seed in the Eastern Conference, the Lightning are playing the other top three teams Boston, Philadelphia and Washington to determine the seeding for the first round of the playoffs.
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Bruce F. Lowitt is a freelance writer based in the Tampa Bay area of Florida. This article initially appeared in the Jewish Press of Tampa.