DALLAS — It is a good bet that in the 50 years Cowboys history has overlapped the 5,770 years of Jewish history, no player ever before uttered the word "Elohim" inside the team's training facility.
That streak ended last week when Igor Olshansky dropped the word in a discussion about his religious faith. Toweling off beads of sweat outside the weight room, where he had just finished inordinate repetitions with almost inhuman numbers of pounds, Olshansky mentioned Elohim.
It was a conversation stopper. Time for one more repetition.
"Elohim?"
"Elohim," Olshansky replied.
"Elohim" is the third Hebrew word in the Bible. It is repeated often throughout the Old Testament as well as Jewish prayer services. It means "God."
"I don't try to please Elohim with everything I do; I couldn't," Olshansky said. "If I did, I wouldn't be playing sports, I couldn't be playing sports."
Olshansky, a 6-6, 315-pound run-stopping defensive end whom the Cowboys last spring imported as a free agent, doesn't claim to be an observant Jew. But he is a proud Jew. The identical Stars of David tattooed along his massive clavicles bear witness. In a sports world with relatively few Jewish athletes, and fewer who talk openly about their religion, he has become a role model of sorts to Jewish children. That's what happened back in San Francisco, where he grew up, and in San Diego, where he played the last five seasons for the Chargers. Perhaps it will happen in Dallas someday as well.
"I am who I am," Olshansky said. "I am a Jew, a spiritual person who has my own personal relationship with God. I try to be a good person . . . and although I never chose to be a role model, I don't mind it."
For Rabbi Pinchas Lipner, dean of San Francisco's orthodox Lisa Kampner Hebrew Academy, the Soviet-born Olshansky is not only a good Jew but a proper role model. Lipner was Olshansky's teacher.
"He's a mensch," Lipner said, choosing a Yiddish word that roughly translates into a person of integrity and honor.
Olshansky attended the Hebrew Academy after his family immigrated to San Francisco in 1989.
His parents sent their 7-year-old Igor and sister Marina, seven years older, to the school not to learn about the religion they couldn't practice in the Soviet Union, but because it wasn't far from their apartment, it was relatively inexpensive and it offered scholarships to children of Soviet emigres.
It would prove to be a life-altering experience. Not only did Igor learn English while wearing a traditional skull cap — yarmulke — and tasseled fringes — tzitzit — under his shirt, he also prayed daily and studied Hebrew, the Bible and Jewish ethics.
Igor Olshansky, 27, is hardly the first Jew to play in the NFL, but he is the league's first Soviet-born player. It's a fact that he is proud of.
The San Diego Chargers made Olshansky, who had a grand total of six years of experience, the third player selected in the second round, the 35th pick in the draft. Five springs and 70 NFL starts later, he signed a free-agent contract with the Cowboys.
Asked for a story about his athletic career, Olshansky relished talking about the struggle to set the bench-press record.
"I am an immigrant from the Soviet Union who has always worked hard," he said. "I have a no-quit attitude in everything I do. I put a lot of effort into that record. I thought I had something to prove."
Back in San Francisco, Rabbi Lipner, who 40 years ago founded what he says remains the only Orthodox Jewish school in Northern California, added a final blessing
"An orthodox Jew, Igor is not," he said. "But I have to tell you, I have tremendous respect for him and the way he carries himself. You know, if you feel good about who you are, it helps with everything else in life. Igor feels good about himself."
© Copyright 2009, The Dallas Morning News.