By the Grace of the Game – The Holocaust, A Basketball Legacy, and an Unprecedented American Dream with Author Dan Grunfeld

When: November 2

Where: Virtual, Zoom

This program is free to attend, but registration is required

Summary:

Dan’s talk recounts the incredible family journey told in his book, By the Grace of the Game, which is a story of an ordinary family thrust into extraordinary circumstances. Surviving the horrors of the Holocaust, deceiving a brutal communist regime, and adapting to life as illiterate refugees caring for a dying son in New York City are only the beginning. The true improbability of this family’s story lies in the discovery of a game – the game of basketball – that unknowingly held the power to heal wounds, build bridges, and tie together generations of a fractured family.

If the magnitude of an American dream is measured by the intensity of the nightmare that came before and the heights of the triumph achieved after, then By the Grace of Game recounts an American dream story of unprecedented scale. From the grips of the Nazis to the top of the Olympic podium, from the cheap seats to center stage at Madison Square Garden, from yellow stars to silver spoons, this striking family saga traverses the vast spectrum of the human experience to detail how perseverance, love, and legacy can survive through generations, carried on the shoulders of a simple and beautiful game, a vehicle no one could have predicted.

About the speaker: Dan Grunfeld is a former professional basketball player, an accomplished writer, and proud graduate of Stanford University. An Academic All-American and All-Conference basketball selection at Stanford, Dan played professionally for eight seasons in top leagues around the world, including in Germany, Spain, and Israel. Dan’s writing has been published more than 40 times in media outlets such as Sports Illustrated, The Jerusalem Post, and NBC News. Dan earned his MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 2017 and lives with his wife and son in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he works in venture capital. Click here for more information.

 Exhibits and programs presented in part with the generous support of the following: