Eve Ellis

Bio

Jane Katz and Eve Ellis are two Jewish women who have made significant contributions to the furtherance of women in competitive sports, and to the Maccabiah Games--sometimes called the Jewish Olympics.

Although Eve Ellis is no longer a professional tennis player, she says she will be an athlete forever. She grew up near Philadelphia, PA, where she was a student at Friends Central School. Both of her parents were avid tennis players. Ellis recalls that when she was young, all the tennis clubs in her area were “restricted” and did not allow Jewish membership, so her family and other Jewish families built their own courts.

She competed in tournaments locally and nationally before matriculating at Yale University in the 1970s. She chose Yale, she says, because she admired an event of feminist activism in the athletics department. The woman's crew team, being relegated to a trailer instead of the usual locker room that the men's team had, marched into the office of the assistant women's athletic director clad only in towels - which they dropped. They made their point and got a locker room. Women had to fight for what they got at this time and Ellis wanted to be in this kind of atmosphere.

She majored in American Studies at Yale, but spent most of her time playing tennis. She graduated in 1980 and then played on the professional circuit for two years.

After running her own business, Ellis went to work as a financial advisor in Merrill Lynch's Global Private Client Group where she carried over what she had learned in sports. She feels she has remained a “coach”; she is “just in another area.” She explains that coaching is pulling together the right players for the team. At Merrill Lynch she recruits money managers for her clients. Getting the best team, setting goals and reaching objectives are not unlike working in the sports field and offer a similar satisfaction when goals are met.

Ellis continues to spend a major part of her time in the world of tennis. She is the National Director of the U.S. Tennis team for the prestigious international Maccabiah Games in Israel. Referred to as the Jewish Olympics, the Maccabiah Games are held every four years and last for three weeks. Young athletes from 50 countries compete in 25 different sports. Ellis says the Games are as much a cultural event as an athletic one. Understanding the entire experience is important. When they are not competing, the athletes are encouraged to see Israel and learn about its culture and to mix with their fellow sports people from the different countries. Both Katz and Ellis will coach at the 2005 Maccabiah Games.

Though she has coached men's teams, Ellis feels more urgency in working with women and girls. “It is important that girls remain involved in sports,” she says. “It shapes who she is, who her friends are and what she does with her time.”

Ellis is a member of Rodeph Sholom Congregation in New York and is actively involved with the Anti-Defamation League, the Susan B. Komen Foundation, the Mann Center for the Performing Arts and Women's Health Research at Yale.

Both Jane Katz and Eve Ellis are concerned that physical education, like music and art, are slowly disappearing from the public schools, especially now when students spend so much of their time sitting in front of computers. They feel there should be more, not less, emphasis on sports as it can be a democratic unifying factor for all.

Appearances on CUNY TV

Jewish Women in America