Back and Forth and Back and Forth ...

Related Content

• "The Debt": Mossad Revenge Flick Made Safe for Middlebrow Crowd
  August 31, 2011
• "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close": Bald Eagles Are Weeping
  January 18, 2012
• Frank Humor
  December 28, 2011
• Literary Events: Four Authors to Check Out This Month
  January 4, 2012
• Learn Promoter Bill Graham's Surprising Story at a New Exhibit on His Life and Work
  May 4, 2011

More About

• Roger Bennett
• Eli Horowitz
• Alojzy Ehrlich
• Auschwitz-Birkenau
• Table Tennis

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Events Newsletter: What's happening in town? From underground club nights to the biggest outdoor festivals, our top picks for the week's best events will always keep you in on the action.

Privacy Policy Cancel Continue

Quick: Name a place in SOMA where you can find a pingpong table (besides the Twitter offices, that is). You probably wouldn't expect the answer to be a museum, but the atrium of this one is equipped with regulation tables and equipment available for checkout, free to anyone who wants to play. It's part of "The Ping Pong Project," an installation that celebrates post-World War I Jewish table tennis greats such as Austrian Richard Bergmann (famous for playing dressed to the nines in snazzy suits) and Polish legend Alojzy Ehrlich. Ehrlich is known for a single exchange he won during the 1936 World Games that lasted more than two hours before his opponent's arm finally gave out — and his fame later kept him out of the gas chamber at Auschwitz when the Nazi guards recognized him. Authors Roger Bennett and Eli Horowitz tell stories like these and lots more in their presentation at Everything You Know Is Pong. Drawing from their recent book of the same name in which they explore the far-reaching influence of table tennis, Bennett and Horowitz share slides detailing the secret history of Jews and pingpong. After the talk, the lobby's tables are open for business, giving visitors a chance to show off their backspin pushes and drop shots against some of the Bay Area's star players. It's your chance to resurrect the moves you learned years ago in your uncle's basement.
Thu., April 14, 7 p.m., 2011